The Sport Business Summit

Victor Montagliani was elected President of The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) and FIFA Vice President in May 2016 after being a member for the Executive Committee for 3 years. Up until his election as President, Victor was President of the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) for 4 years. He has also been a member of various FIFA committees, including the Reform Committee and the Legal Committee, where he worked on analysing legal issues relating to football, and on the evolution of the Statutes and Regulations of FIFA, the Confederations, and Members. He has chaired the National Organising Committee for the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Canada 2014 and FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015. Victor also played a key role in Canada’s bid for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Speaker at

THE ULTIMATE FAN EXPERIENCE Mercedes-Benz Stadium: The Future Stadium is Here

Stephen Cannon took over as CEO of AMB group in February 2016, where he handles day-to-day leadership of the company’s for-profit businesses. This includes leading all business operations of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta United FC of the MLS, and the Atlanta Falcons Stadium Company, developer of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium which opened in 2017. Before joining AMB, Stephen served as President and CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) from 2012, where he was responsible for leading operations that generated record sales with annual revenues exceeding $20 billion. During his tenure, MBUSA achieved it’s first-ever number one ranking on the American Customer Satisfaction Index and has also been lauded as one of the best places to work by Fortune Magazine five years in a row.

Baroness Brady of Knightsbridge CBE is one of the most influential, high profile and respected female business leaders in the UK. She has been voted Business Woman of the Year, Ultimate Entrepreneur and rated among the 50 most inspirational people in the world. Karren is CEO of West Ham United Football Club and Senior Non-Executive Director of Syco Entertainment, a company jointly owned by Simon Cowell and Sony and leading retail multinational Taveta Investments, owner of global brands including Topshop. Karren entered the House of Lords in 2014 and received a CBE from the Queen for her services to business, entrepreneurship and women in business.

Since 2014 Jean-Briac Perrette, also known as JB, has been President of Discovery Networks International at Discovery Communications, Inc. prior to this role he was Chief Digital Officer since 2011. From 2000 to 2011 JB served in a number of roles at NBC Universal leaving as President of Digital and Affiliate Distribution and Content Distribution Strategy. In his time in NBC he helped to launch the pioneer online video service Hulu and oversaw the launch of digital channels Sleuth, Chiller and Universal HD. Having taken a controlling stake in Eurosport last year, Discovery picked up exclusive TV/multimedia rights for 50 countries across Europe for 2018 to 2024 making them the new home for the Olympics in Europe.

Peter Moore leads EA’s newly formed Competitive Gaming Division enabling outstanding competition through games, players, and experiences for the EA player community. One of Peter’s long time focuses has been competitive gaming programs where he has brought new global competitions for EA franchises including FIFA, Madden NFL and Battlefield. Peter previously served as Chief Operating Officer of EA, providing strategic leadership for all global operations that enable EA to bring products to market via retail and digital direct-to-consumer channels. He also previously held the position of President of EA SPORTS, overseeing the delivery of some of the top-selling sports video games from franchises including FIFA, Madden NFL, NCAA Football and NHL.

Bernadette Andrietti is Vice President of the Sales and Marketing Group and director of Marketing for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at Intel Corporation. Her role includes the leadership of marketing programs, product positioning and launch management, insights and marketing research, advertising, media, sales channels and promotional campaigns as well as technical marketing, all designed to reach consumer, business and ecosystem customers to drive demand, preference and purchase intent for Intel products and solutions.

Prior to being appointed director of Marketing, Andrietti headed Intel’s European sales territory, responsible for growing demand, revenues and Intel brand preference amongst the 500 million population across Western/Central Eastern Europe.

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).

Maverick Carter is the CEO of SpringHill Entertainment and its premiere multimedia network UNINTERRUPTED.

In 2008, Carter and LeBron James launched SpringHill Entertainment, an entertainment and content company that develops creative content across several platforms including digital, documentary and feature films, and television. SpringHill has since produced projects including a documentary series for ESPN Films and Disney XD, a primetime network game show for NBC, and an unscripted series for CNBC. Currently, Carter is executive producing Starz’s critically-acclaimed scripted comedy series, Survivor’s Remorse, along with James, Mike O’Malley, Tom Werner, and Paul Wachter, which is now in its third season.

