A Good Sport

When Anil Buxani took the helm at sporting goods supplier Sonak, little did he know that one day he would have to contend with a virus that would keep Filipinos from their love of team sports.

- Anne Majumdar

NAME : Anil Buxani

COMPANY : Sonak

POSITION : CEO

LOCATION : Manila, Philippines

With the days of his youth spent spattered with the mud of the football fields of Manila, Anil Buxani had sport in his blood long before he became CEO of Philippines-based sporting goods supplier Sonak. As well as playing for a variety of football teams around town, Anil was also a keen follower of local sporting events. “Dad used to come home and discuss it at the dinner table, telling us the latest news because sport was always very exciting for him,” he tells The CEO Magazine.

Anil never questioned that Sonak was his destiny and spent many summers working at the office, before joining the company at the age of 23 with a business management degree under his belt. “I took to the business like a bee to honey or a fish to water because I was brought up in the environment,” he recalls.

Initially, it was about getting his “feet wet”, bouncing around the various company divisions, before finally settling in sales where he had “the most fun”. But after 15 years with the firm, he began to contemplate change and, more specifically, Sonak’s transition from pure wholesale to ricks-and-mortar retail in order “to give the customer a wider variety”.