The Sport Business Summit

On July 24, 2015, it was announced that Leiweke would become the COO of the NFL. He will be the first NFL COO since commissioner Roger Goodell took over in 2003. As the NFL’s COO, Leiweke will oversee business operations for the league and will work directly with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to increase the popularity of the sport globally. Tod previously served as CEO of Tampa Bay Sports and Entertainment and has led the transformation of the NHL’s $145million Tampa Bay Lightning off the ice, more than doubling the team’s season ticket base and increasing overall attendance by 20%. Prior to taking up this role, Tod spent 7 years as CEO of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and Vulcan Sports & Entertainment, also overseeing all aspects of the Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle Sounders FC. He also served as president of First & Goal Inc., which operates Qwest Field and Qwest Field Event Centre for the state of Washington. He was recognised for his efforts in 2009, being named CEO of the Year by the Puget Sound Business Journal and also by the Seattle Sports Commission.

Sebastian Coe is President of the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF), Executive Chairman of CSM Sport and Entertainment and one of the world’s most high profile sportsmen having been a competitor, sports administrator, event organiser, campaigner, media commentator, and a life-long sports fan. He was Chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, having previously been Chairman of the London 2012 bid company and was Chairman of the British Olympic Committee in the lead up to and during the unprecedented medal success of Team GB at the Rio Olympic Games.
Seb set 12 world records during his athletic career and at the Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980 he won Gold in the 1500m and Silver in the 800m a feat that he repeated in Los Angeles in 1984.
Seb retired from competitive athletics in 1990 and became a conservative MP and Private Secretary to William Hague. In 2002 he was made a Peer. He received a Knighthood in the 2006 New Year’s Honours List and received a Companion of Honour in the 2013 New Year’s Honours List.
In addition to a number of other roles in sport Seb is also Pro-Chancellor of Loughborough University where he studied as an undergraduate, a Non-Executive Director of VitalityHealth & Life Group of Companies and serves as an Ambassador for BMW. He is a Member of the Laureus World Sport Academy and a Consultant for his beloved Chelsea Football Club.

Joe E. Harlan is Vice Chairman and Chief Commercial Officer for The Dow Chemical Company, a global material science company with 2016 annual sales of $48 billion.

As Chief Commercial Officer, Harlan drives Dow’s global Marketing and Sales strategy and organization. He also has executive oversight of the Company’s presence in North America,

Harlan joined Dow in September, 2011, bringing three decades of diverse geographic, business, operational and customer experience to the organization from 3M Corporation where he was Executive Vice President of the Consumer and Office business. In 2012, he added executive oversight of Dow’s Chemicals, Energy and Performance Materials businesses and oversight responsibility for Dow Asia Pacific. He was named to his current role in 2014 and expanded his geographic responsibilities in 2015.

Prior to 3M, Harlan spent 20 years with the General Electric Company (GE), where he held various finance, business development, and operational roles in their Plastics, Appliance and Medical Systems businesses, eventually serving as vice president and CFO of GE Lighting. In 2001, Harlan joined 3M as Vice President, Financial Planning. He then spent two years in Japan with Sumitomo 3M Limited, its Japanese subsidiary, where he served first as executive vice president, and then as president and chairman of the board. He became executive vice president of the 3M Electro and Communications business based in Austin, Texas, in 2004. He was named to his most recent position in 3M in 2009.

Ted Leonsis is the founder and chairman of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns and operates three professional sports teams (Washington Capitals, Washington Wizards and Washington Mystics) and the Verizon Center. He also serves on the board of governors for the NBA and NHL.

Ted is the co-founder of Revolution Growth, a fund investing in disruptive businesses that can change the world. Ted is also an investor, a member of the board of directors and co-CEO of Groupon. He also serves on the board of directors at AddThis, American Express and Georgetown University.

In 2008 Ted founded SnagFilms, which enables online audiences to watch, share and support documentary films. SnagFilms grew out of Ted’s experience as a producer of award-winning documentary films, including Nanking, which won Peabody and Emmy awards.

