Anna manages sports media partnerships for Facebook across EMEA. She helps sports broadcasters leverage Facebook and Instagram to drive commercial objectives for their FTA, PayTV, digital-born or linear broadcasting businesses. Prior to her role at Facebook, Anna was managing content strategy and rights acquisition for beIN Sports around the world. Having been at the forefront of sports media trends, Anna enjoys passing on her knowledge to students as a part-time professor of sports media at the Football Business Academy, and has guest lectured at universities including Loughborough and Birkbeck. She is very passionate about advancing gender-equality in the sports industry and is the founder of WBR Network – a digital-first production company sharing stories of women breaking records in sports.
Speakers
Speakers include A-List keynote speakers and a host of expert panelists from across the OTT ecosystem including:
Barney Francis
Chief Executive, Future Sport
Barney’s career at Sky extends over twenty years. Barney recently took up the newly created role of CEO, Future Sports in June 2019, where he will focus on the changing world of sport and our place in it, working with colleagues across both Sky and NBCU to look at global opportunities for growth for the benefit of the whole of Comcast.
Barney was Managing Director, Sky Sports from 2009-19. During that time Sky Sports grew from 5 channels to 11, adding such Premium sports events as Formula 1, the Masters, The Open and the NBA to Sky Sports’ portfolio, while also increasing the number of Premier League matches shown on Sky to 126 from 2016-17 in the face of stiff market competition.
Barney also oversaw continued technological innovation at Sky with developments in 3D, Ultra HD, virtual reality, and the expansive and ever-growing digital, social and online presence of Sky Sports which regularly reaches 35m unique users per mont
Hania Poole
SVP, Digital
Hania Poole is SVP of Digital at Turner Sports. Poole’s responsibilities also include oversight of the day-to-day relationship with league partners at the NCAA. With her diverse industry experience and digital expertise, Poole has overseen the delivery of best-in-class sports content across multiple screens, including Turner’s award-winning NCAA March Madness Live (MML).
Poole reports directly to Mark Johnson, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Digital, Turner Sports.
As SVP of NCAA Digital, Poole and her leadership team are responsible for content, operations and product development for the business including NCAA.com, the NCAA Sports App, live digital coverage for all NCAA Championships and the management of MML. Under her leadership, MML received the 2018 Sports Emmy for Outstanding Trans-Media Coverage of the 2017 NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Tournament. MML most recently set all-time records during the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament including most live streams for an individual game and the most concurrent streams for an overall game window. The 20 million hours of live consumption across MML during the 2018 men’s basketball tournament was its second most all time.
Melissa Brenner
EVP, Digital Media
As Executive Vice President, Digital Media for the National Basketball Association, Melissa Rosenthal Brenner leads the development, oversight and implementation of the NBA’s global digital strategy and social media portfolio across multiple media platforms. In that role, she has forged groundbreaking deals with leading social media companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, found innovative ways to incorporate social media throughout the league’s wide array of assets, and helped NBA partners maximize social media opportunities with the league.
Additionally, Brenner manages the league’s relationship with Turner Sports relating to NBA Digital, where she is responsible for the development and oversight of NBA TV, NBA League Pass, NBA.com and various NBA mobile content offerings. In recent years, Brenner oversaw the rollout of a variety of new digital offerings including single game availability of NBA League Pass, phone- and tablet-optimized streams through NBA Mobile View, fully produced weekly games in virtual reality, and the league’s first real-time fantasy game, NBA InPlay.
Under her leadership, the NBA has built one of the largest social media communities in the world, with 1.4 billion likes and followers combined across all league, team and player pages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Sina and Tencent. Brenner has been instrumental in the NBA’s achievement of many milestones in the social media space, including the first professional sports league to partner with YouTube (2005) and Facebook (2007).
In 2016, Brenner was recognized as “Top Digital Executive” at the Cynopsis Social Media Awards, while the work of her group was honored as “Best in Sports Social Media” by SportsBusiness Journal. In 2013, Brenner was named to AdAge’s “Women to Watch” list.
A member of the NBA family since 1997, Brenner has worked in the Consumer Products Marketing, Advertising and Marketing departments. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
Brenner lives on the Upper West Side with her husband Joe and their two children, Sadie and Jack.
Craig Hepburn
Head of Digital Transformation
A senior digital marketing executive with over 20 years of digital media and technology experience across both B2C and B2B. Craig has an extensive and deep knowledge in developing and executing digital transformation and marketing engagement strategies that have a proven record in improving business performance. Craig is a focused and passionate change agent who strives to build world class teams that transform, innovate and disrupt legacy marketing models.
Micky Lawler
President
Micky Lawler, President of the WTA and former Octagon executive, is driving the value of women’s professional tennis to unprecedented heights, from kicking off 2018 with the biggest investment to date in women’s sports with the WTA Finals ten-year deal in China, to 2019’s $14M record prize money including the largest winning check in the history of professional tennis (men or women). Throughout her tenure, Lawler has launched WTA Networks, reimagining the league’s digital and social platforms and has inked global sponsorships with luxury brands such as Porsche and Moroccanoil. Lawler, a certified interpreter fluent in five languages and mother of three, has also led a dedicated front to generating new fans by securing innovative rights agreements with content networks like iQiyi, Amazon Prime and Tennis Channel. She also led a groundbreaking partnership with SAP analytics to put WTA on the data-driven cutting edge.
Veronica Diquattro
EVP, Southern Europe
Veronica Diquattro joined the DAZN team in 2018 and is responsible for launching and making DAZN grow in Spain and Italy, in number of subscribers and through agreements with potential partners and rights owners.
She joined the DAZN team from Spotify, where she held the position of Marketing Director for Southern and Eastern Europe, where she was responsible for the development and execution of the strategy of growth of the company in 16 countries.
