The Sport Business Summit

Sir Martin Sorrell founded WPP Group in 1986 and under his leadership it became the world’s largest advertising and marketing service group in the world. He is perhaps the most recognisable figure in the global advertising industry in which his accomplishments are nothing short of stunning and he is considered a true visionary, and great and colourful leader

Bartomeu became President of FC Barcelona on 23 January 2014, the date on which Sandro Rosell resigned. Before assuming the presidency, he had fulfilled various other roles at FC Barcelona. Between 2003 and 2005 he was the Director responsible for the handball and basketball sections. In 2010 he returned to the Club as Vice President, serving under Rosell.

With Josep Maria Bartomeu as President, the Club’s professional teams have maintained their success, the highlight being Barçelona’s treble winning campaign in 2014/15, consisting of the league title, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League. Married and father of two, he is a partner and CEO of the ADELTE Group (port and airport engineering, worldwide leader of boarding and design of large transport vehicles) and EFS, Equipo Facility Services (group of system maintenance and electromechanical equipment businesses).

Gene McCarthy is a distinguished and well known veteran of the Athletic and Outdoor Footwear and Apparel industries. In October of 2015 Mr. McCarthy was appointed President and CEO of Asics Americas Group which includes the United States with subsidiaries in Canada, Mexico, Brazil along with distributors throughout Latin America. Prior to that he was President of the Merrell Brand, a division of Wolverine WorldWide. Before then he was the SVP of Footwear at Under Armour where he oversaw the entire footwear organisation including design, development, merchandising and strategic planning. He also managed all financial accounts and directed the brand’s footwear distribution strategy.

As Chief Brand Officer, Stephanie McMahon is responsible for working with WWE’s business units to support key growth initiatives and represents WWE as its global brand ambassador. She is the primary spokesperson for WWE’s CSR initiatives, including Special Olympics, Susan G. Komen and Be a STAR, WWE’s anti-bullying program. In 2014, Stephanie and her husband, Paul “Triple H” Levesque, established Connor’s Cure, a fund dedicated to fighting Pediatric cancer. Stephanie is also a TV personality, appearing regularly on WWE’s flagship programming. She is a member of the 2017 Class of Henry Crown Fellows within the Aspen Global Leadership Network at the Aspen Institute and is also a member of the 2015 Eisenhower Fellowship class.

Prior to being named Chief Brand Officer, Stephanie was Executive Vice President, Creative and was responsible for overseeing the Digital and Creative Departments, as well as the creative development of all WWE television, pay-per-view programming, print, digital and social media content.  She has also managed WWE’s Talent Relations, Talent Brand Management and Live Events businesses.

Stephanie is a member of the Board of Directors for WWE, USO Metropolitan Washington and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation. She has been recognized as one of the “Most Powerful Women in Cable” by CableFAX magazine for the past five years. Most recently, Stephanie was recognized as a “Wonder Woman” by Multichannel News for 2016 and was named to the Variety Power of Women Impact Report. Adweek also included Stephanie in their inaugural list of the 2016 Most Powerful Women in Sports.

Frank McCourt is an American businessman, Chairman and CEO of McCourt Global and current owner of the French football club Olympique de Marseille. Prior to purchasing Olympique de Marseille, Frank owned the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2012 to 2014. In 2004, he purchased a controlling interest of the Dodgers from Fox Entertainment Group, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and sold the team in 2012 for an historic $2.15 billion. In 2008, McCourt bought the operating rights to the Los Angeles Marathon. McCourt’s group changed the route of the Marathon so that it would start at Dodger Stadium. His “Stadium to the Sea” course revitalized the Marathon and in 2010 it drew the largest field in the history of the race. On top of his ownership of the LA marathon and Olympique de Marseille, McCourt has a 50% stake in the Global Champions Tour which brings together the top 30 riders in the FEI Jumping World Rankings and recently launched Global Champions League, an innovative league of franchised showjumping teams.

Beane turned the identification and recruitment of talented players into a science, famously charted in the best-selling book ‘Moneyball’ and has moulded the A’s into a perennial postseason contender whilst running the club as one of the most cost effective teams in the MLB. Throughout his career Beane has been awarded a number of prestigious honours including; The Sporting News’ Executive of the Year, MLB’s Executive of the Year, and Street & Smith’s Sport Business Journal’s “40 under 40” list. Billy Beane was drafted by the New York Mets in 1980 and spent most of the 1980s in the minor leagues. He played six seasons in the major leagues before joining the management team of the Oakland Athletics in 1990, becoming general manager in 1997. His innovative management style inspired the 2003 book Moneyball, which was made into a film in 2011, starring Brad Pitt as Beane.

Jaymee Messler serves as President of The Players’ Tribune, a first-of-its-kind digital media company dedicated to empowering athletes with the tools they need to tell their stories. In addition to first-person essays, the platform features an array of video content, podcasts, and original photography. Messler co-founded The Players’ Tribune with Derek Jeter. She oversees the strategy and long-term vision of the business, industry relations, sales and marketing, and athlete relations. Since its launch, TPT has grown hugely with a range of athletes contributing to the platform, from the likes of Jordan Henderson to Kobe Bryant.