David Levy is president of Turner, overseeing the company’s leading portfolio of domestic entertainment, sports, kids and young adult brands, including TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Boomerang, truTV, Turner Classic Movies, Bleacher Report and ELEAGUE, the company’s entry into the red hot esports category. He also leads Ad Sales and Distribution, the company’s two primary U.S. domestic revenue divisions, and has oversight of Turner Sports.

Since assuming executive leadership of the company’s domestic portfolio in 2013, the Turner networks have maintained top competitive rankings in key metrics for TNT, TBS, Adult Swim, truTV and Cartoon Network, as well as a leading portfolio of digital brands, including Bleacher Report.

He has led a significant expansion in digital media for Turner including the company’s acquisition of Bleacher Report and acquiring a majority stake in streaming video pioneer iStreamPlanet. In 2016, Turner launched FilmStruck, the company’s first U.S. domestic subscription video-on-demand service.

Mr. Levy has been instrumental in deepening and expanding Turner’s sports media rights.  Turner’s premium sports content includes partnerships with the NBA, the NCAA for the Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, Major League Baseball and the PGA.

He has received many accolades during his career, including induction into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame.

Anthony is COO at Twitter, overseeing the company’s business operations as well as its revenue generating organizations including global advertising sales, global partnerships, business development, live content, data, revenue product, and MoPub.

Anthony also continues to serve as Twitter’s CFO, a position he has held since July 2014, as the company looks for a new CFO. As CFO, he oversees the company’s financial operations, corporate development and strategy. Prior to joining Twitter, Anthony was a partner and the Head of the Technology, Media and Telecom Investment Banking Group at Goldman Sachs & Co. from 2010 to 2014.

From 2008 to 2010, Anthony was Chief Financial Officer of the National Football League. He led the league through the financial crisis and many of the key deals that transformed its media business. From 1999 to 2007, he served in various roles at Goldman Sachs, including Partner in the Equity Research division, the lead Internet analyst, and the lead Media and Entertainment Equity Research analyst.

Anthony holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the United States Military Academy and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Gary Bettman has served the National Hockey League as Commissioner since February 1, 1993 and has guided the world’s top professional hockey league through more than two decades of growth on and off the ice. Record revenues, record attendance, more media platforms and numerous fan-friendly and community-minded initiatives are just a few examples of the ways Commissioner Bettman has brought the NHL to a broader audience.

Commissioner Bettman has fostered unprecedented economic stability for the League’s Member Clubs. League revenues have increased more than tenfold during Commissioner Bettman’s tenure and franchise values have increased exponentially.

On the ice, the NHL’s competitive balance may be unrivalled in professional sports: Combined with the strongest Collective Bargaining Agreement in sports and the implementation of rules designed to accentuate the speed, skill and creativity of the players, a different team has earned the most historic trophy in professional sports – the Stanley Cup – every year since 1998.

A calendar of innovative events, including iconic outdoor games, has driven fan engagement and sponsor participation to unprecedented levels. Charity, community service and diversity also have been at the forefront of Commissioner Bettman’s tenure. Hockey Fights Cancer has raised millions in support of cancer research and awareness. Mr. Bettman also prioritized grass-roots initiatives that bring hockey to youngsters. In addition, the NHL in 2013 signed an historic partnership agreement with the “You Can Play Project” which is dedicated to ensuring equality, respect and safety for all athletes, without regard to sexual orientation.

Tina started her career at advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy and came to Citi in 2005 as the VP of North American Advertising. In 2011, Tina took on an enhanced role when Citi first decided to get involved in the Olympics ahead of the London Games.

After the 2012 Games, Tina built out an entire new group to oversee all of Citi’s sponsorship efforts – the Games, Citi Field, Presidents Cup, the Citi Open, Harlem EatUp and more.  She was promoted to Managing Director, Corporate Sponsorship and Marketing at the bank late last year.

Tina holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from UCLA.

Francesco Calvo is FC Barcelona’s new Chief Revenue Officer, having previously working as Commercial Director and Chief Revenue Officer at Juventus FC. Calvo worked for many years at the prestigious Italian club, where he has gathered in-depth knowledge of the football business, the generation of income and sponsorship deals.

