Speakers

Iris ALAMEDDINE

Investor & advisor

Iris Alameddine is a strategic advisor and a growth investor at Raine, focusing on sports, gaming and entertainment. Iris is leading Raine’s coverage in European sports, working with top sports leagues and football clubs, most recently with the sale of Chelsea Football Club and Olympique Lyonnais. Iris has recently helped Raine launch an office in Paris and is leading Raine’s expansion strategy across EMEA, working closely with top sports and entertainment leaders, entrepreneurs and investors.

Rick ALLEN

CEO

Rick Allen is a co-founder and CEO of ViewLift. With over 30 years of experience in the sports, entertainment and digital industries, Allen has overseen a number of the largest media companies, including Sporting News and National Geographic, including the launch of the National Geographic channels. In addition to his work in the streaming space, he has authored two bestselling books and produced three award-winning films.

Thomas ALOMES

SVP, Head of Market Insights

Thomas Alomes is a sports technology subject matter expert passionate about positively impacting sports through innovation. As SVP, Head of Market Insights at STWS, Thomas provides consulting and strategic growth advisory services to technology vendors, governments, major events, investment funds and sports rights holders globally. Thomas is also the Founder and Director of Sports Innovation Texas, the industry body realizing the potential of the Lone Star State to be a global innovation hub for sports.

Laura ANDRIANI

Senior Vice President, Consulting

Laura specializes in guiding sports properties to adapt to evolving consumer behavior and create innovative media models. She explores new and creative ways to enhance brand loyalty, retention, and commercial value through various channels, including social content marketing, paid media, SEO, gaming, and storytelling. Laura has managed multiple D2C sports streaming services globally, including FIFA+. Prior to joining Two Circles, Laura worked at DAZN and ESPN, where she played a pivotal role in building a global audience for these leading networks.

Alex ARROYO

Head of Media Rights

Started my career working as a summer intern at IMG Media in their McCormack office in London during the Olympics in 2012, helping the head of tennis selling their tennis properties. Moved back to Barcelona, where I was working as an account executive for some properties as well as heading all the fan zone for the ATP 500 in Barcelona.
After three years in the Spanish office, I moved back to London where I worked in the football team mainly in American competitions, such as Copa America and the last project I was involved in was the JV with Perform, where we acquired the commercial rights for the CONMEBOL club competitions.
After 5 years in IMG, I went working for Dorna where I have been for the last 5 and a half years, travelling all over the world, in the Media team selling the media rights for MotoGP and WorldSBK.

Xavier ASENSI

Chief Business Officer

Xavier Asensi is one of the world’s leading experts in global football business. He has worked for many years at the very top of the field, and has been responsible for designing, negotiating, and executing many of the largest commercial and strategic business deals in the history of the sport. He was hired as Inter Miami CF’s Chief Business Officer in March 2021 and has played an integral role in increasing revenue, brand value, and integrating the team into the South Florida community. Asensi has successfully positioned the Club as the reference point of fútbol in North America, bringing the best fútbol teams in the World to play in DRV PNK Stadium and the Florida Blue Training Center. In 2022, Inter Miami CF hosted the Men’s 2022 FIFA World Cup Champions, the Argentina National Team, La Liga giant, FC Barcelona, the No. 1 and No. 2 Women’s federations, the United States of America and Germany, and more, under Asensi’s stewardship. Asensi is also responsible for signing deals for Inter Miami CF’s first-ever jersey front and sleeve partnerships as well as the Club’s stadium and training center naming rights. Asensi earned his bachelor’s degree in International Business and International Economics at ESCI-UPF. He also earned Executive Education at Stanford University School of Business. Prior to joining Inter Miami CF, Asensi worked at industry juggernaut FC Barcelona for more than a decade, where he served as the Chief Commercial Officer. The Spaniard set the global standard for excellence in football / soccer business. While with the global powerhouse, he was the executive in charge of designing and executing FC Barcelona’s global Commercial Strategy. From 2018 to 2020, under Asensi’s leadership, FC Barcelona set a global record in sports for annual revenue (based on Deloitte Money League ranking). For the year, FC Barcelona brought in total revenues of over $940 million USD. He started his tenure with the club in the position of Managing Director at FC Barcelona’s Asia Pacific Headquarters in Hong Kong, which made him one of the first soccer executives to establish a commercial office in a foreign country. Asensi negotiated and secured lucrative sponsorship deals and partnerships for Barcelona with banks, corporations, and governments in multiple countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, China and Canada. Notably, he helped close the record-breaking kit-sponsorship deal (worth $65 million USD per year to FC Barcelona) with the Japanese retailer Rakuten. This deal was, at the time, the largest jersey naming partnership in global sports. Asensi currently lives in Miami, Florida with his wife and daughters.