John Brody
EVP & Head of International
| John Brody is Executive Vice President, Global Sales & Head of International at WWE. He previously held senior leadership roles with the National Football League, Major League Baseball and the Boston Celtics. As head of WWE’s Global Sales and International divisions, Brody is a key member of the company’s senior management team, responsible for providing strategic vision for WWE’s Sales and International operations on a global basis while expanding WWE’s media partnerships. As part of his International responsibilities, John oversees WWE’s regional General Managers around the world, including UK, Ireland, Asia-Pacific, Greater China, Europe, Africa, Middle East, India and Latin America. He is a three-time winner of Sports Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Award, and member of the publication’s Hall of Fame. Brody is an honors graduate of Tufts University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1995. |
George Aivazoglou
Vice President, Marketing
George Aivazoglou is the Vice President of Marketing for Eurosport, leading all brand, acquisition, retention and insight efforts across linear and digital platforms globally. George joined Eurosport in July 2017 from EZBob Ltd were he served as Chief Marketing Office and is a senior digital executive with 15 years of experience in the industries of Media, Entertainment and Telecoms, having previously held leadership roles at Sky and T-Mobile International.
Ariff Sidi
Chief Product Officer
Ariff Sidi is Chief Product Officer for the Verizon Media Platform. Ariff has 15 years of experience in internet and digital media problem solving, and 10 years of experience in streaming media platform development.
Prior to joining Verizon Media, Ariff held leadership roles in engineering, product development, and strategy at a range of technology startups and stalwarts, including Qualcomm, Disney|ABC, and Fox Networks Group.
His accomplishments include leading development of multiple industry-first streaming products, including ABC’s Full Episode Streaming Player and Fox Broadcasting’s national primetime live streaming technology. Ariff also led the development of several multiplatform on-demand video products used by Disney across Europe.
Ariff has authored 11 patents, several of which have helped define industry best practices for online video, advertising, and have acted as precursors to current industry standard specifications.
In addition to his professional success, Ariff founded a technology startup in the kids and family mobile space and co-founded a groundbreaking social video startup.
Ariff graduated from University of California, San Diego, with a Bachelor of Science in computer engineering and received his Master of Business Administration from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Crowley Sullivan
Vice President and General Manager
| Crowley Sullivan joined UFC as the VP and GM of UFC FIGHT PASS in March of 2019. Crowley holds over 20 years of experience in the sports and entertainment industries with expertise in developing media strategies across linear, digital, and OTT platforms. Crowley is a veteran of ESPN, where he served as VP of Programming and Acquisitions for ESPN Classic and ESPNEWS. During his time with ESPN, Crowley was a member of the initial ESPN Original Entertainment team that developed successful programs, including Pardon The Interruption and Around The Horn. Additionally, Crowley won a Peabody and two Emmy Awards for his role in the landmark SportsCentury series. |
Elizabeth Corbin
Head of Advanced Advertising
Bio Coming Soon…
Andy Reif
Senior Vice President, International
| Andy Reif has spent the past 20+ years building international businesses and brands in the sports/entertainment, media, lifestyle and consumer products space. Mr. Reif is the Senior Vice President of International for Tennis Channel, the only 24-hour, television-based multimedia destination dedicated to the sport of tennis. In this role he is responsible for the expansion of Tennis Channel outside of the United States. As such, Mr. Reif is leading the development of a global OTT (over-the-top) digital service that targets the considerable worldwide market of tennis fans, which is expected to launch in early 2020. While serving in a variety of executive leadership roles prior to Tennis Channel, Mr. Reif facilitated the worldwide expansion of several well-known brands, including National Geographic, Body Glove and the AVP (Association of Volleyball Professionals) Tour. He also led Championship Gaming Series, a global e-sports league and joint venture of STAR, BSkyB and DirecTV. |
Sergio Oslé
President
Sergio Oslé is the President of Movistar+, the leading entertainment company in Spain and part of Telefónica Spain. Prior to his role in Movistar+ he was a partner at McKinsey & Co., leading the Telco and Media practice. He holds a Telecom Engineering Degree as well as a MBA from Stanford University.
Frank Arthofer
Global Head of Digital
Frank Arother joined in 2017 to lead Formula One’s digital strategy and will be tasked with increasing engagement with fans globally. His other duties will include growing digital revenues through owned and operated products and forming strategic partnerships.
Arthofer joins Formula One after spending more than a decade in leadership roles in sport, media and technology. Most recently, he was a principal in Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) media and technology practice, working with large multinational companies in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific.
Nyerr Parham
Director of Strategy & Brand
Nyerr (pronounced ny-AIR) oversees revenue strategy and brand growth initiatives for House of Highlights. As a pioneering member of the House of Highlights team, she leads monetization efforts at the rapidly growing brand, which has evolved from an Instagram account into a full-fledged multi-media business in less than two full years in market. In her role leading monetization strategy, Nyerr oversees the development of multi-million dollar integrated marketing and media solutions that deliver advertiser messaging across digital platforms. She also overseas strategic brand initiatives working alongside various department leadership teams to drive business growth into new areas, including the brand’s expansion into live events and e-commerce. Nyerr graduated from Stanford University where she earned her B.A. in Science, Technology, and Society and played on their NCAA Division I lacrosse team. She earned her M.S. in Sports Business at New York University, with a focus in global media.
Pontus Eskilsson
Director of Partnerships, EMEA
Pontus Eskilsson is the Director of Partnerships, EMEA at Twitch, where he works with broadcasting partners from individuals to developers, publishers, and organizations. Pontus’s expertise lies in Esports and Digital / Creative Advertising. Before joining Twitch, Pontus was the Director for the biggest esports and gaming site in the Nordics, Fragbite, where he developed esports activations for brands like McDonald’s, Com Hem, and Pokerstars.
