Pancho joined FC Barcelona in 2015 as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). He is responsible for Financial Strategy, Corporate Governance and Strategic Relations (joint ventures).

Pancho transformed the finance function from a traditional domestic oriented football club into a comprehensive strategic support function and the largest Sports Institution in the world. Implementing foresting tools based on scenario management principles to anticipate Club’s resource requirements and ensure compliance with statuary financial stability rules. Leading the shift towards securing mid to long term financing resources to match the Club’s mid/long term goals.

Sam Jones is the CEO of NFL Game Pass/OverTier, and is responsible for operating NFL Game Pass, the innovative subscription streaming service for the National Football League, across 61 European markets. Sam is a renowned executive who has built leading-edge, direct-to-consumer growth enterprises for world renowned tech, media and e-commerce companies including Bauer Media Group, Perform Group, Warner Music and Silicon Valley-based Kyte. Throughout his career, Jones has consistently delivered inspired innovation to connect millions to their passions via every screen, device, and platform; driving bottom-line revenue and user growth.

In November 2018 ELEVEN SPORTS announced Anouk Mertens would become Chief Operating Officer (COO). Mertens has served as Managing Director of ELEVEN SPORTS in Belgium and Luxembourg since October 2015, turning the business profitable in under three years and achieving 100% household distribution across the market. In her role as Group COO, Mertens will amongst other things; manage budgets in all areas, review market performances and seek synergies and operational efficiencies across the group. Mertens will also continue in her role as Managing Director in Belgium and Luxembourg.

A senior digital marketing executive with over 20 years of digital media and technology experience across both B2C and B2B. Craig has an extensive and deep knowledge in developing and executing digital transformation and marketing engagement strategies that have a proven record in improving business performance. Craig is a focused and passionate change agent who strives to build world class teams that transform, innovate and disrupt legacy marketing models. Craig has broad & detailed knowledge of the digital technology landscape, media & brand planning, online consumer behaviour, mobile marketing, content development, OTT and consumer experiences and has been responsible for developing brand marketing strategies and digital transformation programs for some of the world’s largest brands including Rentokil Initial, STA Travel, Nokia, Microsoft, Tata and now Leading the digital transformation strategy at UEFA to enhance fan engagement across all areas of football.

John is one of the founders of DAZN Group (formerly Perform Group), a digital leader in global sports media and one of the fastest growing media companies in the world.

Over the past 14 years, John has overseen all Commercial Partnerships and Rights Relationships that have fuelled its International expansion across the globe.

DAZN Group is home to DAZN, the world’s first pure-sport live and on-demand streaming service that is leading the charge to give fans a better and fairer way to watch. It’s now live in nine countries, including the U.S., Japan, Germany, Italy, Spain and Brazil.

John has over 25 years’ experience within the Sports, Entertainment and Music business having previously spent time at Sky Sports, EMI Records, Hutchison Whampoa and Sony Pictures.

Jonathan Levene is Managing Director, Business Development at Intel Sports Europe. Jonathan leads Intel’s mission to pioneer the digitization of sports in the EU by driving the next wave of powerful technologies that will allow fans to experience the game in a more personal and immersive way. His group is responsible for forming new key partnerships with international leagues and federations; including teams, properties, media-rights holders, broadcasters and networks.  Jonathan is leading the successful collaboration with the Spanish soccer league “La Liga” incorporating FC Barcelona, Real and Atletico Madrid clubs amongst others. Jonathan joined Intel in 2016 as part of the acquisition of Replay Technologies where he served as Vice President of strategy and business development responsible for driving the company’s strategic vision and the global partnerships of Replay’s Emmy-Award winning, volumetric video format.

On Monday August 3, 2015, Canadian Keith Pelley became the fourth Chief Executive in the history of The European Tour. Prior to joining The European Tour, he was President of Rogers Media in Toronto where he was responsible for leading the overall operations of the company’s diverse portfolio, including Television, Radio, Publishing, Digital Media, The Shopping Channel, subscription-based content services, Toronto Blue Jays, and Rogers Centre. Before that, he was Executive Vice-President of Strategic Planning at CTVglobemedia, President of Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium – which won a record seven awards for its coverage of Vancouver 2010 – President and CEO of the Toronto Argonauts Football Club, and President of The Sports Network in Canada, a company he first joined as an Editorial Assistant in 1986. He is a graduate of Ryerson University with a BA in Radio and Television Arts, and also received an ATCL diploma from Trinity College in London.

Shane Warden is CTO at ATP Media. Shane has over 28 years’ experience in Technical and Operational Management covering all aspects of Sports Media. Combining Rights knowledge with all types of Data and Broadcasting technology he has had experience in all areas including Outside Broadcast, Studios, Post Production, Transmission and Distribution, as well as Media Asset Management (MAM / DAM), Sports Data (including Biometrics), Digital OTT and Rights. He has held senior management positions within private and FTSE listed organisations and in his past, has earned a vast array of creative Broadcast and Feature Film credits demonstrating creative flair as well as technical competence.

