Born in Venice in 1964, Andrea graduated in Business Economics at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, where he attended the UPA Master in Business Communication.In 2008, after having been the General Manager of the Venice Marathon for twelve years, he started an intense collaboration with RCS Sports & Events. He was called to organize the Milan Marathon, of which he became Event Director. Over the years, he has transformed it from a “one-day race” to a major sporting event attracting thousands runners all around the world.He is also Race Director of the Abu Dhabi Marathon and Ras Al Khaima Half Marathon in UAE.In the last years, he has been involved in the development of mass participation events, thus helping to diversify RCS Sports & Events activities, introducing in Italy new successful events linked to international trends and formats such as the Fisherman’s Friend Strongman Run, The Color Run, and the Electric Run and many others.He has also been coordinating the development of the Gran Fondo cycling events, managing the Gran Fondo Strade Bianche and the Gran Fondo Lombardia, and responsible for the license project “Ride Like a Pro”.Also, he is a life coach and among the other activities he carries out, he teaches “Event Management” in various Masters’ programs organized by a number of Universities in Italy.

Andrew Griffiths is best described as an entrepreneurial futurist - in other words he specialises in future proofing businesses across virtually every industry and in every corner of the planet. With 13 bestselling books sold in 65 countries, and a client base that includes organisations such as the European Union, CBS, Hewlett Package, Hertz, Telstra and Newscorp, to mention just a few of the 500 organisations he has worked with, he is clearly sought after to provide advice and wisdom for the smallest of businesses to the largest of organisations. Andrew is able to share his observations, experiences and research from around to world to identify the exact steps any organisation needs to take to become future proof. And he delivers his advice in a down to earth, simple and often hilarious way.

Azran is currently the founding CEO of Naluri, a digital health technology company that provides a cost-effective and accessible digital health psychology service, to help users adopt healthier lifestyle behaviour changes. He is active in the internet technology space as a co-founder, investor and advisor to iflix, MoneyMatch, Cognifyx, and YellowPorter.He was previously the CEO of iflix in Malaysia and its Group COO – a disruptive internet television video-on-demand service that was launched in Kuala Lumpur in May 2015, and now operates across over 30 markets across Asia, Middle East and Africa with 700 employees less than three years from launch.Previously, Azran pioneered the long-haul, low-cost airline model as the founding CEO of AirAsia X. He led the growth from start-up to US$1 billion in revenue, 2500 employees, and a public-listing in six years, breaking many low-cost airline industry conventions and introducing innovations.Azran held previous positions as Senior Director of Business Development at Astro All Asia Networks, SVP of Business Transformation at the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange, and Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company. He holds a Masters degree in Management Science & Engineering and a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering, both from Stanford University. He is also a Fellow of CPA Australia.He personally went through the journey from being clinically overweight to an Ironman triathlete.

A 30-year veteran of the mass participation sports events industry, Chris was born in Zimbabwe where he grew up on a farm he organized his first fun run at the age of 16 to help raise funds for the resurfacing of his school “cinder” athletics track.From there, he moved to University in South Africa where he cut his teeth in the industry and spent as much time organising and working on events, like the world famous Comrades marathon and South African Marathon Championships as he did studying for his Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Agricultural Management Degrees.After leaving university he spent four years traveling through Europe, America, Asia and Australia before settling in Sydney in 1989 where he founded Spectrum Worldwide.One of his career highlights came in the year 2000 when Chris worked on the Sydney Olympics as the Road Events Supervisor.In 2002 he expanded the business to Singapore to deliver the inaugural JP Morgan Corporate Challenge. Spectrum Worldwide now delivers some of the regions largest mass participation sports events including the Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore (55,000) runners and the Cycle Asia network of events that attracts nearly 25,000 cyclists to events in Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Australia.Chris sold Spectrum Worldwide to IRONMAN in 2016 and founded Mass Participation Asia, an annual conference for stakeholders across the mass participation sports industry to get together with the objective of fostering collaboration and driving best practices.Today, Mass Participation Asia has been rebranded to Mass Participation World to reflect its global objectives where Chris provides consulting services to events, brands, and governments on top of creating mass participation IP. He is also an avid presenter at conferences and provides mentorship to other business owners and entrepreneurs through the renowned accelerator programme, Key Person of Influence. Business aside, Chris is an advisory board member of Free to Shine, a Cambodian charity that helps prevent sex trafficking of young girls.Chris is passionate about all sports, especially cycling and running and the fact that he has taken part in so many events as a participant gives him a unique insight into what his customers want.There are very few people with Chris’s depth and breadth of knowledge in the mass participation sports industry.