John is the Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Times. He has been with the FT for more than 25 years in both editorial and executive positions. Under his stewardship the Financial Times has expanded its global operation and developed its digital channels. During his tenure, the FT has gained a wide reputation for boldness and innovation, including pioneering the metered access model.

Stephen A Kaplan was a founder of Oaktree Capital Group, LLC, and currently an Oaktree Advisory Partner having retired from day-to-day activities at the end of 2016. At Oaktree, Mr Kaplan founded and built the Global Principal Group which focuses on control investments in the United States, Europe and Asia. Over the past several years Mr. Kaplan has built a significant business in sports ownership. He is the Managing General Partner of Swansea City Football, a football team based in Wales playing in the English Premier League.

In 2012, Mr. Kaplan was part of a group of investors that purchased the Memphis Grizzlies. He currently serves as the Grizzlies Vice-Chairman and has served as an Alternate Governor on the Board of Governors of the National Basketball Association. Mr. Kaplan is also an early stage investor in, and a board member of, Immortals, a leading company that owns teams competing in the emerging arena of video game competition.

Ambarish Mitra is the CEO and co-founder of Blippar, the leading augmented reality browser using artificial intelligence and computer vision to give people more from the world they see. He has grown Blippar from 3 co-founders to 300+ employees in 10 offices including acquiring AR giant Layar in 2014.

Michael R. Yormark is President & Chief of Branding and Strategy for Roc Nation and responsible for marketing, branding, strategic partnerships and business development for the full-service company inclusive of artists, athletes, songwriters, music publishing, touring & merchandising, film & television, and a music label. Yormark leads the effort to create and develop optimal opportunities for the Roc Nation brand, and its roster of athletes and artists, through strategic partnerships. He is also responsible for increasing revenue and awareness for all Roc Nation brands and properties, as the company continues to set the standard for global innovation.

Michael possesses over 20 years of industry experience, most recently as President & CEO of Sunrise Sports & Entertainment, the Florida Panthers and the BB&T Center in South Florida where he was a SportsBusiness Journal Forty Under 40 winner and brokered the most lucrative naming rights partnership in BB&T Center history.

As the Chief Executive Officer of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, Brett Yormark oversees the business enterprise that manages and controls Barclays Center, the Brooklyn Nets, and the New York Islanders business operations, as well as the redevelopment and future operation of Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Since its grand opening in September 2012, Yormark has had oversight for all facets of Barclays Center, including operations, event programming, sales, and marketing. In moving the Nets from New Jersey to Brooklyn, Yormark developed and transformed the team’s brand from a sports logo to a trendy lifestyle brand, revolutionizing the public appeal through marketing, partnerships, and public relations efforts.

Andrea Radrizzani is Founder and Group Chairman of Aser, a global investment company that focuses on the media and sport sectors. In January 2017, through Aser, Andrea made an investment in 50 per cent of the share capital of Leeds United Football Club, making him Co-Owner of the club. Andrea Radrizzani is an experienced sports rights specialist and he was personally involved in most of MP & Silva’s rights acquisition with the major rights holders such as English Premier League, FIFA World Cup, UEFA, Ligue 1, Bundesliga, Formula One, Olympic Council of Asia and others. He acted as MP & Silva Group CEO until 2013, being now involved in defining the Group’s business strategy and new special expansion projects.

In just over two years at Bloomberg Media, Grossman has solidified his position as a vital exec in the company. In the past year alone, Grossman, 36, has received two major promotions from publisher of Bloomberg Digital and Digital Products to Head of U.S. Sales last November, and then to Global CRO in September. Thanks to his initiatives which include; building a programmatic business from scratch, launching a B2B marketing services group, selling advertisement inventory for Bloomberg’s livestreams of the presidential debates on Twitter, Bloomberg Media’s total revenue has grown 8 percent year-on-year.

Dan Reed is Facebook’s Head of Global Sports Partnerships, where he leads the company’s efforts to connect hundreds of millions of sports fans on Facebook and Instagram with their sports passions. In this role, Reed manages strategic partnerships with sports leagues, teams, athletes, broadcasters and publishers around the world to help these partners connect with fans, and build innovative social experiences that drive their business.

Reed joined Facebook after a 10-year career at the National Basketball Association where, as President of the NBA Development League, he led a turnaround of the NBA’s minor league into a financially valuable property and a thriving talent development system for the NBA. Under Reed’s leadership team franchise values increased twelve-fold, the number of NBA players with NBA D-League experience more than doubled, and the league expanded to an all-time high 18 teams while continually setting records in attendance, revenues from ticket sales and marketing partnerships, and media distribution via broadcast and digital outlets. While at the NBA, Reed also drove record NBA team business results as Senior Director of the NBA’s Team Marketing and Business Operations unit, where he worked closely with NBA team executives to share best practices and guide change in all aspects of team business operations.