Sean Bratches was named Managing Director of the Formula 1® Commercial Operations division in January 2017. With three decades of leadership, management and operating experience at multi-billion dollar scale in the media, entertainment, and sports business.  He spent 27 years at ESPN where for 10 years he served as Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Sean lead a sales and marketing team that provided national advertisers access to ESPN and its media, marketing and content platforms.  He was also responsible for the first unified sales organization that represents The Walt Disney Company’s premier collection of sports assets across all media platforms.

Bruna has over eight years of experience across media, advertising and most recently sport. Prior to joining Twitter in 2015, Bruna worked at Ogilvy London & São Paulo, and Publicis Brazil. She now leads content partnerships efforts at Twitter UK with a range of different sports partners including football clubs & leagues, broadcasters and key motorsports leagues. Her goal is helping sports partners to get closer to their followers in the one social platform conversations happen in real-time – through Live content, video, Twitter emojis or other innovation formats.

As Chief Innovation Officer of Red Bull Media House, Andreas is responsible for managing the process of innovation at the global, multi-platform media company. Andreas has over three decades of media industry expertise including technology leadership positions with Antenne Bayern radio station, 104.6 RTL (Berlin),  and the Austrian Broadcaster ORF. Prior to his current role, he was Chief Technology Officer at Red Bull Media House, where he drove strategic decisions related to technology infrastructure including design, selection of platforms and media post production. He takes pride in generating new ideas and recognizing the innovative ideas of others. Andreas is an Audio, Radio and Television Engineer by education.

Sameer Pabari is Senior Vice President Content and Business Development, responsible for strategy, partnerships and investments for Eurosport with a particular focus on digital growth. Most recently Sameer led Discovery’s investment in the Play Sports Group, the world’s leading online community of cycling fans, where he now sits on the board.

He brings significant experience to the role having worked with some of the largest sporting brands on a global level. Before joining Discovery, Sameer was Managing Director for MP & Silva, responsible for their global digital and production business and commercial exploitation of digital rights. In this role, he oversaw the successful launch of the beiN SPORTS channels across Asia and developed the host broadcasting strategy for Formula E and the Asian Games.

Prior to that, Pabari was Director of Media for Manchester United and also spent a number of years as a strategy consultant specialising in business transformation and mergers and acquisition across the media industry.

Marina is the Director of Strategy and Propositions at NOW TV having assumed the role in December 2016 to shape the future of the OTT business, having joined from being Deputy Director of Strategy at Sky. In this role, Marina is responsible for managing and developing the streaming service’s end to end customer proposition, which includes the content, pricing, and positioning its five passes as well as the brand’s own line of streaming devices. Most recently she’s overseen the introduction of partner passes to NOW TV, with the launch of the hayu Pass, as well as the business’ first standalone broadband proposition, NOW Broadband. She is also responsible for building brilliant content and distribution partnerships and played a key role in establishing long term agreements and partnerships with the likes of BT and Netflix.

A media executive with unrivalled experience, Simon created BikeRadar.com from scratch and commercially reinvented Cyclingnews.com. In 2010, Simon founded SHIFT Active Media – a new agency business model – and in 2012, launched the Global Cycling Network. Now a world leading brand on YouTube, GCN paved the way for the establishment of the Play Sports Network. In January 2019, following an initial 20% investment two years earlier, Discovery Inc., took a controlling stake of Play Sports Group with Simon and his team of 140 world class cycling experts across content, creative, digital, marketing and sales services, joined Discovery to form a new global cycling-focused division in the company.

Olympic Gold Medalist and member of the Hockey Hall of Fame with leadership positions at the highest levels of sport, including the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee, Angela guides the strategies of major sports organizations in her role as CEO and co-founder of the Sports Innovation Lab.

Gordon joined Eurosport as SVP Technology and Operations in January 2018. He is in charge of developing, defining and implementing the long-term technology strategy of Eurosport, Discovery’s leading sports brand.

Prior to joining Eurosport, Gordon held senior positions at telecommunications company Ericsson, latterly as Head of Strategy Development, Portfolio and Capital & Resource Allocation.

Gordon has over 25 years of experience working in the media industry which has included roles such as Director of Entertainment Media and Communications at PricewaterhouseCoopers; SVP and Head of CNN Technology responsible for the News Group’s technology strategy, implementation and training; as well as serving as an SVP – Senior Technology Fellow, Turner Broadcasting.

Bio coming soon…

Tim Katt is at the cutting edge of innovation discovery and execution in the sports industry as the Managing Director of the Global Sports Venture Studio (“GSVS”). The GSVS is a unique, closed-door venture initiative that launched in June 2018 and is made up of leading organizations in sport including; adidas, Dick’s Sporting Goods, E15 Group, Fox Sports, Levy Restaurants, the Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, the National Hockey League, Octagon Sports & Entertainment, R/GA Ventures and UEFA. Through his work with the GSVS, Tim has led the development of a new innovation platform that pushes the industry forward.

Alan Gilpin is the Chief Operating Officer and Head of Rugby World Cup at World Rugby, and is responsible for the day-to-day management of the globally-renowned Rugby World Cup brand, including the preparations and delivery for Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan and the conduct of the host selection process for Rugby World Cup 2023.

Previously a lawyer, and with a strong track record in sport and business, Alan has been involved in the management and delivery of Rugby World Cup since 2001 in a number of roles.