Natxo Imaz
Digital CTO
| Natxo has been involved since 2008 in the developments of the digital and media projects in Mediapro, focused on the OTTs (beIN Sports, Gol Television, One Soccer, uBEAT…)
He is in charge of the technical developments and integrations with partners and vendors. |
Matt Stagg
Director of Mobile Strategy
| Matt has over 25 years’ experience in mobile media and entertainment and Sport. He has been voted in the top 50 most influential people in online TV for four years running and in 2017 he was awarded the TV Connect People’s Choice award for the ‘Person who made the biggest impact on the connected entertainment industry’ Within BT Sport he is responsible for developing the broadcaster’s mobile capabilities and long-term mobile strategy recently leading the team that delivered the award-winning worlds 1st remotely produced live sporting over 5G. He is also currently developing the strategy and roadmap for Augmented and Mixed Reality As part of the wider BT Group Matt is also developing the technology strategy for the Broadcast, Media & Entertainment over 4/5G. This encompasses an end to end approach incorporating both contribution and distribution of media. |
Dan Porter
Chief Executive
Dan Porter is CEO and co-founder of Overtime, building the biggest sports network in the world by focusing on the Gen Z audience. Overtime generates billions of video views and has 15 million followers across collective platforms. Previously Porter was the head of digital at William Morris Endeavor, CEO of game company OMGPOP (sold for $200mm), ticketing company TicketWeb (sold for $40mm), head of digital for Richard Branson’s Virgin company, President of Teach for America and public school teacher. He is also a professor at New York University and a graduate of Princeton University.
Tomos Grace
Head of Sport, EMEA
Tomos is responsible for managing YouTube’s partnerships with some of the largest sports federations, leagues and clubs in Europe.
Before joining YouTube Tomos was Head of Business Development at the Eurosport Group in Paris. Prior to Eurosport he worked in the Corporate Strategy team at the Canal+ Group.
Vincent Helluy
Global Content Protection Partnerships
| Vincent HELLUY has been working on audio-visual Content Protection issues at CANAL+ Group for the past 10 years. He is currently in charge of developing international Content Protection partnerships between CANAL+ Group and its partners – sports leagues, motion picture studios, broadcasters, tech companies and industry alliances. |
Raphael Goldwaser
Video Streaming Architect
Coming Soon
David Gibbs
Group Director, Sports, News & Advertising
| David is responsible for our Group Sports and News products across TV, OTT, web and app platforms. In his time at Sky his teams have created and launched some of Europe’s most popular and innovative Sports products that are loved my millions: Sky Go, Now TV Sports, Skysports.com, Sky Sports Mobile Apps, OTT PPV. David also manages our relationships with distributed platforms: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Snap, as well as leading engagement with the start-up community and representing Sky on a number of boards, Incrowd and Whistle Sports |
Anna Chanduvi
Sports Media Partnerships EMEA
Simon Frost
Head of EMEA Media Marketing
Simon Frost is the Head of EMEA Media Marketing at AWS. In this role, Simon is creating opportunities for the media industry to engage with AWS and its partners, to better understand how moving media workflows to the cloud can unlock new value, create fresh growth and ultimately delight viewers globally.
Prior to this he was the global Head of Media Marketing and Communications at Ericsson, playing a fundamental role in driving the company’s vision of Media in the Networked Society and the emergence of the internet era of TV, television’s greatest ever period of change. Simon has more than 20 years’ experience in the broadcast, Pay TV, internet and telecommunications sectors. Simon has authored thought leadership articles, blogs and delivered speaking engagements on the future of TV, a vision for media in 2020, 5G video and cloud video. Prior to Ericsson, Simon has held several senior positions, including Vice President, IPTV Compression Solutions and Business Development Director (Mobile & Terrestrial TV) at TANDBERG Television. He has previously worked for Harmonic and Philips Digital Networks architecting customer video solutions.
Tony Singh,
Chief Commercial Officer
Bio Coming Soon…
Louisa Clark
Head of Business Development and Broadcast Partnering
Louisa has worked at BT (Consumer) since the evolution of BT TV and was heavily involved in the launch of BTSport after BT secured its first set of key rights for the Premier League. Working in Business Development across the BT business, but with a core focus on Sport and TV, Louisa has negotiated commercial agreements with all sizes of partners critical in delivering amazing customer experiences across devices and channels. Building long-term partnerships with rightsholders, broadcast infrastructure suppliers and social media partners with a view to developing new ways to deliver content (Subscription, Free-to-Air, Pay-per-view), whilst bringing value to consumers and the BT TV and BT Sport businesses. Born and raised in the north-east of England but living with her two children in Hertfordshire who keep her on her toes and in touch with what today’s younger consumers demand from content and the viewing experience.
Adam Nightingale
SVP, Commercial and OTT
Adam Nightingale joined Deltatre in 2019 and as SVP, Commercial, OTT is responsible for the commercial arm of Deltatre’s OTT and live streaming services, engaging with clients’ business strategies to ensure they are provided with the technology solutions to suit their needs. His role focuses on company growth around the world in both mature and emerging markets across a wide variety of sports, entertainment and telecommunication entities. Adam has wide-ranging experience and a proven track record in helping large media organisations find new avenues for growth through technology. He is focussed on bringing to market disruptive solutions that underpin fan engagement in OTT. He has held senior roles at Accedo, Irdeto and Mobilitec, where he helped build and operate some of the world’s first online premium TV services for pay-TV providers and broadcasters.
