Speakers

Zack Weiner is the Co-Founder and President of Overtime, the sports network for the next generation, with over 40 million social media followers and 1.5 billion video views per month.

Weiner is a recipient of Forbes’ “30 Under 30” and Sports Business Journal’s “New Voices Under 30.”

Prior to founding Overtime, Weiner was the CEO and Founder of The Sports Quotient which he started at the University of Pennsylvania. He was also a 3x Ivy League Chess Champion and still tries to play when he can!

Weiner graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics.

Susan Levison joined WWE in March 2019 from CBS Television Studios, where she was Senior Vice President, Alternative Programming, responsible for all unscripted development and production across cable and digital platforms. Prior to CBS, Levison served as Executive Vice President, Original Programming & Production at VH1, overseeing more than 350 hours of original programming and development each year. During that time, Levison ramped up their scripted efforts, developing the critically acclaimed drama, Hindsight. Previously, Levison helped to launch FishBowl Worldwide Media, a startup production company, where she developed, sold and produced scripted and unscripted series for Bravo, Discovery, TruTV, Animal Planet, Fuse and VH1. She began her career at Fox Broadcasting Company in the Alternative Development where she worked on shows such as American Idol, Temptation Island and The Simple Life.

Renata Policicio leads the Research and Insights group for ESPN’s Global Markets. Based at the company’s New York offices, she leads the research and analytics international team, providing guidance to advance ESPN’s brand, understanding of the sports landscape, and drive growth and innovation in more than 30 different countries.

She is a multi-cultural professional with over 20 years of experience at major Fortune 500 companies such as Disney ESPN, Warner Media, Microsoft and advertising agencies, holding an MBA in Business and Marketing and a bachelor’s degree in Communications, and a speaker at key conferences around the globe.

Rajan Mehta is Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer at WWE. He is responsible for WWE’s Digital Products, which include the WWE Network & WWE.com. In addition, he provides oversight for their enterprise technology strategy & operations, including Cybersecurity, Big Data, & Information Technology.

Mehta joined WWE in 2013 as Vice President, Digital Technology and was promoted to Senior Vice President, Media Technology in 2015. Prior to joining WWE, Mehta was with NBC Universal where he held leadership roles with NBC Sports and served as the Chief Technology Officer for Dyle Mobile TV. Mehta has also held technology positions for General Electric, and Sitetrends, an east coast based internet company.

Mehta has been recognized with numerous industry awards including a 2008 Emmy Award for “Outstanding New Approaches in Sports Broadcasting,” for his work with NBC Olympics and a 2016 Webby Award for “Online Sports Channel,” for his work with the WWE Network.

Mehta resides in Connecticut, with his wife and two daughters.

Panagiotis Aroniadis is the New Media Director PAOK FC from Greece. He started his career in 1999 as a Sports Journalist and worked for the biggest News Organizations in Greece and AEK FC, before joining PAOK FC in 2013. Over the past seven years he is in charge of PAOK FC digital transformation helping the club to be crowned as Greek Digital Brand of the Year for 2019 and 2020.

These prestigious titles were a result of the club’s general digital strategy that helped PAOK win 21 Digital and Design Awards for the projects created and carried out by the New Media Department.

Panagiotis is also the Project Manager of PAOK TV, club’s OTT Platform originally developed in 2017. During season 2019-20 PAOK FC became the only club in Europe managing its own TV Rights worldwide and exclusively through PAOK TV, disrupting Greek football TV Rights and winning the award for the Best Outstanding New Project in Greece.

During its first season PAOK TV reached a number of 170.000 registered users. The project raised international attention, since many clubs in Europe monitored its case study as an example for possible future TV rights exploitation and an alternative revenue stream.

Currently working as a Media Rights Consultant and Board Advisor to the PKO BP Ekstraklasa League (Poland’s top tier mens’ professional football league) and the League’s production arm – Ekstraklasa Live Park, Malgorzata is in charge of the domestic and international media rights sales. She’s also managed the implementation of the League’s own OTT platform Ekstraklasa.TV. Her area of expertise includes business development and new media partnerships.

Being a former MP&Silva employee, Malgorzata has extensive experience in both sales and acquisition of sports media rights. Within MP&Silva structures, she’d also project managed the rights portfolios of Ligue 1, Roland Garros and the Belgian Pro League, to name but a few. Prior to that she’s worked for two telecoms: NETIA and Orange, where she’d handled rights acquisitions including: VOD content, VOD services, TV channels, sports rights for the Orange Sport TV channel. She’s also worked on the introduction of time shift and nPVR functionalities, and various Value Added Services accompanying subscription plans.

Guillaume is responsible for business development and rights acquisitions globally, as well as overseeing ELEVEN’s operations in Belgium and Luxembourg.

In 2020, Guillaume led the acquisition for domestic Belgian football rights for ELEVEN.
Prior to ELEVEN, Guillaume was Head of Content Strategy & Business Development for Proximus

Eric Hanson is the Sr. Director of Product Development at the PGA TOUR. He leads the team that builds new capabilities and optimizes the TOUR’s fan-facing digital portfolio, including PGATOUR.com, mobile apps for iOS and Android, and tournament-specific digital experiences. Some of his most recent work includes the launch of TOURCast, the PGA TOUR’s 3D shot visualization and video highlights feature and TOURPulse, the automated content feed for every player on the course. Prior to joining the PGA TOUR’s digital team, Eric led teams that built digital products for eCommerce, mobile apps, digital advertising and brand marketing.

Previous working experiences:

• Director Of Business Development- pay TV channels at TV JOJ (commercial broadcaster Nr. 2 in Slovakia)
• Director Of Business Development at Mediareseach (later acquired by Nielsen Media Research)- TV audience measurement in Czech Republic and project for measuring of visit rate and sociodemographic of internet visitors in the Slovak and Czech Republic
• Program Director at public Slovak broadcaster called “RTVS”

Esmeralda Negron has made a name for herself – on and off the pitch – at every stage of her career.
Negron is one of Princeton University’s all-time most decorated female athletes where she led the Tigers soccer team to four straight NCAA Tournament appearances and was twice named Ivy League Player of the Year. A 2004 first-team All-American selection, she was a member of the U21 US Women’s National Team before playing professionally in Division 1 Féminine (France) and Bundesliga (Germany).

Following her playing career, Negron held D1 coaching positions for the women’s soccer programs at Seton Hall and Princeton University. She then applied her soccer savvy and business acumen as part of a prominent role at Relevent Sports Group, one of the leading soccer events and media companies. At Relevent, she served as Senior Director of Global Soccer Properties where she helped launch and direct the Women’s International Champions Cup, a women’s professional club tournament featuring the best clubs in the world including the North Carolina Courage of the NWSL, along with England’s Manchester City, France’s Lyon and Spain’s Atlético de Madrid.

Negron’s experience led her to team with co-founder and former Relevent colleague Hannah Brown to conceptualize and launch Atalanta Media. Having experienced life as a professional soccer player from all angles, Negron understood that the journey can only go so far without an increase in awareness, exposure and further commercialization. For Negron, a company like Atalanta Media, that was focused on bringing the best in international women’s club soccer into more homes and onto broader platforms, addressed a gaping hole. Negron’s deep network and connections across the global soccer community has been instrumental in laying the foundation for unprecedented access to the very best women’s football for fans, broadcasters, sponsors, publishers and influencers.

RTE Group Head of Sport 2018- present

Managing Editor RTE NEWS 2016-2018

Head of RTE News Online & Digital 2012-2016

Sports Editor 2008-2012