One of SpringHill Entertainment’s fastest growing ventures is UNINTERRUPTED, the multimedia content network created by Carter and James in 2015. It provides unique personalities in sports and entertainment the platform to develop and amplify their stories including premium point-of-view videos, digital originals, documentaries, and community-created content. Since its launch, UNINTERRUPTED has forged partnerships with a growing list of industry-leading companies including Warner Bros. Entertainment, Facebook, and Verizon to create and distribute content globally across multiple platforms, with a particular focus on mobile, web, and social distribution streams.

Rory Sutherland is the Executive Creative Director at OgilvyOne, and has held this post since 2002. Upon graduation from Cambridge in 1988, Rory joined Ogilvy & Mather Direct as a planner before becoming a copywriter. He was made Head of Copy at OgilvyOne in 1995 and was then promoted to Creative Director in 1997. Rory also writes a weekly column called “The Wiki Man,” which covers his thoughts on technology and the internet. He authored a book of the same name in 2011, which is a collection of his blog posts, tweets, interviews and reference materials.

Rory will take to the stage to explore the current creative landscape, bridging the worlds of sport, consumer behaviour, and other topics in this marketing and creativity session.

Lars-Christer Olsson is currently President of the Swedish Professional Football League, a founding Member of the EPF. Lars-Christer has devoted most of his professional life to football. He served at district level, as head of Skånes Fotbollförbund, the largest district in Sweden. Then, he worked as General Secretary of the SEF before taking a step up to the same position at the Swedish Football Association (SvFF). He was hired as managing director at UEFA, a position that he held until coming back to his native Sweden to become the Swedish Football League, Föreningen Svensk Elitfotboll (SEF) Chairman.

Rory Brown has been President of Bleacher Report since January 2016 and was previously Chief Content Officer. Rory became just the 12th full-time employee of Bleacher Report in 2008, when he started as the Assignment Desk Editor. Since then, he’s been responsible for audience growth and has grown the audience from 2 million monthly unique visitors to well over 60 million monthly uniques. He is also heavily involved with analytics, content operations, editorial budgeting and social strategy.

Rory will do a 1-on-1 interview in the digital stream to share ideas on new media distribution strategies, and tell the story of how Bleacher Report leverages different platforms to grow audience, brand and revenue.

Aurelio De Laurentiis has a background in the film industry and has produced and distributed more than 400 films worldwide. He has served as President of the International Federation of Film Producers Associations, President of the Italian Film Producers Association and is a shareholder of Italian Entertainment Group, and also Filmmaster Group, a company which will organise the opening and the closing ceremonies of 2016 Rio Olympic Games. During his time in the film industry, Aurelio began a new career as a sports entrepreneur. He won the auction to buy the historic Italian club Napoli directly from a bankruptcy sale and set the goal of getting the team back to success. At the time of the purchase, Napoli was playing in the Third Division (Serie C1). In just three years, they were back in Serie A and by 2011 reached the UEFA Champions League. During his ownership, Napoli has won the Coppa Italia (2012 and 2014) and is established among the world’s top 30 soccer clubs.

Len Komoroski is Chief Executive Officer of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Quicken Loads Arena organisation. Len joined the Cavaliers organisation in 2003 as President. In his first year he restructured and transformed how the Cavaliers approached the business community; assembled a team of top sports marketing pros; transformed the organisation’s communications efforts; and oversaw the development of one of the most dynamic game experiences in the NBA. More recently, Len played a significant leadership role in securing Cleveland as the host city for the 2016 Republican National Convention. With more than 30 years of experience in pro sports and entertainment, Len’s leadership has helped set a solid business foundation from which the Cleveland Cavaliers, Lake Erie Monsters, Cleveland Gladiators, Canton Charge and Quicken Loans Arena have flourished into one of the most successfully operated sports and entertainment organisations in the country.

