Founder of ‘The UK Sports Network’ and working with startup company Spearfish Labs in the Social Media sphere. My current projects include work with Tour Players Experience, Barking Abbey Basketball and Reading Rockets after a number of years of working on events with World Snooker, English Table Tennis, Ladies European Tour and Badminton England. Most recently I managed over £2m worth of contracts as the sponsorship manager at Glamorgan Cricket Club. A lover of all sports, player of a few and ardent Manchester United fan. You can follow my regular tweets on @danielmclaren.
Chris Conway
Chris worked in banking for over 10 years as a management accountant before deciding to change careers and transition to the sports industry. He has recently completed a MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management. The course incorporated a semester at Stern business school, New York University where Chris specialised in sports marketing, sports economics and digital marketing. These studies were supplemented by a four month sports marketing internship at New York Sportimes where Chris managed social media and assisted with PR and communications.
The Sportimes is a professional tennis franchise that plays in the World Team Tennis league and features legends McEnroe and Clijsters on its roster. Chris still resides in New York and is enjoying immersing himself in what is happening on and off the field in all the sports that the city has to offer– from the Yankees to the rugby union Churchill Cup. A close follower of the latest trends in sports marketing and social media,
Chris has seized the opportunity to be a contributing author for this site. He is hoping to land a marketing role and assist sports organisations with his expertise when he returns to Sydney late 2010. Chris is a lover of all sports, a part- time road runner and a grass-roots rugby union coach. You can follow his regular tweets on @chrisconway74.
Les Reed
Les is a football coach. After winning promotion to the Premier League with Charlton Athletic in 1998 he was headhunted by the F.A to become Director of Technical Development and eventually succeeded Howard Wilkinson as Technical Director. In the intervening years he coached every England team from under 15 to the National Team and assisted Kevin Keegan.
Les left the FA in 2004 and started his consultancy business Sports Associated Solutions Ltd. Les has experienced almost every job possible in football. Having coached and managed in the Premier League with Charlton Athletic and Fulham where he was also Technical Director He is now advising professional clubs and football federations around the world. Les has a worldwide reputation for Coach Education and Player Development and is author of ‘successful team coaching’ published by the F.A. and a DVD ‘England skills uncovered’.
Les was part of the team that developed the Charter for Quality and was the architect of the International Player Development programme ‘Club England’ which oversaw the International development of most of the current England squad. Les has coached most of today’s top English players and very rarely is a match televised these days without one or more players appearing having been coached by him at some stage. He has been head coach at several youth and under 21 world and European championships and has experience at three World Cups and a European Championship with the senior team.
Internationally he has also coached Northern Ireland and worked in the Republic, Turkey, Croatia, Africa and the Caribbean and in Latvia, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong and New Zealand.
Mark Segal
Mark Segal (@segalmark on Twitter) is a journalist and online editor with over 10 years experience working for national media outlets. He is currently football editor of the website of a major broadcaster and has written a number of freelance articles on the growth of social media in football. A lapsed West Ham fan, Mark now spends the weekends he has off trying to explain to his two young children why a programme where you watch men watching football is so compelling.
Karl Lusbec
Cut my arm, there will be football and only football coming out. Indeed, not only I am a former semi professional football player, I also combined my love of this sport with a solid marketing experience at adidas Headquarters for more than 7 years. I was the Asset Marketing Manager for global football clubs and federations such as AC Milan, Liverpool and France to name a few.
In a nutshell, I contributed to the success of the AC Milan Junior Camps worldwide and link the Rossonero brand to youth development. As for The Reds, the first year partnership was a tremendous success as the home jersey reached the biggest sales within the adidas club portfolio. I was also involved in two FIFA World Cups; FIFA World Cup 2002 where I built a range from scratch for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and monitor top notch sports marketing activities onsite. FIFA World Cup 2006 as the Asset Manager for the French and Argentina Federations……although none of them lifted the trophy, it was an amazing onsite experience.
Then, a great move at EA Sports where I experienced working on football in the virtual world to complete my career path. Oh by the way, I am a goalkeeper. The one who does not hesitate to lift up his sleeves and dig into the mud to get the job done. In my articles, I will try not to be too harsh on the goalies, but forgive me if I am too biased with them.
Chris Hughes
Chris is Head of PR and Communications at Sine Qua Non and has extensive experience in the motorsport arena. Chris was one of the original members of Panasonic Toyota Racing’s Marketing and Communications team and was jointly responsible for building up the team’s Formula 1 press office from scratch. Chris stayed with Toyota for over five years, developing his PR role at the race track, at the factory and within the corporation, eventually assuming a Corporate Communications position within the Cologne-based squad.
Prior to joining Sine Qua Non, Chris was responsible for MotoGP communications at Bridgestone Motorsport. Working from an Account Director position, his remit was to create a fully-functioning and efficient MotoGP press office within the Bridgestone organisation. Chris established Bridgestone as one of the most professional and respected PR departments in the MotoGP paddock, reporting directly to Bridgestone Corporation in Japan and in close collaboration with the company’s European headquarters in Brussels and Formula 1/GP2 team in the UK.
Chris is a fluent German and Italian speaker and brings to Sine Qua Non his vast experience in the sports PR and marketing field, allied to nearly a decade of first-hand involvement with global corporations.
