Andrew Collins
CEO
Mailman

Andrew Collins
CEO

SportsPro has developed a comprehensive Advisory Board balancing international rights holders, broadcasters, and technology leaders to shape the format and strategic direction of the event. The support and participation of these industry innovators ensure that we create the content, environment, and ultimate value for each and every attendee.
Andreas Heyden was appointed CEO of new German streaming service, S Nation Media in August 2022. He has previously worked at Deutsche Fussball League as chief executive of DFL Digital Sports, the digital content and distribution subsidiary of the league. Heyden has worked across various aspects of the media industry, including video on demand (VoD), over-the-top content (OTT), and in augmented reality, AI, and 5G applications. S Media Nation is due to launch in the third quarter of 2023 and aims to be the new German home of sports other than football.
Yael Fainaro is EVP, Security. In her role Yael is responsible for Synamedia’s Security Group. Yael has over 18 years’ experience in the security technology industry in the areas of strategy, M&A, innovation, business development & post-merger integration. Prior to joining Synamedia, Yael served as VP Corporate Development of CyberArk Software (NASDAQ: CYBR) where she was responsible for leading the company’s strategy and for generating new growth activities through organic and in-organic initiatives. Prior to that, Yael held the position of Director, Corporate Development and Integration at Cisco, which she joined through the NDS acquisition in 2012.
Jeff Nathenson is the international Managing Director at Whistle Sports, a global sports entertainment network that creates and delivers compelling sports content across multiple platforms. Jeff focuses on building the international operations of Whistle Sports, expanding the company’s reach and relationships with content creators on different digital and social platforms and works closely with brands looking to increase their engagement through sport and social media. Previously Jeff was head of football at YouTube where he developed the global football strategy, helping to transition the platform from user-generated uploads to official content offerings. He worked with big global sports brands such as UEFA, FIFA La Liga, Bundesliga and Lega Calcio. While Jeff was at YouTube he also negotiated ground breaking global sponsorship deals with the likes of Adidas and Gillette. Jeff was also previously the Strategic Partnerships Manager at YouTube where he negotiated and executed commercial deals with brands like BBC Worldwide, Fremantle, Time Warner and Al Jazeera.
After studying Communications and Marketing, Antony worked in Advertising Agencies for many years as a Strategic Planner and later running his own agency. He noticed opportunities in the marketplace around a lack in tech-focussed content distribution platforms for immersive experiences and sought out to create one. Many years later, and with the help of some very talented people, Antony has led the creation of Aura and has begun commercialising it during COVID with success.
Elizabeth is a Canadian expat, and passionate sports fan, who relocated to the UK in 2017 to join Twitter’s Global Content Partnerships team, managing Sport partnerships. She works closely with some of the UK’s largest broadcasters, leagues, teams, and federations including Sky, Eurosport, BBC, and Wimbledon, as well as several international sporting organizations to help bring the best sport content to Twitter, for fans and brands. Prior to her move across the pond, she worked in Twitter’s Toronto office. She started her professional career in sport sponsorship with the Canadian Olympic Committee, where she funnelled her passion for sports and marketing and, specifically “ice” hockey, into her day job.
Anouk oversees ELEVENS’ market & business operations globally. Anouk joined ELEVEN when the platform launched in 2015 to lead the Belgium division, before taking on the role of Group COO in 2019. She has previously held senior roles with cable platform Telenet and media company Sanoma in Belgium.
Jon Samsel is a marketing veteran, thought leader and storyteller with over two decades of experience working with leading brands such as Bank of America, Apple, and Ford. He founded two startups that had successful exits: RoadLoans, a direct-to-consumer auto finance lender incubated at Ford Motor Credit and acquired by Banco Santander; and Heardable, a brand analytics platform acquired by Hatcher+, a leading Singapore-based investment platform. Jon has served as a marketing and business strategist for companies such as Dropsuite, Hilton Hotels, and DocDoc. Early in his career, Jon worked as a Hollywood screenwriter, casting director and talent agent. Currently, Jon is SVP, Global Marketing at Verimatrix. Jon holds a B.A. from California State University, Fullerton. He is a published author, speaker and former writing instructor at UCLA and UC Irvine.
Rufus has overall responsibility for the content, production, media sales, business development, strategy, finance and legal areas of the business as Chief Operating Officer.
He is also the Manging Director of European Tour Productions, which is the largest producer of live golf globally, producing all the European Tour’s events including the Ryder Cup as well as content for other rightsholders such as The Open.