Michele Gosetti
Head of Global Sales
| Michele assumed his current role with Eurovision Services in September 2017 where he oversees the global strategy for sales. Being in the media industry for more than a decade, Michele has a clear understanding of the market and a proven track record maximising revenues. Michele spent 16 years in executive positions at Globecast where he successfully developed new revenue streams and put in place global sales strategies that helped grow the company’s core business. In 2013, he became Globecast America’s CEO where he raised the company’s profile in the US market and positioned Globecast in the digital arena. In 2015, he became Executive Vice President of the newly created Occasional Use and Media Services Division of Globecast before taking his current role with Eurovision Services. Michele’s international experience includes working in Paris, Rome, Singapore and New York. He completed his B.A. in Economics and Finance at Science Po in Strasbourg, France. |
Steve Russell
Head of OTT & Media Management
Steve is the Head of OTT & Media Management at international media and broadcasting services company Red Bee Media. He has been building and contributing to innovative products and services within the media industry for the last fifteen years. Steve is passionate about exploring how software development drives transformation in preparing, processing and consuming sports and entertainment.
Tobias Osmund
Chief Executive
Tobias is the CEO of international sports media agency Spring Media and chairman of sports production company Sportacentrs, digital platform Stayline and D2C niche sports service Fanseat. He has previously held sales manager and business development roles at the Associated Press and he was the managing director of major Swedish TV production house Mastiff.
Rob Mitchell
Programme Lead – The FA Player
| Rob is the Programme Lead for The FA Player, The FA’s new streaming service dedicated to Women’s Football, which launched in September 2019. He was responsible for the development, build and delivery of The FA Player, and now its ongoing growth and success. In addition, Rob is the Brand Lead for The FA (FA Competitions, Women’s Football and Grassroots Football). Rob has 24 years experience in marketing and commercial roles on the rights holder (The FA, Wasps), agency (Leo Burnett, Ketchum) and brand sides (Heineken, Stella Artois, 888.com) of the sports and entertainment industries working on UK, European and International projects and campaigns. |
Rob is a Board Director of Triathlon Scotland, is a member of the British Triathlon Commercial Committee, and a former Board Director of the European Sponsorship Association
Rainer Geier
Managing Director OTT & Digital Services
| As Managing Director OTT & Digital Services, Rainer Geier is responsible for Sportradar’s entire OTT platform & applications business. Starting his career as ‘Head of Sponsoring’ of the sports betting operator BWIN, Rainer was part of the founding team of ‘Sportsman Media’ & LAOLA1 which were acquired in 2016 by the Sportradar Group. With more than 20 years of experience in the sports industry, Rainer is leading a team of digital experts serving the likes of Borussia Dortmund, German Football Association, EHF Marketing or World Rally Championship.
|
Andreas Heyden
Chief Executive
Since June 2015, Andreas Heyden is serving as CEO of the DFL digital sports GmbH being responsible for digital platforms & production and distribution of national and international media content. Before Andreas was the Managing Director of maxdome GmbH since July 1st, 2013. Previously, Andreas was COO as part the management of ProSiebenSat.1 Game GmbH from December 2011 on.
Jaine Sykes
Head of Digital
Jaine has been at ITV for three years where she is Head of Digital for Sport, Factual and Daytime. She oversees the digital strategy for the genres, commissioning and leading teams to produce award-winning digital content across websites, apps and social media. Prior to joining ITV, Jaine worked at the BBC, where she launched BBC One’s social media strategy and lead the digital output for BBC Three.
Stuart Newton
SVP Strategy Business Development
Stuart joined Telestream in 2017 as part of the iQ acquisition, and brings over 20 years of video service monitoring and embedded design expertise to the Telestream family. Having worked extensively with video service providers, content providers, and network delivery partners, Stuart now leads strategic integration projects and alliances to meet the future needs of video transformation and delivery across hybrid cloud and on-premise architectures. Prior to Telestream, Stuart held general management, strategy, business development and alliance management roles at IneoQuest and Wind River Systems. Stuart is a UK Chartered Engineer and holds a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Loughborough University, UK.
Jean-Philippe Plantevin
Vice-President, Anti-Piracy
Since 2017, Jean-Philippe drives product management, operations and marketing activities for the anti-piracy and watermarking product lines at NAGRA, the world’s leading independent provider of content protection and multiscreen television solutions for the monetization of digital media.
Jean-Philippe has more than 30 years’ experience of the pay-TV and digital TV industries. His expertise includes in-depth knowledge of conditional access systems, set-top-boxes and digital video compression technologies. Among other senior executive positions, Jean-Philippe has served as SVP Product Marketing at NexGuard, General Manager EMEA at Harmonic/DiviCom, SVP Sales & Services at Nagravision (2001 to 2008) and VP International Operator Sales at Sagemcom.
He holds an MBA from INSEAD, a MSEE from Georgia Tech and an Engineering Diploma from Telecom Paris Tech.
Will Staeger
President, Business Operations
Will Staeger is the President of Business Operations at Endeavor Streaming, where he co-manages the platform encompassing Endeavor’s video streaming products and services. Staeger oversees the company’s new business growth initiatives and synergies for both business-to-business and direct-to-consumer technology, and broader Endeavor divisions. Endeavor Streaming powers leading properties digital services, including the NFL, NBA, WWE and UEFA, alongside owned and operated services like UFC Fight Pass and PBR’s Ride Pass.
Staeger previously served as Senior Vice President of Programming and Content Strategy at Endeavor, where he led strategic content initiatives and executive produced programs for Endeavor Content’s non-scripted group, formerly known as IMG Original Content. In this role, he was responsible for the launch and oversight of the division’s content slate through the production of current series and specials on HBO, Showtime, Netflix, E!, Amazon, ABC, FOX, CBS and more.
Rufus Hack
Chief Content Officer
Mr Hack is responsible for driving the European Tour’s media and digital strategy creating significant growth in fan engagement across its digital channels. In addition Mr Hack heads up the group strategy function driving strategic alliances with other global golfing organisations and introducing format innovation to the sport. He also sits on the Board of European Tour Productions, which is the world’s largest producer of live golf content.