Calvo was put in charge of the Juventus’ commercial plans and strategies, generation of income, financial sustainability, licenses and the implementation and development of new digital platforms. Calvo has also held managerial positions at Philip Morris International and Marlboro Motorsports Global Communication, and his representation of these companies led to his involvement in the business side of such events as the World F1 Championship and Moto GP

Jess runs R/GA’s activation strategy team, which is a home for hybrid thinkers with deep knowledge of content and social, contemporary communications planning, and strategic media partnerships. The activation strategy team is charged with bringing bottom-up cultural insights into the creative process, and delivering the work in the most relevant way possible. Over the last four years, Jess has overseen strategy for a broad spectrum of work for clients including Nike, Verizon, Tiffany and Google.

One of the first journalists to make the leap into brand strategy, Jess joined R/GA from Contagious Magazine, where she oversaw the editorial team and hatched Insider, the company’s strategic consultancy. Following a stint in the Creative Partnerships team at Google, she returned to R/GA to build out this new approach to strategy.

Jess is a founder member of Papel e Caneta, a global collaboration between strategists across the world to solve some of society’s toughest problems; moonlights as designer of her own fashion line, and is a committed karaoke ringleader.

Christian has been CEO at the German Bundesliga since 2005 where he oversees the strategic orientation and overall leadership of the DFL and has led the league to record revenues in every area of the business. He currently also serves as Vice President of the German Football Association and as a member of the board of the League Association. Prior to joining the Bundesliga, Christian spent five years at KarstadtQuelle New Media AG, latterly as Chief Executive Officer, and 2 years as Director of Marketing (Central Europe) for MTV Networks.

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.

Crane Kenney is a Major League Baseball executive with the Chicago Cubs, serving as their President of Business Operations.  He formerly served as president of the Cubs in 2010 and 2011. The Cubs won back-to-back World Series championships in 1907 and 1908, becoming the first major league team to play in three consecutive World Series, and the first to win it twice. Most recently, the Cubs won the 2016 National League Championship Series and 2016 World Series, which ended a 71-year National League drought and a 108-year World Series championship drought, both of which are record droughts in Major League Baseball. The 108-year drought was also the longest such occurrence in all major North American sports. Since the start of divisional play in 1969, the Cubs have appeared in the postseason eight times through the 2016 season.

Andrew Barroway became the Majority Owner, Chairman and Governor of the Arizona Coyotes on December 31, 2014.

Mr. Barroway is the Managing Partner of Merion Investment Management LP, an event driven hedge fund that currently manages more than $1 Billion. Merion was founded in January 2009. Barroway graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1991.

Stephen Pagliuca is a Managing Partner and Executive Committee Member of the Boston Celtics. As a Managing Partner and Chairman of the Basketball Committee, Pagliuca has focused on enhancing the development and improvement of the Celtics basketball operations. Mr. Pagliuca also serves as a member of the NBA Board of Governors and the NBA Competition Committee.

Pagliuca currently is a Managing Director of Bain Capital. He has helped build Bain Capital into a leading global private equity firm with approximately $80 billion capital under management.

Pagliuca received a B.A. from Duke University where he also played freshman basketball, and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.

He is currently the Chairman of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Chairman of the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation, Co Chair of the Inner City Scholarship Fund and serves on the international board of The Right To Play, a worldwide children’s development group that utilizes Olympic athletes to promote children’s health and safety. He is also a Trustee of the Bain Capital Children’s Charity.

Pagliuca is a member of the Board of Directors of Gartner Group, Burger King, HCA (Hospital Corporation of America) and Warner Chilcott. Pagliuca has been active in youth basketball from kindergarten to the AAU level. He and his wife, Judy, with their four children are longtime Massachusetts residents.

Elyssa Byck joined BuzzFeed in 2014, and serves as the Director of Global Business Strategy. She develops and implements growth opportunities to drive revenue; shaping the company’s business strategy. She also manages strategic initiatives and most recently was tapped to oversee the NBCUniversal business partnership. Before joining BuzzFeed, Byck worked at OMD and focused on digital and social initiatives for clients such as Warner Bros. and Frito Lay.  She studied the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and lives in New York City.

