Tor Petersen, entrepreneur & China expert, has spent the last 25 years building brands in China. In addition to the creation of entrepreneurial ventures in the apparel, consulting, wine and the digital music industries, Tor has been helping blue chip brands such as GoPro, Nike, The Coca-Cola Company, Under Armour, Li-Ning, New Balance, Footlocker, EA, Nokia, NFL, and UPS build their brands in China.
Tor is currently the General Manager of Greater China for GoPro based out of Shanghai.
Prior to GoPro, Tor was the General Manager for Brand Strategy for Li-Ning and up to 2011 was the CEO of Shanghai based youth lifestyle brand eno. Fast Company named eno one of China’s Top Ten Most Innovative Companies in 2010. Tor also developed and later sold China consumer insights, strategy and design firm, enovate. Clients included Under Armour, New Balance, Kra, Ticketmaster and Unilever.
Prior to founding eno, Tor was a co-founder of Zou Marketing Ltd., one of China’s leading sports marketing agencies. At Zou, in addition to his strategy work in helping to establish the NFL’s business in China, Tor’s work with the CBA (Chinese Basketball Association), in the creation of a North Star Plan, set the stage for future privatization in the sports industry.
Tor spent the early part of his career (1990 to 1994) managing footwear manufacturing relationships for Nike in Korea, Taiwan and China, and moved into domestic operations and product marketing for Nike China in 1994. In 1995 he was named Sports Development Director and later promoted to Asia Pacific Marketing Manager in 1998. Tor also served as the Asia Brand Manager for the Sprite brand for the Coca-Cola Company based out of its Atlanta headquarters.
Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, and born in the United States, Tor received his Bachelor of Arts in Chinese Language and Culture at The Colorado College, graduating with distinction. Tor went on to study at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and continue graduate studies at The Johns Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American studies.