Cardinals hire Anuk Karunaratne as Senior VP for Business Operations
ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The St. Louis Cardinals today announced that Anuk Karunaratne will join the organization as the club’s new Senior Vice President for Business Operations.
Karunaratne, 40, most recently served as the Executive Vice President of Business Operations with the Toronto Blue Jays where he led the team’s sales, marketing, fan experience and business administration operations since 2020. He also previously held the positions of Vice President and Senior Vice President, Strategy & Analytics for the Blue Jays from 2017-2020.
As part of his new position with the Cardinals, Anuk will oversee the team’s ticketing, marketing, corporate sales/partnerships, broadcasting and business analytics departments, while working with others across the organization to develop strategic planning functions for the team’s various business and stadium operations.
“We are very excited to have Anuk join the Cardinals front office,” said Cardinals President Bill DeWitt III. “While he will have big shoes to fill in taking on the many responsibilities that Dan Farrell held in his 40-plus years with the Cardinals, Anuk comes to us with a wealth of experience and success in both business and baseball.”
Karunaratne spent six years in St. Louis, earning a B.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Washington University followed by a position as a research assistant at the University’s School of Medicine. A native of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Anuk lived with his family in Sri Lanka while he was in high school, but remained an avid baseball fan having watched the nearby Seattle Mariners and Blue Jays in his youth during the early ‘90s.
Last year, Karunaratne was recognized as one of the Sports Business Journal’s” Forty Under 40” for helping shape the fan experience at the newly renovated Rogers Centre and improving the team’s off-field direction—while also navigating the organization through the COVID-19 pandemic and leading the club through the logistics of playing in three different venues in three different cities during the 2021 season.
The Cardinals worked with top search firm TurnkeyZRG to conduct a national search process, which included a highly qualified and diverse pool of candidates.
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