Alan joined the World Rugby from his previous role as Chief Operating Officer of official hospitality provider, Prestige Ticketing Ltd, where he oversaw the award-winning hospitality programme for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Prior to the London 2012 role, Alan spent nine years with IMG, including responsibility for commercial rights negotiation across Rugby World Cup 2003, 2007 and 2011.

Judith’s successful and diverse career spans more than 25 years. With an intricate knowledge of entertainment and sports rights management, she is a major influencer and highly regarded in the legal and commercial industries. Judith began her career in Formula One in 1989, and subsequently became CEO of Australian Formula One Grand Prix. Here, Judith was recognised for her important work and was awarded Australian Business Woman of the Year.

Following this experience, she became COO of Allsport Management and was a board member for various companies within Formula One for 15 years. Her expertise comprised all areas of sports rights acquisition and monetization with host nations and cities, along with many businesses and brands on an international scale.

In 2015, Judith co-founded Sports Rights Management – the boutique sports and media agency alongside her former colleague from Harvard Business School, Charles Garland.

Kimberly Cook, CRO of Hookit.com, has lead teams resulting in two successful start up exits and left an executive post at Google to join Hookit.com due to the revolutionary technology and deep learning algorithms that blend her two passions, technology and sports.

As President of Tours, Experiences, and International at the World Surf League, Joe leads the organization’s events, athletes, and international business.

Joe joined the WSL from UFC, where he served as Senior Vice President, Head of International and Content, and was responsible for the company’s global strategy, operations, and content distribution, while managing more than 35 employees across six offices worldwide. Prior to the UFC, Joe began his career in private equity and real estate development.

Russell leads development and strategy across all digital platforms for Paris Saint Germain with the aim of enhancing and increasing content for a global audience. This includes social media and platforms such as mobile, web, apps, games, e-commerce, VR/AR and messaging.

Christian Fuchs is an Austrian professional footballer who plays as a left back for English club Leicester City.

He began his senior career as a teenager at Wiener Neustadt before signing his first professional contract at 17 with SV Mattersburg, challenging for the Austrian Football Bundesliga title and taking part in European competitions. In 2008, he left for Germany, signing for VfL Bochum. After a season on loan at 1. FSV Mainz 05, he signed for FC Schalke 04 in 2011, where he contested the UEFA Champions Leaguebut suffered a serious knee injury. In 2015, he signed for Leicester, winning the Premier League in his first season at the club.

A full international for a decade starting from his debut in 2006, Fuchs earned 78 caps for Austria, making him their eighth-most capped player of all time. He played for the nation at UEFA Euro 2008 and UEFA Euro 2016, captaining them for the first time in 2010 and on a permanent basis from 2012, before retiring from international duty in 2016.

As the Chief Executive Officer of Dignitas, Michael Prindiville is responsible for overseeing the business operations, team management and acquisitions and investments for the iconic 15-year old esports organization under Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment’s dynamic portfolio of global sports and entertainment properties.  With over 10 + years serving as a senior leader and operator in the sports, esports and media industry, Prindiville has established himself as an innovator and visionary.

Under Prindiville’s tenure, Dignitas has rebranded the organization, established its headquarters in Metropolitan New York City, implemented a new commercial strategy, and is in the process of building a new content initiative. In his first team acquisition as Dignitas CEO, Prindiville spearheaded the signing of the World’s No. 1 ranked Rocket League team just months prior to their winning the Rocket League Season 5 World Championship. Dignitas currently fields world-class teams in Rocket League, Counter Strike: Global Offensive (Women’s), Clash Royale, Smite and Super Smash Brothers Melee.

Steve Elworthy MBE has a plethora of global tournament experience – both playing and administrating. A former South African international, Steve won a gold medal in the 1998 Commonwealth Games for cricket and played in the 1999 Cricket World Cup in England. Since retiring from playing, Steve moved into cricket administration, playing an integral part in a number of global cricket events, including the inaugural World T20 in South Africa in 2007. In 2017, he was the Tournament Director of the ICC Champions Trophy and the ICC Women’s World Cup, helping put women’s cricket well and truly on the global stage. Steve’s outstanding contribution to the game resulted in him receiving an MBE in 2018 for services to cricket. In 2019, the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup will come to England and Wales, and Steve is leading the Organising Committee charged with showcasing the world’s greatest cricket celebration.

Alexander (Sasha) Ryazantsev joined the Board of Directors of Everton Football Club in March 2016 following a successful career in finance and investment banking spanning more than 20 years.

He became the Club’s first Chief Finance and Commercial Officer in June 2018.

Sasha graduated from the Russian Plekhanov University of Economics in 1995 with a BSc in Economics and Commercial Management, later working as an investment analyst at Global Natural Energy PLC, where Everton major shareholder Farhad Moshiri was CEO.

After completing his Masters in Finance from the London Business School in 2002, Sasha joined ABN AMRO Bank, where he led a team advising European consumer brands on their capital structures and corporate financing. Sasha was then invited to join the corporate financing and risk solutions team at RBS in 2007, where he was responsible for bond issues and mergers and acquisitions across Europe, Middle East and Africa. In 2016, Sasha advised Mr Moshiri on the acquisition of a significant stake in Everton and the strategy of the football club going forward.

