The Sport Business Summit

Scott O’Neil is the Chief Executive Officer of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, an organization with the mission of becoming the most impactful sports and entertainment company in the world through the pursuit of innovation and performance, the industry’s most passionate and driven executives and engagement in the communities where its properties live, work, play and win. O’Neil is responsible for the organization’s leadership, strategic vision, operations and growth, including the pursuit and acquisition of sports, entertainment and consumer-facing properties.

He is the acting Chief Executive Officer over all properties within the organization’s portfolio and under the ownership of Managing Partners Josh Harris and David Blitzer, including: the Philadelphia 76ers (NBA), the New Jersey Devils (NHL), Prudential Center, a top five-ranked performance venue in the U.S. located in Newark, New Jersey; Team Dignitas, an internationally renowned esports team, the Sixers Innovation Lab Crafted by Kimball, the GRAMMY Museum Experience Prudential Center, the Delaware 87ers (NBA G League), and the Binghamton Devils (AHL).

Micky Lawler was appointed President of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) in the fall of 2014 and is now responsible for driving the WTA’s international growth strategy, business development, marketing, new fan engagement programs, and member & industry relations. During her nearly three decades in sport entertainment, Lawler has played an important role in expanding the geographic footprint of women’s tennis, including the development of important initiatives in China.

She has driven growth in several aspects of the tennis business including athletes, events, sponsorship sales and consultancy. In addition, she has provided strong strategic leadership during her 11 years as a WTA Board member, a role to which she dedicated an enormous amount of time in recent years.

Ivan was a member of the founding management team that set up Major League Soccer in 1996. In 2001 he was appointed its Deputy Commissioner and, during his time, oversaw the key strategic and business decisions of MLS and its marketing arm, Soccer United Marketing.

He was appointed CEO of Arsenal in 2009, one of the world’s most prestigious football clubs with a massive global fan following. The team has an unparalleled record of on-field consistency, qualifying for the Champions’ League 17 years in a row, and is renowned for its values-driven, self-funding approach.  In recent years Arsenal has signed two of the most lucrative shirt sponsorship contracts in the EPL with Emirates and Puma, reportedly worth approximately $100 million/year in aggregate, and has built an extensive partnerships portfolio including Gatorade, Huawei and Citroen.

A former English footballer, Roy was Manager of the England national football team from May 2012  to June 2016. He started his managerial career in Halmstads BK in 1976, proving himself as a successful coach by winning the league championship in 1976 and 1979. He has led a number of European clubs including: Malmo FF, Inter Milan, Blackburn Rovers, Grasshoppers, FC Copenhagen, Fulham and Liverpool. He led the Malmo to two Swedish championship wins (1986 and 1988) and also to win the Svenska Cupen in 1986 and 1989. It was under the guidance of Roy that the Switzerland national football team reached the round of 16 at the 1994 World Cup, whereas prior to that Switzerland had failed to reach the World Cup finals for eight years. He also led the team to qualify for Euro 1996. Roy led England to Euro 2012 and also sealed their position in the 2014 World Cup, by leading them to six wins and four draws, finishing top of their group.

With over 20 years experience in the media industry, Kylie Rogers is the General Manager Commercial, of the Australian Football League. Before the AFL, Kylie was Managing Director of Mamamia Women’s Network, Australia’s largest women’s first, digital first organisation. Prior to starting at Mamamia, Kylie was with Network Ten for 17 years where she held numerous sales roles, including National Sales Director.

Jacques-Henri Eyraud has 25 years of experience in the Media & Entertainment industry and is Olympique de Marseille CEO.

He started his career with The Walt Disney Company as part of the opening team of Disneyland Paris where he rapidly became the youngest member of the Company’s executive committee as VP, Corporate Communications and Company’s spokesman.

After getting his MBA at Harvard Business School, he became an entrepreneur and founded Sports’ media venture Sporever in 2000. His Company became a leader in digital media. It was the first European start-up to broadcast sporting events including soccer games live on 3G mobile networks. He also became a pioneer in the acquisition and sale of new digital sports’ rights. He took the Company public in 2005 on the Paris Stock Exchange.

A graduate from Sciences Po Paris, he also holds a Master’s degree from the University of Paris Dauphine in New Media Management. A former French national TAEKWONDO team member, Jacques-Henri is a marathon runner and an avid sportsman.

Leon XIE is General Manager of Olympic Business of Alibaba Group Marketing. He was Managing Director of Major League Baseball (China) from February 2009 to April 2017.

Leon is holding a bachelor degree in Economics from Capital University of Economics and Business in China, and an MBA degree from Texas A&M International University in United States.

Leon acted as Director of Olympics Sponsorship of Olympic Business Department of Lenovo Group from 2002 – 2008, i.e., the Beijing Olympics Period. He was responsible for negotiation, marketing development and Olympic family solidarity. He also led the supporting of Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games and Beijing 2008 Olympic Games with PC products and technologies provided by Lenovo.

Alex Kaplan is President and General Manager of the Discovery Golf Group which includes the PGA TOUR alliance, established following the unprecedented long-term agreement to create a new ‘Home of Golf’ platform.  He leads the division with full P&L responsibility including exploitation of the global multi-platform live rights, outside the United States, to all PGA TOUR media properties and creating a new OTT streaming service to engage international golf fans across every mobile screen in up to 220 markets and territories. Kaplan is responsible for leading the acquisition of new content across the golf ecosystem, building a word-class production and content creation engine, and developing a global advertising and sponsorship platform.

• Aarti Dabas is the Head of Media Rights, Broadcast & Digital at the International Cricket Council and is part of its Leadership team. She led the creation of ICC’s first fan engagement strategy, focused on understanding, growing and monetising the global cricket fanbase.
• Recently her role has expanded to include identification and development of brand partnerships focused on using technology and digital for storytelling and connecting with fans.
• She is also part of the project team that is working on developing a global strategy for cricket.
  Aarti is passionate about women’s empowerment and the role sport plays in growing diversity and inclusiveness.

Victor Cui is the Chief Executive Officer, International, ONE Championship, a mixed martial arts organization based in Singapore which is widely regarded as being the biggest in Asia with a 90% market share and has some of the best MMA fighters in the world on the roster. Prior to launching ONE Championship, Cui spent six years with the Event Management Group for Asia’s number one sports broadcaster, ESPN Star Sports (ESS). There, he successfully headed event business development across Asia, and project-led some of the biggest sporting properties and television event partnerships in the region.

Cui was one of only five candidates to be nominated for ‘Leading Man of the Year’ the 2012 World MMA Awards and the only representative of an Asian promotion on this shortlist. He was also recognized by USA Today as one of the Top 25 Most Powerful People in MMA.