WPT TEAM

AUDREY D. KANIA
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT

Audrey D. Kania is a former Disney Executive and business strategy consultant, bringing a wealth of start-up and business management experience to her position as Senior Vice President of World Poker Tour.

Over the course of her impressive twenty-year career, Kania has launched seven new business ventures for both entrepreneurial and Fortune 50 companies. During her tenure with the Walt Disney Company, Kania managed the new venture development efforts for two divisions of Disney's Consumer Products Group, where she launched a multi-million dollar film venture and expanded the Winnie-the-Pooh brand into a new global category. Kania has since consulted to major sports franchises, television broadcast companies, and numerous successful internet-based businesses on start-up and marketing strategies.

Prior to Disney, she was a COO of an entrepreneurial toy company in Boston, worked in Strategic Planning and Corporate Development for FMC'S chemical division in Philadelphia, developed marketing strategies for Apple Computer, and pioneered the integration of digital imaging technology into the printing and package design industries for Continental Can Company in Connecticut.

Born in Pennsylvania with a passion to explore the world around her, Kania's curiosity as a child led her to experiment with a variety of artistic talents and intellectual interests, eventually combining her passions into a career in the entertainment industry.

An avid adventure traveler, Kania took a 2-year sabbatical to travel and pursue her creative writing interests. Through the years she has traveled extensively internationally for both business and pleasure, having visited over 20 countries on 5 continents. She enjoys tennis, hiking, and skiing, plays the piano and sings.

With an early education in poker from her father, Kania only plays poker for peanuts and pretzels, preferring to listen to her 80 year-old father's stories about his continuing monthly games with his poker buddies.

Kania earned her B.S. degree from Carnegie-Mellon University in Management Science and Printing Technology, an M.B.A. from The Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College and studied Creative Writing at Oxford University, England.