Born into a footballing family, Sasha’s father was a goalkeeper at a number of clubs across the former USSR in the 1960s and 1970s and he himself played at right-back for Dynamo Moscow boys until the age of 16 but then turned his focus towards his studies.

In 2018, Sasha completed the Business of Entertainment, Media and Sport programme at Harvard Business School to further enhance his commitment to the business of sport and finance.

Alongside Endeavor Chief Technology Officer Nick Wilson, Will Staeger oversees Endeavor’s business operations in video streaming services, spanning both internally developed streaming technology and the 2018 acquisition of NeuLion and its industry-leading platform technology. In his position as President Business Operations, Will is responsible for managing the company’s relationships with such clients as the NFL, NBA, UFC, Univision, Rogers Sportsnet, EFL, Eleven Sports, PokerGo, and many others.  He also oversees the company’s new business growth initiatives and synergies across broader Endeavor company business units.

Before stepping into his role at Endeavor Streaming, Will managed strategic content initiatives and executive produced all premium original series and specials as co-head of the IMG Original Content group. Prior to IMG OC, Will oversaw production at WWE as EVP Production, managing the production teams for all original programs included in the launch of WWE’s groundbreaking global premium content platform, the WWE Network.

Mark Bullingham is Chief Commercial & Football Development Officer of the English Football Association. He joined The FA in August 2016 and leads the commercial, marketing, digital and participation functions at the organisation. These include responsibility for all revenue streams across the FA and Wembley, such as broadcast, sponsorship, licensing, hospitality, and diversified revenue streams.  In his time annual revenue at the FA has risen by over £100m.

He previously held the position of CEO EMEA for Fuse Sports & Entertainment, responsible for running one of the fastest growing businesses in the sector.  The team had grown quickly over five years to 245 across 17 offices with an annual fee income of over €28m.  The client portfolio included 10 of the top 30 global brands.

Mark joined Fuse in 2011 from his position as Director of Marketing, for the America’s Cup Event Authority in San Francisco where he helped transform the global event.

Mark has negotiated over $2bn of partnerships across a variety of platforms in sports, arts and music and is a qualified Level One coach involved in grassroots football.

As the Co-founder of FACEIT, Michele has been a competitive gamer for over 15 years. His passion for gaming is complemented by a career working in a top investment & consulting firm that’s worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies, and he has personally been involved in several technology start-ups.

FACEIT is the leading competitive platform for online multiplayer games, with more than 4 million users logging in a total of over 12 million online game sessions each month. FACEIT allows players to easily play in tournaments and leagues for virtual and real-world prizes through automated tournament management and matchmaking technology.

With an exceptional passion to be the best, Thomas “Hal” Robson-Kanu has gone on from his early days as a young professional in his journey to playing in the English Premier League and at elite international level. Throughout, he has always been a leader who offers inspiration at every opportunity on and off the pitch. Asides being an elite sportsman, Thomas is a veracious advocate and enthusiast of blockchain technology, becoming devoted to using the opportunities offered by blockchain technology to impact the world of sports. Thomas is certain that the application of this technology will help the sporting world break new grounds, enriching interactions and changing the scope of value for vested sporting stakeholders across all sporting paradigms such as fans, athletes, clubs, and corporations. Thomas is co-founder at Sports Ledger, becoming the first elite professional sportsperson to conceptualise and develop alongside an accredited team, a game changing blockchain-based platform set to score numerous blockchain goals for the sporting industry.

Milton Lee is the CEO of Keemotion. The automated video production solution unlocking high quality low cost productions for sports rights holders around the world.  Prior to Keemotion, Milton was the Director of Basketball Operations at the Brooklyn Nets overseeing various departments including ‘technology and analytics’.  During his time with the Nets Milton also served on the board of directors of the Brooklyn Nets and Barclay’s Center.  Milton currently serves on the board of governors of the New York Athletic Club where he also serves as Vice President of their prestigious Winged Foot Award honouring the national championship coaches of the NCAA’s.  Milton is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

As Vice President of International Partnerships for Activision Blizzard Esports Leagues, Jack Harari is responsible for the commercialization of company’s Esports programs outside of the United States. Jack’s responsibilities include commercial partnerships across key revenue verticals of the organization for sponsorship, media rights and content licensing, and consumer products for both esports leagues and programs around the world. The esports leagues consist of Overwatch League (including all Overwatch Esports programs) and Call of Duty World League.  Rounding out Jack’s Esports portfolio are Blizzard’s franchises Hearthstone, StarCraft, and World of Warcraft. Prior to joining Activision Blizzard Esports Leagues, Jack spent nearly 5 years at the NBA, where he was most recently AVP of International Business Development.  Jack also worked for 3 years at NBA China heading up the region’s Business Development team. Before the NBA, Jack spent a number of years in both National Sports Ad Sales for CBS Television in the U.S. and at Omnicom’s agency, OMD, in New York.

Amanda Davies is a sports anchor for CNN International, based in the London bureau.

Since joining CNN, Amanda has fronted the network’s ‘World Sport’ coverage for several major events. This includes the Summer and Winter Olympics, Football World Cups, Champions League Finals, The Tour de France and the World Athletics Championships.