Craig is a retired Commissioned Police Officer with 29 years of experience with the NSW Police Force.Craig has consulted to major organisations in the public and private sector in regard to Risk Management, Threat Management, Emergency Management, Crowd Management, Threat Environment and Counter Terrorism training.Craig held a senior management role as Commander of the State Planning Unit, Major Events & Incidents Group, NSW Police Force focused on strategic leadership, public order management, emergency management, strategic planning, continuous improvement, risk management and business/ operations planning. Craig was responsible for the development, maintenance and lecturing of the Incident Commanders Course at the NSW Police Force Leadership College.Craig was the key NSWPF contact for The Department of Premier and Cabinet (Protocol and Special Events Division) and Destination NSW. This included responsibility for activation of the Police Operations Centre/Government Coordination Centre in the event of a major incident or emergency.Craig led the NSWPF Operational planning response for over 100 Major Operations State-wide including operational support for emergency management response this extended interstate and abroad. Major coordination operations included the NSWPF response for the G20 events in NSW held during 2014 and was part of the security working group planning the G20 events within Australia for 2014, the NSWPF Security response and planning to the 2015 Asian Football Cup and the ICC Cricket World Cup.To read Craig's full bio, CLICK HERE.

Born in Buenos Aires, Iris has a Degree in Law from the University of Buenos Aires, a Master's Degree in Administration and Public Policy from the INAP-University of Alcalá, and a Master's Degree in Digital Economics from the School of Industrial Organization. She has obtained the research proficiency of the PhD in Applied Economics from the University of Alcalá.Iris has developed her professional career linked to the promotion of entrepreneurship, and support of small and medium enterprises from the public-private perspective, both in Latin America and in Spain with a major emphasis on cultural industries, Spanish economy, sports, and entertainment industry.She spent 6 years with the Plataforma del Español, an innovative non-profit business association that promotes the positioning of the Spanish language as an economic resource, and entrepreneurship in the cultural industries sector.Since the beginning of 2015, she has set up and runs the Global Sports Innovation Center powered by Microsoft, a collaborative initiative between the public, private and academic sectors, which aims to promote innovation in the sports industry, creating an ecosystem that is currently composed of more than 200 companies and institutions that in a coordinated way generate synergies and value projects in the sector.Other than that, Iris actively participates as a speaker, mentor and jury in startup competitions and in events linked to sports and technology on national and international levels such as Sports Analytics World Series, The SPOT, TEKAN TEN by Asics, WFStartcup by GSIC, among the others.In 2016, she was recognized as one of the 10 most influential women in the sports industry according to the ranking published annually by Metadeporte magazine. Likewise, in 2017 she was a candidate to be one of the top 100 women leaders in Spain of the magazine Mujeres y Cía.She is an active member in various forums, such as the CSD woman, the Sports Committee of the Spanish Association of Women Marketing, Soccer in Words from the Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library or Engagement de Mujeres y Cía. Iris is also a member of World Football Summit Advisory Board. In 2018 she entered the list of Top 100 Famale Leades of Spain in the category Revelation and Entrepreneurs. At the end of 2018, Metadeporte magazine named iris Córdoba one of the 20 most influential women in the sports industry in Spain.

Johnny Little is the Vice President of Global Licensing and Product at Tough Mudder Inc., the global live events and lifestyle brand.  Tough Mudder delivers 120+ events in 16 countries, has 4+ million lifetime participants, and a global tribe spreading the mission of transforming lives through unconventional teamwork experiences.  Initially, Johnny was brought on to transform the bespoke obstacle construction of TM into an efficient operation/design that enabled each obstacle to be built repeatedly from event to event site. Currently, he guides the evolution of the Tough Mudder product offerings as they expand further around the globe.  With Johnny’s direction, licensed Tough Mudder events have grown by 120% in 2019 from 2018 and are slated to double again in 2020. He’s tested every obstacle and takes on endurance racing endeavors regularly, like Ironman and marathons.

