Virtual reality developer Voke has hired veteran sports media executive David Aufhauser as its new chief strategy and product officer.
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AUFHAUSER
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Aufhauser, formerly the general manager and vice president of digital for the Pac-12 Networks, will begin today and will lead the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company’s product development and strategy as it develops virtual reality content across platforms. He will report to Sankar “Jay” Jayaram, Voke founder and chief executive, and add to an executive team that also includes Jeff Jonas, chief commercial officer and former Sportvision executive, and Randy Eccker, advisory board member and former chief executive of XOS Digital.
“We are putting together a really powerhouse team of sports business professionals,” Jayaram said. “David’s got a real energy and experience building new products from scratch, and that kind of background and the relationships he has in the industry will be incredibly valuable to us.”
Voke is one of a handful of companies active in live-streaming of top-tier sports in VR. Clients have included the Sacramento Kings, Jacksonville Jaguars and Pac-12 school Washington State, among others. The addition of Aufhauser comes after a $12.5 million Series A round of venture capital funding led by Intel Capital that closed in the spring and included the Kings, cable network A&E and Nautilus Ventures.
Aufhauser spent more than four years with the Pac-12 Networks and was part of the founding executive team that built that conference’s media properties and developed a centralized portfolio of Pac-12 and individual school web and mobile properties. Before that he advised digital entities including Vox Media and Fox Sports-owned Yardbarker.
Aufhauser said his interest in joining Voke developed over the past six months, and he announced his departure from the conference last month via emerging digital platform Medium.
“Once I began to dig into VR and what it was all about, I got the bug, in a really big way,” Aufhauser said. “The more I looked into it and saw what the future could be in this space, it was apparent how vast the opportunities are.”
Business development and revenue generation at Voke will largely be handled by Jonas while Aufhauser focuses more on product and overall company strategy.
“Jeff’s still going to be the primary deal guy, but we really complement each other well,” Aufhauser said. “The basic idea is to build on the successes they’ve already achieved now that VR is really taking off.”