Amanda has led on multiple key news stories in the sporting world including the FIFA corruption scandal and the Russian doping controversy. She has also interviewed high profile names from all the leading sports including Lewis Hamilton, Serena Williams, David Beckham, Usain Bolt, Michael Schumacher and Neymar.

Amanda previously fronted sports coverage for the BBC on both BBC News and BBC Breakfast and prior to that worked in production for Sky Sports News.

Nicoletta Savio is the General Manager of FanBox, a joint venture between digital loyalty specialists Advice Group and AWE Sport International, a sports marketing agency. She has started her professional career working for Torino 2006 Winter Olympic Games Organizing Committee, Doha Asian Games, 2011 Arab Games and has then worked with many brands, athletes and sport Federation during her collaboration as Business Unit Manager in AWE Sport.

Katy began her career in 2005 at a boutique agency in Manchester. After five successful years, Katy decided she wanted to try her hand at a network agency – MediaCom, taking control of a team of press planners and buyers.

It was an interest in pursuing areas of potential business growth that guided Katy to become Business Development Controller for MediaCom North Group.It was her success in this role that saw Katy being appointed Head of New Business & Marketing, where she managed an enormously successful year in 2015 – co-ordinating 66 pitches, with a 63% conversion rate.

Following this, Katy was shortlisted as an IPA Women of Tomorrow in 2016.In 2016, Katy decided it was time to develop further and moved to Global Social Media Marketing Agency Social Chain as Operations Director and after a successful few months Katy was promoted to Managing Director in July 2017.

Andreas Heyden has been CEO of a company that may not immediately stand out to you. Called DFL Digital Sport GmbH, it’s better known as the digital arm of the German Football League, the Bundesliga.

Now 2 years into his first role in sport, he’s been an integral part of the drive to develop an engaged community of fans of the league, and obviously its 36 teams who are all stakeholders in the business.  They’ve succeeded in bringing more production in-house as they look to control their destiny in an ever changing media landscape.

He’s passionate about taking down the silo’s we see in production, where you have separate TV, digital, partner and social teams. Stating that, “The more you break the structure up the more you can re-use and re-utilise content to create interesting, compelling and highly engaging content either for B2B or for B2C”.

Before he ended up in football, Andreas built up almost 20 years of experience with internet businesses. Starting out with I-D Media and Microsoft before spending 6 years at German broadcaster RTL. Rising up to become a leader of people at a young age.

Andrew Thompson is the chief financial & business officer for SailGP, a new global sports property setting out to redefine sailing. He is responsible for the overall business strategy and financial planning across the league and its six international teams, as well as the engineering facilities wholly owned by SailGP. Thompson has managed SailGP’s growth from start-up to a global entity embarking on its inaugural season of five events in Sydney, San Francisco, New York, Cowes (UK) and Marseille (France).

Thompson joined SailGP following a successful tenure as CFO for the America’s Cup Event Authority, where he was an integral part of the management team that ensured the 35^th America’s Cup was delivered within budget and in a commercially sustainable manner.

Previously, Thompson was finance director for the Perform Group and was a senior member of the finance team that planned and delivered the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games within the privately funded £2.1 billion budget.

Fnatic is one of world’s largest and most successful eSports organizations. Wouter joined Fnatic in 2015 and is taking the Fnatic brand and organisation to the next level with his vast leadership and marketing experience. He also recently joined the Executive Board of the World Eports Association (WESA). In his previous position, Wouter played a crucial part in the success of Skrill (former Moneybookers) as the VP Marketing and now is making great strides in the evergrowing eSport scene.

Dana has an extensive background in the Sports Broadcasting and Technology industry with a true passion for sports and a real understanding of the broadcasting industry, sports organizations, players and fan experience.

Dana spent the first part of her career as a sports reporter and producer, covering a wide array of sports; reporting from large events such as the NBA Finals and the Superbowl; and being involved in the entire workflow of the live sports production.

As Director of Market Development at MX1 she is responsible for leading the Sports and Events services roadmap and strategic vision. She is involved in the business development of technologies for the global sports broadcasting market; including all media, digital strategies, original content creation, management and delivery for the various global sports stakeholders.

Josh Walker is the co-founder and President of Sports Innovation Lab, where he drives product strategy and direction for the company. Sports Innovation Lab is a perfect convergence of his career as a research VP, advisor, serial entrepreneur, and fledgling sports journalist after graduating Middlebury College. A former Vice President of Research at Forrester, Josh was responsible for launching the company’s Forrester Wave evaluation framework, designed to accelerate innovation by connecting technology buyers with the best vendors. After Forrester, Josh spent time as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at General Catalyst advising fast-growing companies including Brightcove, Kayak, and Demandware. He soon became a serial entrepreneur himself, using his passion for technology and data to launch and grow several venture-backed companies: CityVoter, Comlinkdata, and Stattleship. Now, at Sports Innovation Lab, he sees a tremendous opportunity leverage the company’s SaaS market intelligence platform to bring trusted technology data and insider access to the sports world.