A former Ivy League Player of the Year in the NCAA and U.S. professional football player, Darren Eales was named President at the MLS expansion franchise, Atlanta United FC, in 2014. He has been tasked with overseeing the club as they prepare to begin play in March 2017. Prior to joining Atlanta United FC, Darren spent time at Tottenham Hotspur FC in the Premier League, most recently as Executive Director. In this role, he touched on all major aspects of football operations including player acquisitions. Darren helped to negotiate and execute all player transfers, including playing a key role in the 2013 world record transfer fee sale of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid.  During Eales’ four-year tenure with Tottenham, the team qualified for European competition every season, reached the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League in 2011, and reached the quarterfinals of the UEFA Europa League in 2013.

Darren will join Stephen Cannon on stage to discuss building a brand new franchise from scratch.

Thierry Borra leads Coke’s global partnership with the Olympic Movement, including the Company’s association with the Olympic Games, Youth Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games. He manages the overall relationship with the International Olympic Committee and the other stakeholders of the Olympic Movement. As part of his global responsibilities, he also led the Coca-Cola’s involvement with the international leg of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch relay. Prior to this role, Thierry was the Company’s lead for the Torino 2006 Olympic Torch Relay. Thierry has a wealth of experience with global sporting events, including the 1992 Albertville Olympic Winter Games, the Tour de France, the FIFA World Cup France 1998, the 2003 World Championships in Athletics, and the 2004 Athens Olympic Torch Relay.

Liverpool FC is widely considered one of the most historic and internationally popular soccer brands in the world. Since first joining his home city club as the Commercial Director in 2007 Ian’s been responsible for a number of successes, including securing what is thought to be one of the most lucrative shirt sponsorship deals in soccer – the club’s deal with Standard Chartered Bank.

Ian was promoted to Managing Director at Liverpool in 2011 and CEO earlier this year. Ian spent the earlier part of his career in a number of roles including Chief Operating Officer at Total Sports Asia and Chief Executive and Chairman at Huddersfield Town FC, before making the move back to his home town.

Tobias Sherman heads WME-IMG’s newly opened eSports division, focusing on player representation, sponsorships, marketing, production and creating new strategies for clients in eSports. In his role, he leads a team in making new strides in eSports through social media, television and new media outlets. He also creates and cultivates new business models for the way media is now consumed. Tobias has continued to drive the industry forward with ground-breaking initiatives such as ELEAGUE in partnership with Turner broadcasting and eSports training integration at IMG academy. Tobias also co-founded his own eSports talent agency, Global eSports Management (GEM), with a focus on building strong relationships with players, team owners and sponsors. GEM was then acquired by WME-IMG in 2015.

Sam Matthews co-founded Fnatic back in 2004 and is the visionary entrepreneur behind the company’s new world of electronic sports. Since it started, their charismatic pro-gamers have won thousands over tournaments, over $10 million in prizes, across more than 20 games which is the most out of any esports brand; thus making them now one of the highest profile and top earning esports teams in the world. Through these achievements Fnatic have grown to over 8 million fans on social media, with tens of millions more watching their pro-gamers compete globally each month. Sam is also the Chairman and Founder of NEVERBLAND since 2009. In 2007 he was Founder and Director of UGAME; a social network designed exclusively for gamers.

Adolfo Bara is the Managing Director of Sales and Marketing for La Liga, one of Europe’s most popular football leagues and home of world football’s two most valuable brands – Barcelona and Real Madrid. He serves at a time when the Spanish League is looking to expand its global appeal into key overseas markets, including North America and Asia. He has extensive experience in football and was previously the Director of Marketing and Sales at RCD Espanyol and the Director of Marketing and Communication at Real Sociedad. His work in Spanish football followed six years in Bavaria where he worked as the Director of International Football at sports goods giant Adidas.

Matt O’Neil oversees all aspects of the Cowboys brand including all branding, marketing, and advertising; media and content creation, and all event presentation at Cowboys games. Most recently, Matt was the VP of Marketing at the New York Red Bulls, of Major League Soccer. In addition to running all the marketing, video production, and game entertainment, Matt was a liaison for Red Bull, charged with infusing the Red Bull brand into the entire soccer fan experience, on the pitch and off. Prior to this, Matt spent time in Hollywood where he enjoyed a career producing sports video content and screenwriting, selling full-length feature films and TV shows in several genres, to the likes of MGM, Warner Brothers, and 20th Century Fox.