Scott BUSHMAN

Director of Partnerships Sales

Scott Bushman has worked for companies such as Spiideo, Yahoo, Disney, LiveU & Metacafe at the intersection of sports, technology & entertainment. Scott is responsible for growing Spiideo Play, the company's live game streaming business in North America. He founded EXPN and Bluetorch.com, leading action sports media companies. He builds, negotiates, and nurtures partnerships with sports rights holders, leagues, teams, platform partners, and content distributors.

Linda CHEN

Executive Director

Linda Chen has served on the Legends of the LPGA board for the last four years. Chen’s sports marketing background includes LPGA Tournament Director, developing several opportunities with the Golf Channel’s Big Break and managing sports assets at ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Florida.

Quim DOMENECH

SVP Content, DAZN Spain

Quim Domènech is Senior Vice President Content at DAZN Spain. Leading the production, social, editorial and creative teams, he is responsible for delivering the most exciting, sociable and engaging viewing experience for sport fans on- and off-platform. He joined the DAZN team in 2020. Domènech has a considerable knowledge and expertise of the sports media industry. With over 20 years of experience, he has worked in media outlets (Punto Radio, Intereconomía TV and Atresmedia) and in the production of sports content both in news (Jugones, LaSexta), entertainment (El Chiringuito, Mega) and special events (Champions League in Atresmedia group).

Sandrine DURAND

VP Channels Distribution

Sandrine Durand is the Co-Founder of SoFAST, working with television channels, contents and rights owners, and helping them to be part of the FAST channels business.
With more than 30 years of experience in Telecommunications Business, Television Broadcast, Business Development and Direction Management, she held positions in France, Israel and United States.

Tyler EPP

President - F1MGP

Tyler Epp enters his second season with South Florida Motorsports (SFM) and his first as President of the Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix. Prior to his role, Epp served as the inaugural race’s Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
Epp brings more than 20 years of senior management experience to his new role, spanning across multiple sports. Epp joined South Florida Motorsports (SFM) after eight successful years at the Kansas City Chiefs. He started with the Chiefs in 2013 as the club's Vice President of Business Development and was promoted to Executive Vice President of Business Operations in 2018. Prior to joining the Chiefs, Epp spent over three years with the San Diego Padres (2010-13), where he served as the team’s Senior Vice President of Business Development.
Before joining the Padres, Epp spent four years as the General Manager of Hall of Fame Racing, a NASCAR Sprint Cup race team based in Charlotte, N.C. He was part of a group of people who led the initial startup of the squad and was responsible for overseeing more than 50 employees spanning racing, engineering, operations, manufacturing, finance, legal, human resources and marketing.
From 2006-07, Epp served as the Vice President of Business Development for Sports Management Network, a pre-eminent motorsports representation and consulting firm. While there, he represented individual and corporate clients in the NASCAR Sprint Cup, IndyCar and other racing championships. His responsibilities included the handling of sponsorships, client relationships, new projects and contract negotiations.
Additionally, Epp spent five years with Chip Ganassi Racing, a premier motorsports organization with teams that competed in NASCAR, IndyCar and Grand-Am. He served as the Director of Team Operations and Business Development and serviced many high-profile clients including Target, Chevron and MillerCoors. Epp got his start as a Marketing Assistant at Kansas Speedway (2001-02).

Ian HOLMES

Director of Media Rights and Content Creation

Ian has worked in the sports media rights business for over 25 years. For the last 21 years he has worked primarily within Media Rights at Formula One. Following Liberty Media’s acquisition of the company he was subsequently appointed Director of Media Rights where he manages the licensing of the Group’s Worldwide rights. More recently Ian assumed responsibility for overseeing F1’s Original Content Strategy and the commercialization of Formula One’s own digital product including F1 TV. Ian is also responsible for, and an Executive Producer of the hugely popular Netflix series; ‘Drive to Survive’. Prior to Formula One, Ian worked at Kirch Sport, Prisma and ISL Marketing.