Adam has worked in sports broadcasting for 25 years and is a vastly experienced presenter on TV, online and radio. He is seen breaking news at home and abroad for Sky Sports covering international and domestic sporting events, whilst also anchoring live coverage from London. He has worked with a wide range of sporting stars on air and at events since his career began in 1995. He is also part of the Talk Sport team in their national football coverage and can also be seen on the Tales From YouTube channel – his publishing company which has released almost 20 titles over the last five years – which also produces a variety of online features. He is also a voice over artist – currently one of the voices of the Economist in the US.

Greg Dawkins leads Portico’s Sports Data, Analytics and Software practice which he joined in 2017 following nine years in the Technology group at Piper Jaffray. During Greg’s twenty year investment banking career, he has focused on advising growth technology, media and telecommunications companies. Greg has advised on global transactions aggregating over $11 billion in value during his career including significant experience in the filmed entertainment, data centers and hosting and 3D printing /robotics sectors. Greg holds a BBA from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.

As an enthusiastic and energetic consumer products & merchandising leader from New Jersey, Collette is a sports industry disrupter. She’s played an intricate role in the explosive growth and product creativity at Converse, adidas, DC Shoes and most recently was the Head of Consumer Products at Red Bull; she has served in numerous executive design and merchandising creation roles.  Establishing long relationships with like minded innovators and brands is everything to Collette.  A lot of people claim to be creative, but there are few who decide to do anything with that creativity. Collette is a true entrepreneur a doer, not a dreamer.  Travel, Street Art & Food Culture has always been Collette’s main source of inspiration. Collette has visited (5) out of (7) “New Wonders of the World”.  Collette has attended 106 Grateful Dead shows and obsessed with Lego’s. Her new task is building the best eSports organization in the world.

Alex is a serial web entrepreneur with more than 22 years of experience in the digital space, building and developing tech businesses. In the late 1990s, he pioneered Webcity, the web-based interactive tourism guide, before completing a buyout with retail giant Carrefour, and later merging with a competitor service and selling to Yelp. After co-founding Winamax (the largest French online poker room) and Chilipoker in 2006, the underpinning technology platform was sold to Bally Technologies (now Scientific Games). In 2013, he acquired the Global Poker Index (live Poker’s leading ranking authority) as well as The Hendon Mob (the largest live poker database in the world). Dreyfus recently raised $66 million through a private token sale for chiliZ – a democratic team management platform that aims to revolutionise the worlds of sports and esports, through blockchain technology and smart contracts. The first white label application of the chiliZ platform is Socios.com, which offers a turnkey solution for football and sports clubs looking to adopt blockchain technology to monetise their fan bases through ICOs. To boost blockchain innovation in Malta, Dreyfus has also established the chiliZ Blockchain Campus – a new fintech epicenter that will house world-leading exchanges, crypto-friendly European banks, and leading blockchain media groups.

Danna Rabin is a global business and technology executive, who most recently served as Chief Operating Officer at HEED (joint venture between AGT International and WME/IMG), AGT International (a pioneer in proprietary IoT, IoT Analytics, Deep Web Analysis, Machine Learning, Social Data Management, Big Data integration and advanced analytics), and the media-technology venture, Vocativ (www.vocativ.com – which utilizes proprietary technology to explore the deep web for original news, stories and video production).

Michele assumed his current role with Eurovision Media Services (EMS) in September 2017 where he oversees the global strategy for sales. Being in the media industry for more than a decade, Michele has a clear understanding of the market and a proven track record maximising revenues. Michele spent 16 years in executive positions at Globecast where he successfully developed new revenue streams and put in place global sales strategies that helped grow the company’s core business. In 2013, he became Globecast America’s CEO where he raised the company’s profile in the US market and positioned Globecast in the digital arena. In 2015, he became Executive Vice President of the newly created Occasional Use and Media Services Division of Globecast before taking his current role with EMS. Michele’s international experience includes working in Europe, Asia and North America, including: Paris, Rome, Singapore, and New York. He completed his B.A. in Economics and Finance at Science Po in Strasbourg, France.

Will has worked at the forefront of broadcast technology for more than 20 years, having held senior commercial positions at Globecast, BT, Zayo and, more recently, Aframe and Imagen. He has sold and managed broadcast infrastructures for some of the world’s most high profile Sports broadcasters, events, tours and leagues. The last few years have seen Will move from on-site / on-premise solutions to Cloud and SaaS models, providing digital asset management solutions for Premier League, Formula 1, ATP, WTA, ITF, Asian Football Confederation, Badminton World Federation and the International Weightlifting Federation.

After working as an Account Director and digital specialist for a such blue chips clients as 3M, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Norton Rose I moved client side 9 years ago to work in Arsenal’s digital team. In such time I have delivered numerous digital projects including two major redesigns of Arsenal.com and the new video site Arsenal Player, two mobile apps as well as a highly successful social media strategy. I was made General Manager of the Media Group in 2014 and now manage a team of 37 delivering official Arsenal content across digital, TV and print.

Rob Bloom is the McLaren Group Digital Director, overseeing digital brand, strategy and marketing across the McLaren Formula 1 and McLaren Applied Technologies businesses.

At McLaren, Rob leads the digital, social, content, CRM and insight teams, driving a fan-first agenda to deliver brand and commercial value for McLaren and its partners.

Prior to McLaren, Rob held roles within various FTSE organisations and founder of a digital content marketing agency.