Charlie Johnson
Vice President, UK & Ireland
I’ve worked in the digital landscape for more than 14 years and have built a deep understanding of the right strategies and plans using IP-based geolocation and circumvention-based data that can help companies around the world improve their online endeavors. I’ve worked directly with a large number of companies across many different industry verticals on how to harness IP data for their own unique business needs―including Over-the-Top (OTT) platforms, Video on Demand (VOD), advertising technology, cyber security, ecommerce, and financial institutions. Named as one of the “Top-50 Women in Ad Tech” and as a thought leader in location-based services, I regularly speak at industry conferences around the world and am a regular contributor to trade press on the role of geolocation data.
Justin Barrett
Vice President, EMEA Sales
In his role as Senior Director – EMEA Operations, Justin is responsible for ensuring that Brightcove are best positioned to help brands scale and improve their digital customer experience through video. Justin has an extensive background in ecommerce and customer experience, having performed a variety of roles during his 6 years at the likes of lastminute.com and most recently as Head of UK Operations at Made.com.
Maria Flores Portillo
General Manager, EMEA
As Amobee’s General Manager in EMEA, Maria Flores Portillo oversees the growth of Amobee’s offering across agencies and brand advertisers, as well as the expansion of Amobee TV across the region. Maria joined Amobee in June 2019, bringing with her a wealth of adtech experience. She started her adech career at Google, working with large media companies across Europe to expand their advertising business, and subsequently moved to Videoplaza, the leading video ad server in EMEA, to launch their Programmatic Division as VP of New Business. Maria also played a leading role during the acquisition of Videplaza by Ooyala as VP of Business Development, Channel Sales and Ad technology. Most recently, Maria was instrumental in the launch of Persado in the UK, bringing artificial intelligence to brands to personalise creative. A self-described nerd at heart, Maria holds an MSc in Telecommunications Engineering from UPNA and University of Surrey.
Matthieu Loreille
Chief Marketing Officer
Bio Coming Soon…
Leigh Walsh
Senior Consultant
| Leigh Walsh is a senior consultant at LiveWire Sport. She has played a pivotal role helping deliver Wimbledon’s award-winning digital coverage since 2014, while also consulting across a number of the agency’s key accounts, including the Premier League and International Tennis Federation. |
Chris Welsh
SVP, Broadcast OTT
| Chris Welsh, SVP Broadcast & OTT, heads MPP Global’s OTT division and is fully immersed in the OTT video revolution. Chris has worked in TV, technology and sport for a decade, offering advice and technical expertise to help broadcasters and sports rights holders realise the potential of OTT technologies in the connected world. Chris is deeply engaged with some of the world’s largest media and sports brands, understanding and consulting on all aspects of content monetisation, fan engagement and customer life cycle management. Chris has secured premium OTT services with major broadcasters and sports rights holders such as NBCUniversal, ATP, ProSiebenSat.1, Mediapro, Discovery, Juventus FC, Bonnier, TDC Group, maxdome, Eurosport Player, Fulham FC, Manchester United, YouSee, Blockbuster, PSA, Joyn, Leeds United, UKTV, PDC, SF Studios, FC Barcelona and others. |
Jean-Marc Racine
Chief Product Officer
| Jean-marc Racine serves as Chief Product Officer. Jean-Marc has extensive experience in the broadcast media technology sector. Through his consultancy activities as Managing Partner at Farncombe Technology and more recently as Senior Vice President of Video Advisory Services at Cartesian, Jean-Marc supported clients as they implemented next-generation hybrid TV platforms and adopted cloud models. In his 20+ years in the industry, Jean-marc has advised media and technology clients on technical strategies and is an expert on private equity due diligence projects. He has also advised various industry consortiums and broadcasters on the definition and implementation of TV everywhere platforms, as well as the challenges and opportunities resulting from the growth of OTT platform and cloud-based infrastructures. |
Scott Rose
SVP, Product
Scott Rose, Encompass SVP, Product, heads global products for the company. As an experienced product executive, he specialises in bringing to market linear broadcast and IP connected media platforms, ranging from linear playout (traditional and streamed), OTT / VOD and the monitoring of internet delivered media at the user experience level. With over 20 years in the industry, Scott has managed the growth of international playout facilities, delivered digital signage networks and launched numerous broadcast products including cloud solutions.
Bill Gash
Director of Sales, EMEA
| Bill Gash is Sales Director in EMEA for CSG’s Ascendon digital commerce solution, now used by more than twenty leading media, content owner and service provider businesses. Ascendon has been designed to enable businesses to better engage today’s digital consumers, drive loyalty and build revenue with premium content and services. At CSG, Bill has signed many strategic accounts and widened the industry’s appreciation for what can be achieved with CSG Ascendon. |
Minal Modha
Head of Consumer Research
Minal leads the development of the consumer solution at Ampere, working on consulting projects and has written a number of analytical reports including a detailed piece on attitudes to the Women’s World Cup in the UK. Her previous roles have primarily been in sport and entertainment agencies and she has worked with leading rights holders such as The Premier League, UEFA, The FA, Sky and AEG to strengthen their relationships with current partner brands and support their sales strategy through primary consumer data. Prior to Ampere, Minal worked at Eleven Sports, heading up their global research function. This included helping to develop content strategy, creating an in-house brand tracker to aid marketing decisions and establishing key drivers and barriers for subscription through research.
Simon Miller
Global Director, Sports
Simon Miller is Global Director of Sports at Gracenote responsible for helping customers fully leverage the company’s industry-leading data and technology offerings to create highly engaging sports viewing experiences. Prior to joining Gracenote, Simon was an Executive Producer at Bloomberg Sports where he successfully launched a weekly TV show titled “Football Dynamics” which provided fans a unique combination of data-driven insights and expert opinions on the game.
