A 15-year veteran of Tennis Canada and one of the most successful women executives in sports, Stacey Allaster (pictured left with women's tennis pioneer Billie Jean King) came to the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour on January 1, 2006 in the newly-created role of President, responsible for the Tour's operations, business development, television, new media and tournament and player relations. On July 13, 2009 she was named Chairman and CEO, replacing Larry Scott.
Since joining the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, Allaster has played an integral role in several groundbreaking Tour achievements. She has been instrumental in the Tour's longstanding quest to achieve equal prize money for women tennis players at all four Grand Slams, which was finally completed in 2007 when Wimbledon and Roland Garros committed to offering equal prize money to male and female tennis players. In addition, Allaster helped secure equal and record prize money at the year-end Sony Ericsson Championships, adding to a total of ten tournaments with equal prize money. Another achievement has been the adoption of the Roadmap, the Tour's long term strategic plan aimed at streamlining the calendar in order to enhance the overall health and well-being of the athletes and deliver top players on a more consistent basis to tournaments and fans. In her first eighteen months with the Tour, Allaster spearheaded more innovative programs than the total number in the prior history of the sport, including on-court coaching, electronic line calling, and a revised doubles scoring format, all aimed at enhancing the fan experience and taking women's tennis to new heights.
Allaster's commitment and dedication to the Tour's global title sponsor, Sony Ericsson, helped solidify the mobile handset company's investment in the Tour and extend the sponsorship through 2010. Under Allaster's leadership, the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour has undertaken a series of ambitious digital media projects which include a new improved interactive website and, in partnership with the ATP, a launch of TennisTV.com - a single broadband online TV console that will host and stream live matches and highlights packages from more than forty of the sport's largest Tour events beginning in 2009.
Under Allaster's leadership at Tennis Canada, tournament revenues and attendance witnessed record growth at the Canadian Open (currently known as the Rogers Cup) and were among the highest on the Tour. In addition to turning the women's and men's tournaments in Toronto and Montreal into premier global sporting events, Allaster has played an instrumental role in the building and fundraising for Toronto's world-class, $40 million Rexall Tennis Centre.
The only female tournament director to be part of the ATP's prestigious Masters Series, the Welland, Ontario native also was the only woman named by Canada's national newspaper, The Globe & Mail, among the Top 25 Leaders in Canadian sport (in 2003 and 2005). In 2006, Allaster was named to a prestigious Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada list and received a Sports Media Canada's Executive of the Year award, the first woman to do so. A consummate tennis professional, Allaster has held every position in the sport of tennis, from a junior to a collegiate player, to a Tournament Director of prestigious Masters Series and Premier Events, to President. A member of the Tour's Tournament Council since 2001, Allaster also served as a Tournament Class alternate on the Tour's Board of Directors since 2002.
Allaster holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and Physical Education from the University of Western Ontario, and an MBA from the University's Ivey School of Business. The mother to children Jack and Alexandra, Allaster and husband John Milkovich reside in St. Petersburg, Florida.