In 2017, Rob was named in the Leaders Under 40 Class of 2017, with McLaren’s Social & Digital team awarded In-House Team of The Year at the Drum Social Buzz Awards and currently shortlisted for multiple 2019 content awards.

Cameron Andrews is Anti-Piracy Counsel at beIN Media Group, based in London. Since joining beIN in November 2016, Cameron has been leading anti-piracy strategy, enforcement and operations across the beIN group.

Before beIN, Cameron spent five years as a senior lawyer at the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) working on anti-piracy, enforcement and international litigation for the recorded music industry. He trained as a lawyer in Australia, spending eight years in the intellectual property group at Gilbert + Tobin in Sydney, and prior to that worked as an adviser and researcher in the Australian federal and state parliaments.

Jean-Marc Racine is Chief Product Officer and General Manager of Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia (EMEAR). Jean-Marc has extensive experience in the broadcast media technology sector. Through his consultancy activities as Managing Partner at Farncombe Technology and more recently as Senior Vice President of Video Advisory Services at Cartesian, Jean-Marc supported clients as they implemented next-generation hybrid TV platforms and adopted cloud models. In his 20+ years’ in the industry, Jean-Marc has advised media and technology clients on technical strategies and is an expert on private equity due diligence projects. He has also advised various industry consortiums and broadcasters on the definition and implementation of TV everywhere platforms, as well as the challenges and opportunities resulting from the growth of OTT platform and cloud based infrastructures.

James Grigg is Snr Director of Business Operations and Strategy at Bleacher Report, the dominant digital sports and lifestyle brand. Currently James is spearheading growth of B/R Football, Bleacher Report’s football focused sub-brand led out of a 40 person team based in London.

Prior to Bleacher Report, James was COO and part of the founding team at fanatix, a UK-based start up that built the world’s first dedicated second screen app for sports fans. He was also Distribution Director at Sportech PLC, owner of the Football Pools, the world’s oldest parimutuel gaming company.

James started his career at Spectrum Strategy, a boutique TMT consultancy, advising the likes of Vodafone, Sony Pictures and the BBC on their convergence strategies.

With a background in Sports and Entertainment, having worked across a range of major events including: Olympics, Football and Rugby World Cups, David is a commercially savvy and experienced sports marketing professional, operating in all aspects of the commercial side of sport.

In addition to sports, David has been a pioneer in esports, leading the way in commercial sponsorships for non-endemic brands in this emerging sector.

David’s expertise includes: sponsorship, broadcast / streaming, esports, social and digital media and athlete management.

Daniel is the founder and CEO of WSC Sports, provider of cutting-edge automated video solutions that are widely used by leading sports organizations, broadcasters and publishers.

Being a basketball enthusiast with extensive technical abilities and savvy business skills, Daniel took what was first created as a hobby to the absolute top.

Prior to WSC Sports Daniel served as an engineer in the Israeli Air Force for 6 years. He holds a BSc and MBA in electrical engineering, both from Tel-Aviv University and is raising two energetic sons with his wife Sivan.

Kirsty is the Founder & Director of Swipe Right PR, Europe’s leading esports and gaming communications agency who elevate brands and help build communities. Swipe Right is a London-based agency with an international network of media, influencers and partners who delivers strategic and creative campaigns that help clients form their brand identity and deliver their message to the right audiences. Clients include Riot Games, FACEIT and Red Bull.

Myles has 20 years’ experience helping media, entertainment and sports organisations to realise strategic goals and transform customer engagement through pioneering digital products. Past roles include co-founding iKOS, one of the UK’s biggest Drupal agencies.

At Inviqa Myles has been instrumental in helping Arsenal secure a 15% rise in digital memberships, in enabling publisher Commercial Motor to grow online revenue by 43%, and in helping a leading financial publisher to execute its digital transformation strategy.

Myles speaks and writes extensively on topics including web content management and digital transformation.

Having led England’s successful bid to host the Rugby League World Cup 2021, Jon was appointed Chief Executive of the tournament; leaving his position as RFL Director of Projects and People.

A sports management graduate with over 20 years’ experience in the sports industry. Jon has previously worked for the PGA European Golf Tour, Manchester FA (with a secondment to UEFA) and ran his own sports consultancy company. Jon was the Operations Director for RLWC 2013, Director of Readiness for the Tour de France Grand Depart in 2014 and Tournament Director for the Ladbrokes Four Nations tournament in 2016. In 2017 Jon was the International Federation Tournament Commissioner for the Rugby League World Cup in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

Matt co-founded Two Circles, the data-driven sports marketing agency, in 2011. The business today employs just under 200 people across four offices worldwide – servicing over 100 clients including the NFL, Premier League and UEFA.

A Cambridge University graduate, Matt’s career began within a Bain/McKinsey spinout strategy consultancy. He moved on to the NBA (National Basketball Association) where he served as European Marketing Manager, and from there music and entertainment network MTV, where he ran the European Sponsorship team. Before co-founding Two Circles, Matt led the business side of specialist learning and development consultancy Lane4 as Group Commercial Director.