Sports Capital Advisors (SCA) CEO - Marcus John is a 23-year veteran of international marketing, media and sport leadership roles. He is renowned for his in-depth international sports rights knowledge, strong deal-making skills, operational expertise and strategic vision in scaling businesses across markets. SCA provides sports and media specific board advisory services and is planning to launch a purely sports, media and technology focused private equity fund and to provide a bridge between Asian and North American/European sports assets and their respective investor base.SCA’s focus covers 6 main areas within the sports ecosystem:

• Technology – apps, e-sports, gaming and health solutions
• Agencies – specialized services to corporate sponsors and event owners
• IP/Properties – events both stand alone as well as leagues and series
• Media Rights – with a primary focus on OTT rights
• Professional Teams – sports franchises and club investments/buyouts
• Bridge Financing for franchises or clubs

Prior to his current role, he was Executive Vice President at Lagardere Sports. His remit was to advise LS’s international consulting client base on all issues and opportunities around the world’s largest sports properties such as the Olympic Games, FIFA WC, UEFA CL and major golf events.Previous to this, he was Global Head of Sports for MediaCom Worldwide, where he worked with the firm’s and WPP’s global clients and account heads to lead the commercial and strategic relationships with the world’s premier sports rights holders and provide clients with first hand access to these opportunities.He also represented Pele and other high profile stars in their respective commercial endeavors as well as advised Formula-E and other properties on their respective go to market strategies. He is an early investor in Formula-E and other disruptive technologies.Prior to MediaCom, he spent 10 years in different senior executive positions (MD Asia/Pacific Consulting) at IMG completing his tenure as SVP & Managing Director, China. He worked with a large number of corporations successfully negotiating and implementing major commercial sports and media rights.He has worked across 5 Olympic Games and several WC’s and with a wide variety of corporations such as GE, Volkswagen, VISA, Bridgestone, Adidas and Johnson & Johnson ensuring their rights were fully leveraged and activated throughout their entire organization.He also has extensive experience in strategic planning and corporate advisory services on a broad range of brand, sponsorship and media issues.Prior to joining IMG, he first worked at sports and entertainment firm Octagon/Advantage International, where he represented professional athletes across all commercial endorsement areas and later at ESPN STAR Sports, where he ran and promoted major international sporting properties for international broadcast such as FIFA and ATP TOUR events.Mr. John holds an MBA in Strategic Management, is multi-lingual and lives in Singapore with his family. In his spare time he enjoys running, skiing, flying and sailing.

Matt co-founded Two Circles, the data-driven sports marketing agency, in 2011. The business has grown significantly since, driven by an exceptional client retention rate, and today employs just under 200 people worldwide – servicing over 100 clients including the NFL, Premier League and UEFA. As Chairman, Matt supports and challenges a talented team to grow the business with quality.A Cambridge University graduate, Matt’s career began within a Bain/McKinsey spinout strategy consultancy before he moved to the NBA (National Basketball Association) to serve as European Marketing Manager. From there he moved to music and entertainment network MTV, where he ran the European Sponsorship team, and specialist learning and development consultancy Lane4, where he led the business side of the organisation as Group Commercial Director.In addition to his Two Circles commitments, Matt is a non-executive director of the English Institute of Sport (EIS), advising on information management. He also co-authored Britain and the Olympic Games: Past Present Legacy in 2010, while his writing has featured in Harvard Business Review, including the ‘Must Reads on Leadership’ series in 2018.Matt lives in Oxfordshire with his wife Claire (Two Circles CFO) and two children. As well as playing competitive tennis, he managed to squeeze in Ironman Switzerland before the kids were born, qualified for and ran the Boston Marathon in 2014, and is now on an enduring journey to have a race organiser recognize a sub-19 minute 5K. His watch has said 18:59, but official systems are having none of it and he remains stuck at 19:01.

