 An avid sports fan and one-time athlete himself, Gnanalingam is also widely regarded as a marketing guru.A former marketing director with British American Tobacco, he was the man behind such projects like bringing live telecasts of football's World Cup to Malaysian homes in the 80s.He was also responsible, during a nine-year period as a consultant for commercial operations for RTM, of increasing its revenue from RM55 million in 1988 to RM350 million in 1996.