Matt is a regular speaker around the evolution of the business of sport, as well as the challenges of leading and managing high-growth businesses. He co-authored Britain and the Olympic Games: Past Present Legacy, while his writing has featured in Harvard Business Review, including the ‘Must Reads on Leadership’ series in 2018.

Jason is Chief Executive Officer of 23 Capital, leading the business strategy and playing a fundamental role in structuring transactions and setting 23’s culture and values.

23 is a capital and solutions company focused exclusively on the sports, music and entertainment sectors. Since inception in 2014, 23 has deployed and advised on over $2.7bn of transactions. As a specialty finance platform, 23 Capital participates in transactions across the capital structure and employs multiple financing strategies ranging from passive IP lending and project finance transactions, to highly structured corporate facilities. 23 has committed and partnership capital of over $2bn to invest across the SM&E sectors and has recently played a pivotal role in the creation and evolution of OTRO via its funding partnerships.

Prior to founding 23 with Stephen Duval, Jason previously worked within the structured credit team at Investec Bank for over 13 years, during which time he built and headed up the successful sports, media, entertainment offering at the bank. He has structured $1bn of transactions in this space.

Jim is The FA’s social media lead, connecting the public with properties such as the England national teams, The Emirates FA Cup, the Women’s Super League and SSE Women’s FA Cup.

Having joined The FA in February 2016, Jim has driven the organisation’s digital output for major international tournaments, including the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He was part of the team that won praise for its attempts to reconnect supporters with the Three Lions through campaigns such as its innovative pre-tournament squad announcement and the #LionsDen live show, both of which were nominated at the 2019 BT Sport Industry Awards.

Before moving to The FA, Jim spent four years with Southampton Football Club, developing and leading a content team that saw the Saints become known for their innovative and ground-breaking approach to social media.

Prof. Federico M. Winer is the Head of Entertainment Industries EMEA at SAP. He is a trusted industry advisor for both SAP customers in eSports, game publishers, sports betting, lotteries and others. He is visiting lecturer at Universitat Pompeu Fabra [Catalonia] and DeporTEA [Buenos Aires]. He graduated in Humanities and Arts [UOC, 2017], Executive Master in Business Administration [EADA&UCLA, 2014], Telecommunications and Computing [IES Guineueta, 2004] and Journalism [TEA, 2001]. Federico has developed international business for media, sports and entertainment firms since the start of his career, with a firm understanding of how humanities and IT coexist.

Chris joined AEG Europe in February 2007. In his role as Vice President of International Partnerships and Strategy, Chris leads AEG’s international partner relationships as well as setting the strategy across AEG’s International Global Partnerships group.

The AEG Global Partnerships strategy team deliver insights that include; commercialisation studies, sponsorship evaluations, return on investment /opportunity research, sales strategies, partnership strategies and premium seating insights. Through this work, Chris has also set up a third party consultancy division within AEG working with clients including; FCB Barcelona, French Federation de Rugby, Battersea Power Station and Tottenham Hostpur Football Club.

Chris also overseas AEG’s multi-territory partnerships with American Express, DHL, Marriott, Cisco, Toshiba and others activating across AEG Presents, The O2, Mercedes-Benz Arena Berlin and Shanghai, ICC Theatre in Sydney to name a few.

With a Bachelor’s in History in one hand, and a Master’s in Business in the other, Romain Bigeard started carving a career out of his passions in 2012. His internships at Activision-Blizzard and Razer soon converted to a role as Razer’s expert in European esports — which, in turn, took on a familiar pink hue as he joined LCS team Unicorns of Love in 2015 as Team Manager.

His roles at the time was to run the gamut from brand development and sponsorship activations to his most famous role as team mascot, providing entertainment for Unicorns and EU LCS fans alike. His success then caught the attention of North American esports organization OpTic Gaming, who were building up their League of Legends department in 2017. It took one year for Romain to set up a fully operational work environment in Los Angeles on OpTic’s behalf, with a focus on player performance.

Now, as part of Riot’s Business Development Team here in Berlin, Romain’s task is to utilize his experiences across both regions to establish a sustainable ecosystem for the newly christened League of Legends European Championship (LEC). His challenges now include improving the operational cost efficiencies, pro team support structures, partner relations, and activation models for the league. He still plans on showing up at some LEC games once in awhile. After all, the best esports crowds are here in EU.

James Dean is the founder and Managing Director of the ESL UK subsidiary, building the ESL brand and community on a regional level.  James began his career in IT writing for UK’s largest computer magazine while studying for a Degree in Computer Science at Birmingham University. After graduating James managed the PC division of a well-known computer retailer in the UK and in 2004 launched a gaming brand of PCs increasing average margins from 6% to 20%.

Lorenzo is Director of Hornets Investment Ltd, holding company for Watford Association Football Club. He is also CEO of BGB Weston, a Hedge Fund investment management firm. He began his career in management consulting for a British company, and then moved into the financial services sector in 1997. Lorenzo serves as board member in several financial institutions and companies in UK. He worked for several major institutions in the City and has specialised on alternative investments and capital structures. He has a degree in Political Science and Economics from the University of Padua, Italy, and an MSc degree in International Management from the London City College.

Successful sports industry entrepreneur involved in Football, F1, NFL, NBA, Golf, Tennis and The Olympics with major brands around the globe for 20+ years