Neil JOYCE

CEO and Founder

Neil Joyce is CEO and Co-Founder of The CLV Group, the data and insights company for sport, media and entertainment. With 20+ years of experience in global executive positions, including Amazon Advertising, IBM and Acxiom, today Neil leverages data and insights to connect content, passion, engagement, partnerships and audiences. The CLV Group focuses on reaching and engaging the 95% unknown fan audience, using data to create new ways to value and grow relationships. Most recently, Neil authored the Fan Relationship Index™ Report, introducing Fan Moneyball™ (as featured in Reuters and Off The Pitch) highlighting the $bn+ revenue potential for sports teams, leagues, and clubs through content and digital propositions.
He frequently speaks on a broad range of areas from "always focusing on the "Why", to providing informed and unfiltered guidance to leading businesses across the Media, MarTech and AdTech landscapes to broader current issues facing the business community such as building a culture of purpose and inclusivity.

Gibran KHAN

Head of Media Rights & Broadcast

Heading the Media rights department at the FEI, weaving emotion and experience together through the distribution of images produced. With a 10 year career at 3 x International Olympic summer sport federations (AIBA, IJF & FEI) working in the media rights sales and commercial areas, delivering rights, understanding needs, simplifying processes, building & strengthening relationships with broadcasters and rights holders.

Meghna KRISHNA

CRO

Meghna Krishna is the Chief Revenue Officer at Videoverse. As part of her job she is responsible for revenue maximization along with facilitating strategic partnerships and innovative marketing solutions for the overall growth of the company. Her unique leadership shines through her ability to build passionate teams focused on delivering the best quality services to their clients.
Meghna has a proven track record of over two decades of running successful businesses while building and developing teams from scratch.
Prior to joining hands with the passionate team at Videoverse, Meghna has worked across 3 continents in industries including retail, e-commerce, travel, and SaaS, giving her an extensive understanding of global and national market trends. Given the vast experience, she is able to effectively manage investor and stakeholder relations to supercharge business growth.
Meghna is an MBA holder from INSEAD and currently lives in Delhi with her family. She enjoys traveling and learning about other cultures.

Anna LOCKWOOD

Vice President, International

Anna Lockwood is an experienced media industry executive, and is currently the Head of Global Sales for Telstra Broadcast Services, based in London. She leads a team that works at the convergence of the traditional broadcast industry with leading-edge telecommunication and digital platforms, with a focus on bringing innovative solutions and services to the media and sports business. In addition to her role at Telstra, Anna is a board member of the EGAA (Esports Games Association of Australia), represents Telstra on the Board of Directors of IABM, is an advisory board member and mentor at RISE - a group for women in broadcast, and is active in industry initiatives around sports, innovation and women in technology.

Angelina LOSADA

Vice President Business Development Growth Initiatives

Losada serves as Vice President of Business Development and Growth Initiatives at FOX Deportes, the first and longest-lasting Spanish-language sports network in the United States. An executive with over two decades of experience in Hispanic Media, Losada focuses on strategic partnerships and revenue-generating opportunities at the network. She focuses on a variety of potential revenue streams such as sublicensing, digital and linear content creation and sponsorships. She recently led the acquisition of broadcast rights for Liga MX Femenil. the Mexican women’s first division soccer league. Losada also spearheads FOX Deportes Studios, a division of FOX Deportes, focused on the creation of high-quality sports content for distribution in the United States and Latin America. She has also worked at Univision, Telemundo and Azteca America.
A native of Fresno, California, Losada lives with her husband and two teenage boys. She enjoys spending time with family, watching sports, reading and traveling.

Jean MACHER

Sr. Director, Global Saas Solutions

Jean Macher is Senior SaaS Solutions Director at Harmonic where he drives the marketing efforts for the company’s SaaS portfolio. Macher brings to Harmonic a wealth of expertise in cloud video and U.S. TV ecosystems, stemming from more than 20 years of experience in solutions and product management, working closely with media companies on the latest streaming innovations. Macher holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Institut Supérieur d'Électronique in Paris.

Callum MCCARTHY

Editor In Chief

Callum McCarthy is the editor of SportBusiness Media, the world’s most trusted source of global sports media rights intelligence. Callum leads a team of journalists and analysts dedicated to providing market-leading insight on deals, developments and trends from around the world of sports broadcasting. Over the past 25 years, SportBusiness Media has collected commercially sensitive information on over 21,000 media rights deals - a total that continues to grow.