Matt will bring his vast brand knowledge to the Leaders stage to talk about invigorating brands and organisations in a session with his brother Scott.

Gio Hunt oversees Blizzard’s Marketing, Community Relations, PR, Live Events, Human Resources, Business Development and Legal operations globally. He joined Blizzard in 2013 as chief of staff, and he has been instrumental in helping the company’s senior leadership team improve the operations of its global business. He played a key role in developing the company’s franchise planning process and has also led several key partnership initiatives. Prior to his time at Blizzard Entertainment, from 2011 to 2013 Gio was the CEO and Founder of Villagize; a venture-backed social network start-up, enabling users to discover nearby, like-minded people. From 2009 to 2011 he also served as CEO at Koofers; a consumer internet platform empowering college students to help each other learn.

Hayle Chun directs Samsung’s worldwide Olympic sponsorship, including marketing and technology rights; Samsung is one of the leading Olympic sponsors, spending a huge amount of money on their campaigns globally. Hayle specialising in sports & Olympics marketing & business development, with 15+ years of experience in emerging digital technology, partnership strategy, and rights negotiation. Hayle has previously worked with Time Inc as Director of Business Development; prior to this he has worked as Vice President of CBS Interactive and Director of Digital Media, NBC Sports & Olympics at NBC Universal.

Mr. Michael Bolingbroke, serves as the Chief Executive Officer at F. C. Internazionale Milano S.p.A. Mr. Bolingbroke served as the Chief Operating Officer of Manchester United from 2007 to April 2014 and its Principal Financial Officer until April 2014. He also served as the Senior Vice President of Shows at Cirque du Soleil from March 2001 to April 2007, managing the strategy, profitability and operations of its global business comprising fixed and touring shows. Prior to joining Cirque du Soleil, he served as the Senior Vice President of Operations at the Jim Henson Company from July 1992 to March 2001. He has been a Senior Independent Non-Executive Director at Goals Soccer Centres plc since June 13, 2016.

Miles Lewis is Senior Vice President, Shazam for Brands International at Shazam. He joined  Shazam in 2012 from CBSi Music-owned Last.fm, where he was Senior Vice President for four years and responsible for the launch of its commercial function in 2007. Miles has more than 20 years’ experience of the industry and previously worked as Head of Agency Sales at Yahoo UK & Ireland for a year, and head of agency sales at AOL UK for five years.

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.

Thibault Kuhlmann is the current Managing Director at Universal Music and Brands; a global network of over 250 music and marketing experts. Thibault is working with brands in order to market to music fans. Prior to this role, Thibault served three years as Managing Director of Uthink departments at Universal Music France. In this role, he was a representative of national and international artists for different types of collaborations such as; product placement, private event booking, touring merchandising, licensing, endorsement and brand content. Prior to this role, Thibault was a Project Manager at Motown France/ Universal Music France from 2002 to 2008.

Marty Strenczewilk’s start-up, the “Follow eSports” website, won the 2015 Rochester Venture Challenge after only launching a week prior to the competition. The website, which billed itself as the “TV Guide of eSports,” then added a hugely successful editorial hub, which attracts up to 100,000 followers, and features some of the most prestigious writers in eSports. To extend his reach in the eSports sector, Marty acquired Team Dignitas’ League of Legends Championship Series squad in October 2015. The team and the website have since been rebranded under Splyce eSports, an umbrella for Marty’s rapidly growing eSports and technology company. In 2015, Marty became CEO of Splyce Inc. where his role involves leading day to day operations of a growing eSports and technology company and general management of the pro team division of professional eSports athletes competing at the highest level across the world.

Marty will be joined by fellow eSports team members to talk about the growing eSports market, the need to deliver results financially and in competitions, and what attracted them to the eSports market.

Brandon Gayle joined Instagram from parent company Facebook in November 2015. As Global Head of Sports Partnerships, he has an important role at the photo- and video-sharing social network. As sports is huge on Instagram – of the 500 million people that use Instagram every month, 165 million are sports fans making it one of the most popular platforms in the industry – Brandon’s job is to get more people from the world of sports; athletes, teams, leagues and media companies to use the platform. He has a growing team that can serve the different constituencies within the world of sports. Prior to this role he served as Global Lead and Strategic Partnership Development for Athletes and Sports at Facebook from 2013.

As Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Pam El is responsible for the NBA’s global marketing operation, directing brand development, overall marketing, and advertising for the NBA, WNBA, and NBA Development League. Prior to the NBA, Pam served as Senior Vice President, Brand Marketing, for Nationwide Insurance where she was responsible for driving financial services marketing strategies and break through executions. She has over 30 years of related marketing and communications experience including 15 years with world-class advertising agencies. She was named by Advertising Age as one of the Top Most Influential Marketers in 2012 and Top 50 Marketing Executives in 2010.

Keith Wyness previously worked as CEO of Everton FC where he spent five years transforming Everton’s fortunes alongside manager David Moyes. Wyness worked wonders at the club and played a major role in the development of the club’s excellent training facility, Finch Farm, before leaving in 2009. Prior to that he worked as the CEO for home city club Aberdeen, where he helped significantly reduce losses at the club. Wyness formally CEO of Insite Consulting Ltd and has worked with several international groups in football, cricket and media. Previous projects include valuing and selling football clubs as well as dealing with stadium and training ground developments. Wyness was also the founder and later the managing director of The Olympic Club, a worldwide marketing programme set up to promote the 2000 Summer Olympic Games.

Team Dignitas is an International eSports team founded in September 2003 and is one of the oldest and most popular teams in League of Legends. They also compete across a range of different games.

Michael has been the Managing Director for Team Dignitas since 2008 and he’s responsible for all aspects of running the company, along with the management of staff and players. 

Jason Yeh joined Riot Games in 2009 as a founding member of the publishing team responsible for launching League of Legends. In 2011, he became Head of International Publishing, and shifted his attention to helping to launch League of Legends in markets outside of the US, with a focus on China, Brazil and Turkey. In 2013, he moved to Germany to establish Riot’s European Esports operations. He currently serves as the Head of EU Esports based out of Berlin, where his team manages the European LCS league as well as produces the live broadcast for the league’s matches, while overseeing the regional Esports strategy for Europe.

Prior to joining Riot, Jason worked as a Venture Capital investor at the NY-based VC firm FirstMark Capital. He led diligence on and supported FirstMark’s investments in online gaming startups Riot Games and Lumosity.

Since May 2016 is Tim Reichert the Head of Esport at FC Schalke 04. He is an Esport pioneer and founded with his brothers Ralf and Benjamin the famous Clan SK-Gaming in 1997. He was also a professional football player at Rot-Weiss Oberhausen for a few years. Therefore, he has the knowledge about the structures and characteristics of a football organization. Consequently, it was a suitable offer for him to take the position at Schalke 04 Esport.

Kelly Malone is the current Vice President, Product Management and Business Development at Taqtile. He began his role in 2015 after working with Microsoft as the Director, Business Development. Prior to this Kelly served as West Region Sales Vice President for Accenture in 2011 and also co-founded Qoiza in the same year; a mobile application that allows users to share their favourite products and brands with their social network. Before this Kelly has had an extensive career at Microsoft Corp.

Spencer Owen’s background is in social media and film-making, having previously held positions such as Community Manger at social games company We R Interactive and Conversation Manager for a Premier League / International Footballer. He is a YouTube native who has first-hand experience since 2007 and hosts his own content on his YouTube channel Spencer FC, which has 1.7m subscribers and over 250 million views. Spencer is also the creator and founder of the hugely popular Wembley Cup series which this year saw creators and ex professional footballers play a game at Wembley stadium in front of 22,000 people and live streamed with a peak audience of nearly 300,000.

Robert Occhialini started in Turner Sports in 2008 as Senior Director of Technology and Product Development where he was responsible for building and running the digital new products for NBA Digital. In this role he worked on products such as the NBA League Pass and the NBA apps. He then moved on to Vice President of Sports Data and New Product Technology before taking the position of Vice President, Digital Products of NBA Digital in 2012. Robert has now turned his attention to the emerging eSports market and is Vice President of Content and Product Technologies at Turner Sports.