Ash Read
Ash is the co-founder of FundSport.com a grassroots sports community providing sports clubs and athletes from around the world with professional, easy-to-understand advice and articles on all aspects of grassroots sport including sponsorship, fundraising, the Internet, social media, club management, PR and marketing. As well as being passionate about the development of grassroots sport Ash also has a keen involvement in the sports social media industry. Ash also writes for www.sportsnetworker.com and Ipswich Town FC fanzine. You can follow Ash on Twitter at @ashread14 and www.ashread.com
Daniel Geey
Daniel is a solicitor in the Competition and EU Regulatory Group of Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP. Daniel advises entities wishing to invest in the football industry, specifically in relation to the fit and proper person test, conflicts of interest, multiple club ownership and third party player ownership. Daniel also advises clients in relation to UK and European wide football broadcasting issues. He has received Masters degrees in European competition law and in European football broadcasting rights and writes extensively in a variety of sports related law journals. Daniel has also lectured on football law issues at Birkbeck and Nottingham University as well as speaking at various sports conferences on topics including football broadcasting rights and Premier League ownership regulations. Daniel edits On the Ball, his lawfirm’s football specific newsletter
Ardi Kolah
Ardi has been one of the most influential voices in global sales & marketing and communication industries for the past decade and is a prolific conference speaker/chairman and author on all aspects of sales and marketing and communication. In 2003, he was independently ranked by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of the top 50 gurus in the world on marketing alongside Philip Kotler, Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell, Martin Lindstrom, Don Peppers and Sergio Zyman.
He has achieved in excess of £2m in global book sales and is often the key note speaker at sales & marketing and communication conferences around the world and writes a regular blog for Brand Republic, the UK Sports Network and Guru in a Bottle.
Rick Liebling
Rick is a marketing communications / branding consultant with more than a dozen years of global sports sponsorship experience. He’s helped brands such as MasterCard, Gillette, Johnnie Walker, adidas and Yahoo! leverage their sports sponsorships. Rick has been on the ground across the globe, executing sponsorship activations at the FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Championships, UEFA Champions League, F1 and ICC Cricket World Cup. He resides in the New York City area and is the founder of Arsenal America, the official supporters club of Arsenal FC. You can read his blog at http://www.rickliebling.com
Steven Falk
Graduating from Manchester University in 1978 where he took a BA (Honours) degree in Psychology. There followed progressively senior roles in the Marketing and Commercial departments of Astra Zeneca; United Utilities; Great Universal Stores and MBNA, latterly as Head of Affinity Marketing and Senior Vice President. In 2001, Steven joined Manchester United as Director of Financial Services. Following the successful planning, launch and development of the MU Finance business promoting a range of club-branded FS products to fans in over 20 countries worldwide Steven was promoted to Director of Marketing & Commercial Services, adding Sponsor Relationship Management, Brand Marketing, CRM and Club Pre-Season Tours to his existing Financial Services responsibilities. He served as a member of the Executive Committee of Manchester United and a board director of Manchester United Foundation the club’s charitable trading arm.
In January 2010, Steven launched Star Sports Marketing, a specialist sports marketing consultancy. Details at www.starsportsmarketing.com. Steven is a regular contributor of articles on these subjects to the Marketing press and has worked with the World Academy of Sport at Manchester Business School as an expert contributor to the Executive Sports Management Education programme.
Ed Hartigan
Ed has been involved in new media and emerging technologies since 2001 when he co-founded OnCampus and built it up to be the largest online publisher in the UK student market until leaving in 2008. Founder of Spearfish Labs, a communication company in 2010. We use the latest emerging and social technologies to help organisations of all shapes and sizes communicate better, internally and with their customers with a focus on the Sports & Entertainment industries and specialise in builidng programs that bring the clubs or athletes closer to the fans. www.spearfishlabs.com
Alex Pavlou
Alex is a Sponsorship Consultant at Major Players, who for 15 years have been recruiting for the Marketing and Creative industries and developing a reputation as one of the most respected names in the industry. He has worked with some of the top companies in the Sponsorship and Sports Marketing industry across agencies, brands and rights holders. With a passion for the Sponsorship industry, Alex regular writes for his blog at alexpavlou.wordpress.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexpavlou or link in with him by going to http://uk.linkedin.com/in/alexpavlou
Jim Cowan
Jim is a former athlete (800m), coach, event organiser and sports development specialist who owns and runs Cowan Global which is a strategy and sponsorship consultancy working with clients from a number of sectors including corporate, sport, military, charity, the police and local authorities. Cowan Global are also event organisers and Jim also has extensive experience in the field, perhaps best known for coming up with the original idea for, designed and launched the UK’s largest women’s participation event, the Race For Life. Jim’s events have, to date, raised over £1/4 Billion for charities and good causes. @cowanglobal
Anthony Alsop
Owner of SportSpiel in Australia, a blog and web2.0 and social media consulting business. He specialises in working with the sporting industry and has helped launch social media campaigns for the Essendon Football Club, former Test cricket Damien Martyn, former All-Australian AFL ruckman Jeff White and golfer Adam Scott. Runs the successful and groundbreaking ‘Digital Sports Summit’ which took place in Melbourne in 2010 with over 150 attendees. @anthonyalsop