Charlie MITCHELL

Head of Sales, Sports North America & LATAM

Charlie is Head of Sales, Sports North America & LATAM at Endeavor Streaming. Charlie is responsible for Endeavor Streaming’s North American commercial efforts working with leagues, teams, and networks on their D2C initiatives. He has spent over two decades working for companies such as LiveArena, IBM Cloud Video, and Ascent Media, providing digital media solutions to leading brands in sports and media, including the NFL, Fox Sports, PGA Tour, and Spectrum Sports.

Giovanni PUNZO

CEO

Giovanni ‘Gio’ Punzo is a transformational leader with a passion for innovation, with 20 years of experience in the telecom, broadcast, and streaming industry.
He has empowered the internet at Zoom Telephonics, connected global enterprises at Brooktrout Technology, expanded voice recognition networks while at Dialogic, and introduced streaming to all major Broadcasters while at LiveU.
He is the CEO and Co-Founder of Streann Media, the most innovative digital media OTT end-to-end platform. With Streann, content providers can build the next generation Netflix or Paramount + with more than 150 proprietary engagement features and market-first patent-pending Web 3.0 and monetization technologies. Streaming content for its customers from Fifa World Cup, Panamerican Games, Champion League, MGM, Sony and more.

Gio graduated from Boston University, with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and International Relations. He has a Master's in Business Administration (MBA) and a Post-Master in Business Administration from Kellogg School of Management. He speaks English, Spanish, Italian, and Portuñol.

Kelly RATKA

Chief Operating Officer

Former Sports & Entertainment partnerships professional in Las Vegas, Kelly has spent her career dedicated to creating meaningful, immersive experiences between brands and fans. With an extensive background in hospitality, client management, integrated marketing, event sponsorship and production, her colleagues joyfully have deemed her the ‘swiss army knife’ of any team. Kelly is driven by her passion and considers a ‘fan first’ approach to all initiatives.

Bobby SHARMA

Founder & Managing Partner

Bobby Sharma is the Founder & Managing Partner of Bluestone Equity Partners, a private equity firm focused on sports, media & entertainment. Sharma was previously SVP, Global Head of Basketball & Strategic Initiatives at IMG; VP & General Counsel of the NBA Development League; Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Electronic Sports Group; Partner at General American Capital Partners; Vice Chairman & CEO of Soccerex; and an attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. He is a graduate of Duke University and Duke Law School.

Angela SUGGS

President & CEO

As President and Chief Executive Officer of the Florida Sports Foundation, Angela Adams Suggs works to support Florida’s $146.5 billion sports industry. In her role, Suggs leads the organization’s efforts to assist communities with securing, hosting and retaining sporting events and sports-related business through the Foundation’s grant programs; provide participation opportunities in the Sunshine State Games and Florida Senior Games; serve as Florida’s leading resource for sport tourism research and facts; assist in the promotion of targeted leisure sports industries in Florida; and assist national and state governing bodies to promote amateur sport development.
Prior to joining the Foundation, she held various roles at Florida A&M University, including Senior Associate Athletics Director for External Affairs and Senior Woman Administrator (SWA).
A native of Tallahassee, her previous experience includes work in sales with Brown and Brown Insurance, Joe Robbie/Pro Player Stadium and the Marriott Corporation. She holds a B.S. degree in Business Economics from Florida A&M and an M.S. degree from St. Thomas University. Angela is married to Davin Suggs and the couple has one daughter, Dillyn Ashleigh.

Lutz TIGGES

VP, AV Broadcast & OTT

Lutz Tigges is the VP Audiovisual & OTT at Sportradar. He is leading Sportradar’s expansion strategy across OTT and media rights, working closely with top sports and entertainment clients. With over 25 years of experience in sports and entertainment he is a true industry expert. Prior to joining Sportradar in 2016 he worked for the sportsman media group as Senior Director AV and SPORTFIVE as Managing Director Asia and Senior Director Football. He is a graduate of the University of Bayreuth in Germany.

Jerry YEN

Chief Strategy Officer

CXO of four successful startups, recognizing one successful exit with another on the horizon, Jerry has joyfully served 20+ years in executive leadership positions. He has masterfully grown revenues across B2B / B2C / B2G / enterprise fintech, SaaS, analytics, hardware, software, services, aerospace, training, sports, video, and e-commerce. His mission in both his personal and professional life is to positively impact lives with passion, candor, respect, and integrity.

Imran YUSUF

Editor, SportBusiness Media

Imran Yusuf is a senior reporter for SportBusiness Media, the world's most trusted source of media rights deal data, analysis and intelligence.