Earlier, Simon served as CEO of Betfair TV where he oversaw development of the world’s first gaming app to sit alongside live sports broadcasts on Samsung Connected TV. During his time at Betfair, he won two industry awards recognizing innovation. Throughout a more than 20 year career in the media, advertising and sports industries, Simon has also held roles at BskyB’s Sky Bet, J. Walter Thompson and Publicis.
Jorge Pavão de Sousa
Managing Director, Portugal
As MD of Eleven Sports in Portugal, Jorge is responsible for driving ELEVEN’s growth across the country, including increasing revenues, rights acquisitions, developing strategic partnerships and overseeing the company’s day to day operations.
Before joining Eleven, Jorge was Vodafone’s Head of TV, where he led the development of TV Strategy in the UK and across several international markets. Spent over 10Years developing the TV Business of Portugal Telecom (Altice Portugal today) across IPTV (MEO) and Cable (TV Cabo) businesses.
Jorge has a broad experience in Pay-TV and D2C/OTT video services at Telco/Media and Mobile Tier1 companies across several markets (UK, Iberia and Brazil).
Lee Chen
Head of Streaming Media and Cloud
Lee Chen is Head of Streaming Media and Cloud at Fastly, where he guides the future of Fastly’s video platform and go to market strategy. Prior to Fastly, Lee spent over 15 years in technology and digital media, leading technology and strategy teams in video gaming. At Major League Gaming (MLG), Lee was SVP of eSports Strategy and SVP of Technology, where he managed product development for all online properties, directed the company’s digital media technology platforms, and architected delivery of MLG’s live streaming infrastructure. Prior to MLG, Lee co-founded GotFrag.com — at the time, the world’s most popular destination for eSports coverage, which he sold to MLG in 2007.
Evan Vernon
Director of Product Management, Direct-to-Consumer Services
Evan oversees a wide variety of video product offerings, from advertising delivery products to playback technology to data and insights services. With over a decade in online video infrastructure and delivery, Evan is focused on evolving OTT video distribution across the globe for scale, service optimization, and enhanced monetization.
Prior to joining Comcast Technology Solutions, Evan was Head of Product and Technology for a startup focused on growing sports-centric video content in the social media space. During this time, he led efforts to build both video platforms for direct to consumer applications and social media integrations and optimization tools for sports-specific content creators. Evan also worked as an online video distribution consultant and app designer for a variety of large media and technology companies across the globe, including AT&T, Microsoft, Fox, Sony, and Claro.
Sam Gilbert
Senior Manager, Content & Strategy
Sam Gilbert is the Senior Manager of Content Strategy and Development for House of Highlights. As an original part of the team since October 2017, Sam has built HoH’s Original Content and Branded Content departments from the ground up. In just 2 years leading HoH Production, Sam has worked with advertisers to create some of the most successful and viral branded content campaigns in the history of Instagram including blue-chip brands such as Gatorade, Under Armour, Nike and McDonald’s. Additionally, Sam leads production for House of Highlights’ LIVE show in partnership with Twitter and plays a critical role in creative development and programming for all House of Highlights Events, House of Highlights Merchandise and new platform initiatives. When he’s not doing all of that, Sam finds time to star in viral YouTube and TikTok content himself.
Holger Blask
EVP, Audiovisual Rights
Dr. Holger Blask is member of the Executive Committee of the DFL Deutsche Fussball Liga GmbH (DFL). In 2014 he became Director of the newly founded department of Audiovisual Rights, which is mainly responsible for the national and international media product management including the high quality broadcasting of the Bundesliga worldwide and the national audiovisual rights tender as well as the fight against digital piracy. Holger Blask started at the DFL as an In-house Counsel in 2006. From 2012 until 2014 he was responsible for the department of Public Affairs and DFL’s offices in Brussels (Belgium) and Berlin (Germany) as Director Public Affairs. Before entering the DFL Holger Blask worked as a Lawyer and as Lecturer at the Universities of Cologne and Bremen (Germany). He studied law in Bremen and Cologne (Germany), Geneva (Switzerland) and Sydney (LL.M.) (Australia) and finished his doctoral studies in law (“Doctor juris”; Thesis: “Applicability of the Single-Entity Theory to professional Football Leagues – A comparative analysis of US, English, German and European sports and Antitrust Laws”) in 2004 in Cologne (Germany).
Abigail Roos
Group Strategy Manager, Anti-Piracy
Abigail is Sky’s Group Strategy Manager for Anti-Piracy. Appointed at the start of the year to work with Sky’s Group Piracy and Content Protection Director, Abigail works with several key business areas and subject matter experts across the UK & European organisations to define and facilitate delivery of strategic initiatives. She brings with her specialist operational IT experience gained at Sky and is currently completing an MBA at Warwick Business School.
Caleb Weinstein
Director, Sport, Media, and Entertainment
| Caleb Weinstein is the Director for Sport, Media & Entertainment at Google Cloud working with rights owners around the globe to maximize the transformative powers of the Cloud. With Sport he is enabling a cloud based data plain to power richer storytelling + fan engagement via the enhancement of broadcast, DTC, on screen data analytics, and player tracking technology.
Caleb has spent the last 20 years working in the media industry,in the United States + across EMEA & Asia. Prior to Google, Caleb was at 21st Century Fox, Amazon, Discovery and Viacom where he worked on the launch of various media products including FOX Sports Eredivisie and Africa, Eurosport and the UFC on Spike TV.
