Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming October 2016 22 Industry profile Ben Blaschke: Thanks for speaking with us Jeff. First of all, can you tell us a bit about your background? Jeff Mann: I was born and brought up in London – a “cockney boy.” I think I had a pretty normal middle-class upbringing with very supportive parents within their means. I was an average student but for sure nothing special academically. And mad about playing sport ... any sport! My only claim to fame though was making the London Schoolboys soccer team one year. I don’t think I was ever unhappy except of course at exam results time! I do remember clearly though that from the age of around 15, I wanted to work for myself and work overseas. BB: So how did that come to be a reality? JM: It’s a long story and a good one but to tell it properly, I need a couple of hours and a few beers! Let’s just say for now that “fate played a hand” and in my mid-20s I was given the amazing opportunity of becoming a junior account executive at what was then the largest Public Relations consultancy in Hong Kong representing some of the biggest blue chip companies around at that time. Fast forward a couple of years and “fate” was instrumental once again in giving me the opportunity to start my own PR Company in Hong Kong with a secretary and one client only. Fast forward another 20-plus years and that company had grown to 160 employees operating out of six Asian cities and was at the time the largest independent PR firm in Asia. For two years I ran the business from our Tokyo office which was very challenging … but what an adrenalin rush! BB: And yet here you are in the gaming industry! JM : Yes – another long and interesting story! After all these years running my own business with all its responsibilities, including managing what was a sizeable and escalating monthly overhead, I was becoming very stressed and very unhappy. I needed to get out. Fortunately that exercise went well and I had the opportunity to sit back and do absolutely nothing for a few months. When boredom finally set in I dabbled in a few business ventures in Hong Kong, the Philippines and Australia. In early 2007 “fate” played another hand. I attended a social function in Manila Having dreamt of working abroad since he was a teenager, Jeff Mann soon made Asia his home – establishing a hugely successful business in Hong Kong and travelling the region before unexpectedly landing in his current role with local gaming operator AsianLogic. Asian persuasion