Chloe is a strategic creative leader skilled in creating connected experiences for global clients and their customers. As R/GA’s Executive Creative Director, US, she works alongside Taras Wayner to guide hundreds of multidisciplinary teams toward the creation of breakthrough products, services, and communications for global brands such as Nike and Samsung.

In her previous role at R/GA, Chloe built the largest Experience Design team at any global agency. Happiest when collaborating at the intersection of storytelling, design, and technology, she has been applying her unique skills as a mentor in the R/GA Accelerator program, where she helps emerging startups in the Internet of Things space develop their branding, customer experience, and communications.

Chloe was named one of the “Most Creative People in Advertising” by Business Insider in 2014 and 2015. Her work for Nike, Nokia, Verizon, Alvio, and the Ad Council has garnered the industry’s most esteemed awards at top competitions including the Cannes Lions, One Show Interactive, the CLIOs, the ADC Annual Awards, and the ANDYs. Chloe has been named a New York Times Digital Scholar and published an article on data-driven motivation in Business Week.

Prior to R/GA, Chloe expanded her expertise at Razorfish, where she engaged in deep ethnographic and insight-related engagements, working on diverse brands from Condé Nast (embracing social networks on Flip.com) to Mercedes-AMG (creating an immersive, user-driven experience on Mercedes-AMG.com).

Joe Puglisi used to head up Creative strategy for BuzzFeed and has an obsession with how content spreads. Currently figuring out how to make that happen for native advertising in the BuzzFeed Creative department, educating and assisting always-on partners.

Working with a variety of brands and their agencies to better their social voice and run programs on BuzzFeed, including, GEICO, General Electric, SC Johnson, Pepsi, MillerCoors, AirBnB, Durex, Showtime, HBO, Netflix, AMC, Quiznos, and more.

At heart a storyteller, writer, editor, creative content specialist in the media business space having previously worked as a music critic/journalist for a video production website as their main editorial outlet, with a focus on music. Joe has recently moved to Players Tribune where he is now Director Of Branded Content.

Mark manages all national and local media investments on behalf of the AT&T business units which includes national TV,  3-screen content, paid search and social networks.  He extends the company’s brand reputation among key stakeholders and strengthens AT&T’s competitive advantages.

Mark oversees sponsorship strategy and negotiation efforts across sports entertainment.  He leads numerous key sponsorship initiatives including the naming rights of the AT&T Stadium, the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, College Football Playoff and Championship, The Masters Tournament and the Tribeca Film Festival.

Prior to joining AT&T, Mark served as Vice President, Media, Sports and Entertainment Marketing for Anheuser-Busch, Inc., where he directed media planning for the company’s beer brands and managed sports, entertainment and local marketing efforts.

Sports Business Journal has named Mark both the “29th Most Influential Executive in Sports” and the “16th Most Influential Person in the NFL.” He was also one of Advertising Age’s Media Mavens.

David Scott is President and Chief Executive Officer of Comcast Spectacor, and serves as Governor of the Philadelphia Flyers for the National Hockey League. As CEO, Scott is responsible for the growth and optimization of Comcast Spectacor’s three core businesses: the National Hockey League’s Philadelphia Flyers; the Wells Fargo Center Complex; and Spectra, a hospitality firm specializing in Venue Management, Food Services & Hospitality, and Ticketing & Fan Engagement.

Since his arrival, Scott has propelled Comcast Spectacor’s business operations and winning culture behind a unified go-to-market approach and a renewed commitment to operational excellence and client satisfaction. His primary focus is shaping and developing Comcast Spectacor’s strategic vision for sustainable, long-term growth.

In 2015, Scott spearheaded a complete re-branding of Comcast Spectacor’s wide-ranging client solutions into Spectra, a singular and cohesive business unit that offers an unmatched blend of integrated services. Spectra’s innovative and tight coordination of hospitality offerings present incremental revenue opportunities for clients and enhanced experiences for fans visiting more than 400 venues, primarily in North America.

Scott joined Comcast Spectacor as President and COO in December 2013 following a 20-year tenure at Comcast Cable. Scott served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Comcast Cable from 2005-2013. During his time as CFO, Comcast acquired approximately five million new customers and launched Digital Voice and Home Security under the Xfinity brand, as well as Comcast Business Class Services.