How Anuk Karunaratne became a rising star in the Blue Jays’ front office
TORONTO — Anuk Karunaratne has a device he makes use of to assist navigate powerful selections in his life. When he involves such a fork within the street, he’ll ask himself, “Would I regret this if I don’t do it?”
The query ran by means of his thoughts in early 2017 when he noticed a job posting for vp of technique and analytics with the Toronto Blue Jays. He had an awesome job on the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and had constructed a powerful popularity there. You solely get one likelihood to go away BCG, he thought. On the opposite hand, the consulting gig concerned loads of journey and with a pregnant spouse at house, household life wanted to be thought-about.
Karunaratne finally determined that the remorse of not making use of would weigh closely on him, so he went for it. After advancing previous the preliminary interview stage again in Toronto, he was invited to soak up a Grapefruit League recreation with Blue Jays’ management and located himself in a set at Dunedin’s Florida Auto Exchange Stadium — since renamed TD Ballpark — with staff president Mark Shapiro and normal supervisor Ross Atkins. The setting was relaxed, however he knew it was the crescendo.
“I kept reminding myself, ‘Yeah, I’m hanging out in a suite. It’s casual conversation and I’m not being interviewed but, at the same time, it’s still part of the interview process,’” Karunaratne remembers.
The Blue Jays had expressed to him a want to grow to be extra data-driven, not simply inside baseball operations, however as a complete group. The membership mentioned it needed to include extra technique into its selections and enact a change in tradition. While these had been nice buzz phrases, Karunaratne, who had cast a formidable resume for himself as a guide and needed to ensure the group was a proper match for him too, needed to search out out simply how honest the staff was about enacting change.
“It’s easy to say, it’s very hard to do,” says Karunaratne. “And it takes alignment and buy-in from the very top of the organization down. It takes commitment to stay the course because those changes don’t happen overnight. And so, I was trying to understand, like, hey, it’s great that you say you want to do that, but do you understand what it’s going to take? And are you committed to actually doing it and seeing it through? Because if not, I’m coming into a role that’s not ultimately going to be effective.”
He requested arduous questions, questions that Shapiro appreciated.
“We’ve fostered a strong learning culture at the Blue Jays and have looked for leaders that are open-minded and constantly asking how we can get better,” Shapiro says. “Anuk’s thoughtful curiosity stood out during his interview process — he asked intelligent questions throughout that demonstrated his openness to learning and collaborating.”
Karunaratne joined the group not lengthy after that spring coaching contest and is now a rising star inside it and the Blue Jays’ government VP, business operations. Named certainly one of Sports Business Journal‘s Forty Under 40 earlier this 12 months (on the day of his fortieth birthday, no much less), Karunaratne has been a key participant serving to form the fan expertise at Rogers Centre — impacting all the pieces from meals choices and areas to the much-discussed placement of the bullpens — and the staff’s off-field route.
It’s honest to say that not solely is Karunaratne among the many most influential individuals within the Toronto sports activities scene, however the Canadian baseball panorama as effectively.
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KARUNARATNE’S PARENTS MOVED from Sri Lanka to Vancouver in 1979 to grow to be PhD college students on the University of British Columbia. He and his youthful sister had been born in Vancouver, however in late 1996, when Karunaratne was 14, his dad and mom moved the household again to Sri Lanka.
“They both felt a sense of connection to their homeland,” says Karunaratne, who’s Sinhalese. “It was always something they thought about — moving back and contributing to the country.”
The transfer clearly shook up Karunaratne’s life. He wasn’t completely fluent within the language and had by no means lived outdoors Canada. And not solely was he leaving his mates, but in addition his beloved sports activities groups.
Karunaratne adored the Vancouver Canucks and witnessed the Pavel Bure period and ’94 Stanley Cup run firsthand. He was a proud Grizzlies fan and beloved watching the close by Seattle Mariners throughout Ken Griffey Jr.’s prime. Karunaratne additionally grew keen on the Blue Jays, who had been enjoying by means of their glory days within the early ’90s.
While he couldn’t precisely sustain with what was taking place along with his groups again in Canada, he did handle to maintain his ardour for sports activities intact, diving into an affinity for cricket. That was a microcosm for the younger Karunaratne, whose expertise in Sri Lanka unlocked one thing in him that may be key to his life.
“That was the first time I had to adapt to completely new circumstances — brand new country, new everything — fit in with people and learn,” says Karunaratne. “And so, that’s one thing that I believe I’m comparatively good at, having the ability to adapt to new circumstances.
“That was the first time I had to go through it. And I think I grew in that.”
That capability has guided Karunaratne by means of his profession. He left Sri Lanka after highschool and located himself in one other totally new scenario when he moved to St. Louis in 2001 to pursue a biomedical engineering diploma at Washington University.
Upon ending his undergrad, Karunaratne labored on the college’s medical college as a analysis assistant. He had initially deliberate to pursue his PhD — “Both my dad and mom are PhDs. Growing up, I all the time anticipated that I needed to do a PhD and my training wasn’t completed till I did that,” he says — however the 12 months within the lab modified his thoughts. He altered course and located himself in one other brand-new scenario, transferring to Toronto to work at a market analysis firm targeted on the medical gadget business.
Karunaratne remained an avid sports activities fan, and later, whereas working at BCG, one particular challenge married that keenness along with his work. It was for a Toronto-based sports activities and leisure group; Karunaratne was tasked with engaged on a five-year technique.
“That was my first introduction to sports business,” he says. “I had the prospect to assist develop a business plan for this group and was like, ‘This is absolutely cool.’ It was an opportunity to work within the business and area that I used to be very obsessed with and concerned with, doing the work that I used to be good at. Normally, I might do this very same work for a financial institution or a grocery retailer chain or healthcare firm or no matter.
“There was something that was really energizing about that,” he provides. “Doing work that stuck with me.”
It was that vitality that finally led him to the Blue Jays in 2017.
“The mandate was, on the business side, we wanted to be more data-driven, we wanted to be innovative,” Karunaratne says. “Similar to what we did in baseball, we wanted to use data to make decisions. We wanted to be a best-in-class organization.”
Take one thing just like the meals and drinks obtainable at Rogers Centre. Karunaratne and Co. would dive into fan insights, analyzing consumption patterns and different components to make selections on the ballpark’s menus in addition to one of the best areas to supply every merchandise. The strategy utilized to merchandise and ticket gross sales, in addition to different areas.
“It’s really trying to think about how we can use different types of information to make the best decision for our fans or for the business,” he says.
Nowadays, Karunaratne — working collectively with Marnie Starkman, who holds the identical title — oversees the membership’s business operations. His particular duties lie in income technology — ticket gross sales, partnerships and Rogers Centre facility operations — along with Human Resources, IT and technique.
Karunaratne was a key determine through the Blue Jays’ navigation of border-issues through the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily performing because the group’s level man for conversations with authorities officers.
More not too long ago, together with Starkman, Karunaratne is main the Rogers Centre renovations, the primary section of which was executed through the low season, with the following coming this winter.
“In Phase One, that was everything from doing ballpark visits to doing research to figuring out internally how do we collect all the feedback from the different groups within the organization that would inform the design — from operations, from fan experience, from security, from IT — from all these places to really think through the details of the design,” says Karunaratne.
“To do it well, you have to really think through the details.”
Those particulars are what Karunaratne does greatest. That’s partially because of his inquisitive nature — the identical spectacular attribute that was on show again in 2017 throughout his interviews with Shapiro.
“He brings that curiosity to our business today, asking questions that challenge our teams to continuously improve,” says Shapiro.