Based in the Cloud’s Sunnyvale offices in California Caleb works with the product teams across the Cloud organization to define business requirements/customer needs for product roadmaps. |
Simon Hanna
Regional Vice President, EMEA
Simon is a specialist in video delivery platforms for Pay-TV and OTT operators, with more than 20 years’ experience working with major video entertainment operators and primary vendors in the worldwide Pay-TV industry across cable, satellite and telco customers. At Friend MTS, he is responsible for driving EMEA sales and business development for the company’s world-leading anti-piracy services. Prior, Simon served as Solutions Management for V-Nova and before that, Product management for the Ericsson MediaFirst TV platform. Simon is based in London, United Kingdom.
Thierry Fautier
Vice President, Video Strategy
As Vice President of Video Strategy at Harmonic, Thierry Fautier is in charge of defining and driving the execution of the long-term strategy of Harmonic’s video business. In addition, Fautier is the current President of the Ultra HD Forum, the global organization responsible for promoting market adoption of UHD by defining industry best practices for the phased introduction of the wide set of technologies that will facilitate the next-generation viewing experience.
His previous experience at Harmonic includes leadership positions in Solutions Marketing, where his area of responsibility covered Harmonic’s major markets, including broadcast, cable, telco, DTH and OTT, as well as multiscreen initiatives. Prior to joining Harmonic, he was Vice President of Marketing for Vsofts and held various positions at Philips in Research, Engineering and Marketing. Fautier was one of the primary drivers at Philips in the creation of MPEG technology and in the development of the first MPEG-2 STB system on chip solutions. An experienced speaker, he has presented at leading industry conferences throughout the world.
Jeff Gilbert
Vice President, Strategy
Responsible for Qwilt’s content delivery efforts, Jeff has a long history in many areas of the video distribution ecosystem, most recently helping 3rd parties utilize Bamtech’s tech stack to deliver content over the top. He founded an early IPTV operator and has held roles at Level 3 (Centurylink), Verizon and Disney Streaming Services.
Fernando García Calvo
Video Director
| Fernando is a passionate person around TV evolution. Being a Telecommunications Engineer, he joined Telefonica R&D Labs in 1995. He led many innovation projects in Video and Smart Home and co-created the first TV over ADSL service (Imagenio). In 2009 he co-founded the Global Video Unit in Telefónica to build a common product and content offering across Telefónica Group. Until 2017, he covered the entire value chain as Head of Marketing, Video Business Intelligence, Business Development and Product Definition. In 2017, he joined Huawei as Video Business Director for Europe and has recently launched the Huawei Video service in Spain and Italy. He is part of the Global team for Content Partnership at Huawei leading partnerships with Media companies across Europe. |
Aneesh Madani
Global Head of Digital Partnerships
Bio coming soon…
Aviv Arnon
CBDO & Co-Founder
WSC Sports’ platform generates personalised sports videos for every digital platform and every sports fan – automatically and in real-time.
Currently being used by leading media rights owners such as Turner Sports, NBA, MLS, FIBA, US Open and others, WSC Sports’ platform utilises advanced AI and Machine Learning technologies to analyse live sports broadcasts, identify each and every event that occurs in the game, create customised short-form video content and publish to any digital destination. This enables partners to instantly generate and distribute professionally edited personalised clips and videos on a large scale, to engage audiences and maximise video monetisation opportunities.
Carlo De Marchis
Group Chief Evangelist
Carlo De Marchis is the Group Chief Evangelist at deltatre and has joined the company in 1988; for 26 years now, he has experienced the highest levels of sport all around the world and participated to every step of deltatre’s impressive growth. Today, Carlo De Marchis leads the Company’s Product Strategy with an exclusive drive on Social Media, Multi-platform digital solutions and their interaction with the TV.
Scott Ferguson
Head of Central Programming
Scott joined DAZN in 2017 from beIN Sports in Qatar. His current role at DAZN sits across content planning and performance, media planning, compliance and governance of all DAZN’s OTT and linear output. Prior to beIN, Scott worked in numerous content creation and management roles for multiple news and sports broadcasters both in the UK and internationally, including BBC, ITV, Sky, Orbit, Nimbus and Al Jazeera.
Les Wigan
Chief Operating Officer
Les Wigan is the founding Chief Operating Officer of Kayo Sports. He has accountability for Product and Content, Technology, Streaming Operations, eCommerce and Customer Care, as well as Data and Insights.
Previously, Les was a Director at Fox Sports where he had accountability for Digital, Technology, Broadcast Operations, and The Sports Statistics Business. Prior to this he held the role of Director of Digital and Commercial Development at News Ltd, where he was responsible for managing news’ digital businesses across the group. Before joining News Ltd Australia in 2006, Les held a number of roles at British Pay TV operator BSkyB.
Nick Couck
Business Development Manager
In January 2018 MEDIAGENIX, leader in broadcast management solutions, appointed Nick Couck as Business Development Manager to focus on the needs of Sports and eSports broadcasters and streaming services. In a short space of time he promoted Sports and eSports as one of the main MEDIAGENIX verticals. Nick joined MEDIAGENIX in 2013. He served as Lead Business Analyst & Implementation Manager for several years, discussing, translating and solving the broadcast management challenges of MEDIAGENIX sports customers. Starting his career at wTVision, a real-time sport statistics and graphics provider, Nick participated in live productions of some of the world’s most famous football games and competitions.
Victoria Cotton
Executive Editor, Live Streaming
Victoria Cotton is BBC Sport’s Executive Editor for live streaming. She is responsible for the commissioning of content and for further developing the live digital strategy that delivered over 3000 extra hours of live sport to BBC platforms last year. She is also their BBC women’s sport lead and oversees Get Inspired, the BBC Sport’s participation strand.