Prior to joining the PGA European Tour, he was a Partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants working with other sports bodies and leisure firms to drive strategic growth.
Charlie Kraus is Sr. Manager Product Marketing at Limelight Networks, a Content Delivery Network provider, looking after online video delivery solutions and cloud security services. Charlie launched his career in the Boston area with a succession of high-tech startups in the data networking and storage networking space, taking on roles in product marketing and product management.
With nearly 30 years of sport entertainment experience under her belt, Micky Lawler was appointed President of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) in the fall of 2014 and is responsible for driving the WTA’s international growth strategy, business development, marketing, new fan engagement programs, and member & industry relations. The WTA is the global leader in women’s professional sport with more than 2,500 players representing 92 nations competing for a record $130 million in prize money at the WTA’s 57 events and four Grand Slams in 33 countries.
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.
She is known for her big-thinking, innovative initiatives and ground-breaking business development skills and was on the WTA Board when equal prize money as well as record breaking sponsorship and television partnerships were secured. Lawler began her career in sports in 1986 as a Communications Liaison for the Men’s Tennis Council, the predecessor to the ATP World Tour. She joined Advantage International (now Octagon) in 1988 as one of the first female agents in the industry and quickly made her mark in the representation business with her work for Alberto Mancini, Richard Krajicek, Paul Haarhuis, Amelie Mauresmo and several other top athletes.
Michael Sutherland is the Chief Transformation Officer at Real Madrid, which is consistently ranked as the highest earning european football club and is one of the most valuable sports brands in the world. Prior to Real Madrid, Michael was the Director of Virtual Reality and Director of Product and Design for Emerging Technologies at HP Inc in Silicon Valley. He has been an active angel investor, founder and advisor in early stage companies and has led the growth and commercialization of technology startups in Silicon Valley. He is a global technology leader and expert in corporate innovation and commercialization of new technology products.
Beer is Facebook’s Global Sports Programming Lead. He leads a team responsible for developing and implementing the sports content strategy that supports growth for both Facebook and its partners’ video businesses. This spans live, in-game, catch-up, short-form and shoulder content across Facebook’s family of apps and covers both established and emerging sports rights holders and broadcasters.
Rhys previously held leadership positions at NBCUniversal, DAZN, the English Football Association and Setanta Sports. He recently received the prestigious honor of being named to the Leaders Under 40 Class of 2019.
Motasem El Bawab was a former professional basketball player in Brazil and Canada. He currently serves as the Chief Information Officer at N3XT Sports.
During his time working with FIVB and Volleyball World, he has overseen the digital strategy behind the federation’s dedicated live and on-demand over-the-top (OTT) streaming service, Volleyball TV, helping grow their audience from one million to 18 million across customer relationship management (CRM), social media, and digital channels. Motasem also led the growth team to increase OTT revenue by 200 percent year-on-year (YoY) since 2019, establishing Volleyball TV as a household name in the OTT vertical.
Some of his past roles included being the digital projects manager for the International Basketball Federation where he lead their technology, digital architecture and mobile transformation. He also acted an advisor for several Tech Startups in the MENA region and Japan/
As Senior Vice President, Media for Major League Soccer and Soccer United Marketing, Seth Bacon is responsible for developing and executing the direction of the League’s media properties and overseeing the distribution of content and programming on international, national and regional levels through advanced multimedia platform channels.
Bacon works closely with all current and future MLS/SUM broadcast partners — ESPN, NBC Sports, Fox Sports, Univision, TSN and RDS — to integrate the League’s television agreements to televise MLS games in the United States and Canada.
Bacon brings nearly 15 years of broadcast experience to MLS and SUM and most recently served as Managing Director, Broadcasting for NASCAR, where he was a core member of the team that negotiated the sport’s multimedia rights agreements. During his 11 years with NASCAR, Bacon managed and maximized relationships and sponsorship opportunities with broadcast partners, developed the organization’s first Hispanic broadcast partnership and was instrumental in renewing NASCAR’s international business with more than 30 broadcast partners.
Before joining NASCAR, Bacon served as an Associate Producer at Fox Sports Net where he was a member of the original production team that launched “The Best Damn Sports Show Period.”
Bacon is a graduate of Emerson College. A native of Maine, Bacon currently resides in Greenwich, Connecticut with his wife Katie and their two sons.