Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Game Changers

Game Changers: Ilana Kloss

ISAAC LEAMER / WTT
Kloss, originally from South Africa, and King met Nelson
Mandela in 2008. Both King and Mandela “are an
inspiration on how I believe people should lead,” Kloss
says.
Ilana Kloss
World TeamTennis
CEO and Commissioner

When Ilana Kloss emerged as a young pro tennis player in the 1970s, she had to be inventive, and not just on the court. A white native of South Africa, apartheid sanctions made competing internationally challenging.

“If I couldn’t get a visa, I had to figure it out,” Kloss said. “That’s why I am a good problem solver.”

Relationships she forged with players, including her now partner Billie Jean King, eased her way. Since 1985, Kloss has worked for King’s brainchild, World TeamTennis, serving in the last decade as its commissioner.

She inherited her marketing skills from her father, a traveling salesman, learning that people who generate revenue always have a job. That’s why she is relentless pushing for WTT.

“If someone says no,” she said, “it means they just don’t have enough information.”

— Daniel Kaplan
  • First job: Selling tournament program books at the South African Open tennis championships at the age of 11.
  • What is the best advice you’ve ever received?: To be a good listener and stay in the solution.
  • In 10 words or less, how would you describe your management style?: Be part of the team and lead by example.
  • Person who had the biggest influence on your career in sports: Billie Jean King. She created an opportunity for me and hundreds of thousands of others, of both genders, to pursue their dreams in a field where they were passionate and highly skilled.
  • The biggest challenge I face working in the sports business is …: Being a small, U.S.-based, independently owned business in a global fractured sports environment where you have to compete on so many levels to innovate and move the game forward.
  • One attribute I look for when hiring is …: Someone who is a problem-solver and can generate revenue.

WHAT OTHERSARE SAYING

“In business, everything starts with integrity, and that is very important to Ilana: integrity, honesty and accepting responsibility. She keeps her word. More than anything else, she wants to make a positive difference both in our sport and in the lives of others.”

  • Billie Jean King, World TeamTennis co-founder

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2011/10/10/Game-Changers/Ilana-Kloss.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2011/10/10/Game-Changers/Ilana-Kloss.aspx

CLOSE