Gareth Capon
Chief Executive
Gareth Capon is CEO at Grabyo, the global market leader in real time social video based in London, UK. Grabyo partners with broadcasters and rights holders including the The Premier League, La Liga, ITV, BT Sport, Univision, Turner Sports and Universal Music Group to maximise reach, engagement and video monetisation across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other digital platforms. Gareth brings more than 16 years experience in digital, mobile and video covering both corporates and startups. Prior to joining Grabyo, Gareth was a Product Director at Sky where he managed Sky’s mobile app portfolio and led investments in tech startups in Europe and the U.S. Gareth began his career as a strategy consultant at Accenture and and has a Masters, First Class in Geography from the University of Oxford.
Alexios Dimitropoulos
Senior Analyst
Alexios is Ampere’s senior sports rights analyst, and focuses much of his research on sports rights valuations, assessing the viability of OTT sports solutions, and analysing consumer interest in viewing and paying for content online. Alexios has authored a number of high-profile reports on the development of sports video viewing, rights value changes and OTT streaming services – including a number of commercial feasibility assessments. Alexios has worked on a range of advisory projects at Ampere including an assessment of sports OTT feasibility for a major sports rights body, a due diligence on a Western European premium pay television group and an extensive consumer research initiative supporting premium rights negotiations.
Bhavesh Patel
Chief Digital Officer
Bhavesh Patel is currently the Chief Digital Officer at beIN Media Group based in Paris. He is working on building their next generation global OTT platform and driving innovation across the group. Prior, Bhavesh was an OTT strategy advisor for CBS Studios International and Verizon Go90, headed up Betfair’s US horserace wagering business, and led the launch of FOX Soccer 2 Go and NBA International League Pass.
Torsten Haux
Vice President, Global Media Rights & ESportsTV
Torsten is Vice President, Global Media Rights and eSportsTV at ESL, where he is responsible for creating esports products that engage TV and online audiences around the world.
Before joining ESL in August 2016, Torsten spent eight years at German sports TV channel SPORT1, where he led the programming department and its content sales division. In 2012, he started his own media consulting company and created TV and branded formats for international clients. He has also worked at Red Bull Media House in Salzburg, where he built up an editorial department creating multi-platform live sports and entertainment content. Torsten started his career in 2000 as a TV reporter at FOCUSTV in Germany
Cameron Andrews
Senior Legal Counsel - Anti Piracy
Cameron Andrews is Anti-Piracy Counsel at beIN Media Group, based in London. Since joining beIN in November 2016, Cameron has been leading anti-piracy strategy, enforcement and operations across the beIN group. Before beIN, Cameron spent five years as a senior lawyer at the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) working on anti-piracy, enforcement and international litigation for the recorded music industry. He trained as a lawyer in Australia, spending eight years in the intellectual property group at Gilbert + Tobin in Sydney, and prior to that worked as an adviser and researcher in the Australian federal and state parliaments.
Mark Mulready
Vice President Cyber Services
Mark leads the strategic direction for the growing Live segment. He is responsible for the global delivery and management of a suite of Piracy Control, Cybercrime Prevention Services including watermarking solutions to sports rights owners, broadcasters/operators and other verticals. He manages a global team of analysts, investigators and product management experts. He is currently Vice President for the leading pan European industry association – AAPA. (http://www.aapa.eu/) Mark was previously the Fraud & Operational Security Manager at Foxtel and, also served 16 years in New South Wales Police Service including special assignments in the Drug Enforcement Agency, the National Crime Authority and 3 years as a Prosecutor. Mark holds a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Wollongong and was admitted as a Solicitor to the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 2004.
Yonatan Matalon
Strategic Partner Lead
As Strategic Partner Lead for broadcast at Google in the UK, Yonatan is responsible for developing partnerships with sports and entertainment broadcasters and publishers and identifying new revenue growth opportunities, as viewer consumption is increasingly moving online. Yonatan has worked with both traditional broadcasters and new players to accelerate their digital transformation strategy. A digital native and keen basketball fan, Yonatan is an early adopter of all new technologies and is passionate about sports and advertising. Prior to joining Google, Yonatan has a background as a senior political advisor and lawyer.
Simone Tomassetti
Head of Sports Partnerships, Southern Europe
Born in Rome 3-3-82, he got a degree in Political Sciences and a Master’s Degree in International Relations at LUISS Guido Carli. From 2008 to 2017 he was Associate Director – Media Rights Acquisition & Sales at Infront Sports and Media. In 2017 he became Head of Sports Partnerships for Southern Europe at Twitter. Last step of his formation has been as Visiting Lecturer MBA and Business School for ESADE and ISDE University.
Marcel Hasenrader
Chief Executive Officer
| Marcel Hasenrader, CEO of NativeWaves brings over 20 years of experience in Europe, North America and Australia, across diverse industries from entertainments to elevators. Having graduated from the University of Melbourne, Marcel has worked in global roles with organisations such as Sony DADC (Salzburg and Los Angeles), Wittur Austria and the Belgravia Group in Australia. Strategic focus, value-creation and passion for market segment leadership are key personal drivers. Marcel joined NativeWaves in May 2019 and leads a growing international team of professionals working on solutions to revolutionise the broadcast industry. |
Marc Parkman
General Manager
Mark is responsible for the overall content creation, technical delivery and digital platform development of the Olympic Channel as well as integrating partnerships with Rights Holding Broadcasters, sponsors, International Sports Federations (IFs) and National Olympic Committees (NOCs). Before joining OCS, Parkman served as the Operations Executive for Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBC) and Vice President of International Sports Broadcasting (ISB), where he oversaw the operations of the host broadcaster for the Olympic Games. Mark was awarded an Emmy for his work on the host broadcaster team for the Olympic Winter Games Salt Lake City 2002, and he recently managed operations for 1,800 hours of televised competition for the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014, overseeing production, engineering, logistics, planning, crewing and broadcaster relations. Mark previously worked in marketing, public relations and international television coordination with Turner Broadcasting System and Cohn & Wolfe, where he led media efforts for the NFL, NBA, MLB, NASCAR and PGA Golf.
