Dr. Lingling Liu is a sports business consultant and communication strategist with a vision to help sports projects and personalities embrace blockchain technology and strategy. 

Having come from an 8-year television experience with China Central Television Sports Channel (CCTV 5), she joined the Beijing 2008 Olympic Bidding Committee in 2000 on behalf of CCTV as the Assistant Director of the Press and Publicity Department. In the position, she led the drafting of two chapters of Beijing’s Bid Book in Communication and Media Service and Olympism and Culture and played a vital role in the presentation team. She supervised international PR campaigns outsourced to two international public relations firms -- Weber Shandwick and Bill Pottinger. She also coordinated the production of the official Beijing promo film by Olympic filmmaker Bud Greenspan.

After Beijing’s triumphant bid in 2001, Lingling started her independent sports consulting career in China Sports Business Consulting and has been engaged in all Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup tournaments in various ways with a focus on media operations, media relations and events management. 

She became the first FIFA Media Officer from Asia appointed by FIFA and served the World Cup from 2002 to 2018. In 2010, Lingling acted as the FIFA Spokesperson for the 2010 Coca-Cola FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour and travelled with the World Cup Trophy across 11 Eurasian countries. 

Dr Lingling Liu has also assisted international rights holders in making inroads into the growing television market in China. She also provided consultancy and on-site coordination for Chinese non-credentialed media in their overseas coverage of the Olympic Games and other international sports events.

While she was doing her PhD on sports celebrity endorsement on luxury brands with Professor Simon Chadwick at Coventry University between 2010 and 2015, she applied her communication skills and integrated marketing strategy to help one unknown Chinese skipper Guo Chuan become the most famous sports personality, not only in China but internationally by achieving two offshore sailing world records and gained both substantial commercial success and social impact.  

From January 2017 to June 2018, Lingling served as the senior sales manager at FIFA Marketing, contributing to developing Chinese sponsors for FIFA, including FIFA World Cup sponsor VIVO, and the sales of the Asian Regional Package. 

From early 2018 to the end of 2019, Lingling acted as the Managing Director of JTA (Jon Tibbs Associates) China and helped many international sports federations such as FIBA, FIVB, and FIH with their PR, communication and local activation in China. 

Lingling owns an MBA degree in Football Industries from Liverpool University and dual degrees in Journalism and English from the China School of Journalism. Lingling also serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the Eurasian Sports Industry Center (CESI) of the Em-Lyon Business School in France, and also a member of the steering committee for the Leaders Sports Awards UK 2019 and the jury member of 2021 Influential Women in Sports by iSportConnect. 

In early 2021, she worked as a consultant by advising Binance leadership, one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchange platforms, for its sponsorship strategy and negotiations with FIFA and CAF. She helped Binance become the official sponsor of African Cup 2021. 

From 2025, she works as Olympic Esports Advisor for Netease Games, one of the biggest gaming companies in China. 
She is also the contributor to the book The Business of FIFA World Cup published by Routledge in 2022, The Geopolitical Economy of Sport by Routledge in 2023, and The Geopolitical Economy of Esports which will be published by Routledge in 2026. 
She has two Certificates namely in Blockchain Strategy and AI for Business from Said Business School of Oxford University. 

Lingling has been a columnist for Sport Business International and a frequent speaker and panellist at various sports business forums since 2002 and is also a guest speaker at NFT.LONDON and NFT. NYC in 2022, 2023 and 2024 and was a speaker at the Yacht Racing Forum in Malta in November 2022.