Most people can kick a football, some can do a kick-up or two, but Arnaud “Séan” Garnier possesses the skills to make a football dance. The freestyle football star hails from Sens in France, and began his football career like most – on the pitch. Unfortunately, a string of injuries eventually forced Séan to abandon his dream of a career as a professional footballer. But all was not lost – he began to study as a football instructor in Paris, and in 2006 discovered a new passion that combined breakdancing and football: the urban art of freestyle football.

Séan quickly found his groove, developing his own style and unique set of skills. Within two years, he went from demoing on the streets of Paris to the world stage, and in 2008 was crowned World Champion at the inaugural Red Bull Street Style World Finals in São Paulo, Brazil, the spiritual home of freestyle.

Guy-Laurent Epstein joined UEFA in October 2002 and became Head of Marketing Activities in December 2004. In 2005, he then created the Media Rights unit which is responsible of the overall sales of the UEFA competitions TV rights, which he managed till March 2010, when UEFA decided to set up a new company UEFA Events SA to handle all UEFA’s commercial and event operations, in order to deliver a better and streamlined service.

Consequently, Guy-Laurent was appointed Director of Marketing of UEFA Events SA and as such, he is responsible for the ongoing development of the marketing and commercial activities across all competitions of UEFA.

Marshall Osborne is the creative force behind many of Uber’s large music and entertainment partnerships. An early member of the company’s Business Development team, Marshall has worked to build Uber’s platform into a powerful experiential marketing engine. The first sports partnership Marshall Osborne ushered in with Uber was with the NFL Players Association in 2013. As part of this alliance, every active NFL player received a personalized keychain card containing credits that can be used to summon a high-end ride in any of Uber’s locations.

With more than 20 years progressive experience in sales, marketing and advertising across a wide array of industry leading brands, including AT&T, Anheuser-Busch, Nike, General Motors and Enterprise Rent-a-Car. Jim leads is responsible for all North American B2C and B2B marketing and advertising activities for Rent-A-Car, Car Share, Car Sales, Commercial Truck and Fleet Management divisions.

Lisa sets music & culture strategy across Monster Energy’s strategic brands, with over 15 years’ experience working at the forefront of the entertainment field. Using global content and media to solve business challenges through strategic entertainment solutions, partnerships, events and communications.

Having represented artist such as Mark Morrison, Will I Am, DJ Jazzy Jeff and Roy Ayers just to name a few it wasn’t long until she was head hunted to work with brands such as Puma and later Monster Energy responsible for Running the Global strategy for the brands working artist such as Rihanna, Idris Elba and Tyson Beckford.

Mel has acted as an agent for a host of well-known footballers, including Paul Gascoigne, Chris Waddle and Alan Shearer. He was a co-founder of the Association of Football Agents back in 2005. The AFA is a united representative body for Football Agents in England. He is also the author of 18 books including, How to Be a Sports Agent. Due to the FIFA agent regulations changing back in April 2015 where the licensing system was replaced by working intermediaries. Mel is against the decision to change these rules and has previously appealed against the new rules.

As the Director of eSports Sales, Nathan is tasked with educating, evangelising and positively affecting Twitch’s role in the eSports landscape. Nathan joins Twitch from Curse Inc, where he was the Vice President, Global Sales. During his time there, Nathan oversaw and directed the sales strategy for Curse’s web properties, YouTube MCN and esports teams, growing the business 10x during his tenure.

Roisin offers strategic direction and leadership to Kick It Out. She works closely with the Board of Trustees and is responsible for the programme delivery, campaigning activities and personnel management of the organisation. A key aspect of her role is to develop and manage stakeholder relations across the government, charity, football, corporate and community sectors. Roisin previously held roles at the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland helping ex-prisoners rebuild their lives and relationships after release from jail, later moving to London where she began working for the Metropolitan Police as the community engagement manager.

After a couple of years Roisin took her first steps into the world of football as head of equalities with the Football Foundation, a charity funded by the game’s officialdom to develop the sport and to improve the quality and experience of players at a grassroots level. One of the organisations funded by the foundation was Kick It Out and Roisin later took a temporary role before moving to the charity full time as Director after her temporary position had ended.