Mike is one of the leading authorities in the global sports industry having celebrated over 30 years of working in sport in 2019.In 1989 he established his own technology consultancy business which specialised in developing sports information systems for international sports federations.From 1989 through to 2006 he worked for five international federations:

• International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF)
• World Sailing (WS)
• International Tennis Federation (ITF)
• World Archery (WA)
• Badminton World Federation (BWF).

In 1991 Mike founded Sportcal and developed the business from initially providing a sports calendar to establishing Sportcal as the leading provider of sports market intelligence and daily news worldwide.Sportcal established a global client base ranging from international federations, Olympic organisations, broadcasters, agencies, sponsors, governments, cities, national clubs, teams, financial organisations through to a wide variety of service providers.In 2011 Mike launched the Global Sports Impact Project which sought to establish a standard methodology for measuring the impact of a sports event and published an annual report on the impact of sport.From 2011 to 2016 Mike worked as the lead consultant to the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) on an Olympic data project.In March 2019 Mike launched Global Sports Strategies which aims to help key stakeholders in the sports industry achieve better outcomes through sport.

Michael Nishi is the Executive Vice President for Chicago Event Management. Nishi oversees the production of all events with a particular focus in event operations, emergency response and sustainability logistics.Since 1990, Nishi has partnered with Carey Pinkowski as General Manager and Executive Race Director of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, respectively. With his extensive operational knowledge, Nishi was integral in guiding a local road race of 6,000 runners to a world-class event that saw over 44,500 marathon finishers in 2018. In addition to his work on the Chicago Marathon, Nishi is a driving force in increasing the exchange of ideas and best practices among events of all size and scope. Recognizing the unique issues of the endurance sports industry, Nishi founded the Race Management Program ten years ago to offer event organizers an intimate forum to share ideas with one another. As an active leader in the running industry, he continues to advocate for greater safety and security not only for Chicago Event Management clients but also for events around the world.He also realizes the impact endurance events has on the community. Chicago Event Management's increased focus on sustainability allows us to provide training, education and real-life application, our events provide individuals with skills that can be used to sustain and enhance their own communities.An avid runner and cyclist, Nishi sits on the board of Girls on the Run Chicago and is a committee member at City Garden Pre-School in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. He and his wife Dona, and their two daughters, live in Chicago where they are active community members in their Little Italy neighborhood.

Ravi Krishnan is a key and prominent name in the business of Sports, Media and Entertainment (SME) in India. He was featured in Sports Illustrated at No. 27 in the 50 Most Influential People in Indian Sport (February 2010). Ravi was also featured in Business Today (2004) as one of India’s Top 25 Executives under the age of 40. He has been awarded the ‘Entrepreneur of the Year in Service Business – Fitness’ award at the 5th edition of the Entrepreneur India 2015 Awards.Ravi, a lawyer by training, moved to India from Australia as a part of the four-member team sent, in 1995, to set up IMG’s operations in India. The ensuing 24 years has seen Ravi develop an enormous well of experience in conducting business in the Indian subcontinent. Through various sponsorship and marketing deals with India’s largest companies, Ravi has cultivated a formidable range of business and personal relationships.At IMG, he was instrumental in creating properties such as the Sahara Cup, The Aircel Chennai Open, (India’s only ATP event) Lakme India Fashion Week, Royal Challenge Indian Open Golf Tournament, Avantha Masters and Philips National Football League amongst many other events across several genres.In April 2006, in his quest to explore new territories, Ravi continued in an advisory role at IMG, and promoted Abler Advisory Pvt. Ltd., a company focused primarily on providing business advisory services, project counselling and investor consultancy services in sports, media and entertainment.Ravi also played a key strategic role, in the capacity of Vice Chairman, with the Rajasthan Royals, champions of Indian Premier League 2008, in advising the Franchise on Commercial, Player, Operational and Strategic matters.In April 2009, Ravi returned to IMG India as the Managing Director South Asia/Senior VP IMG. In addition to consolidating and growing events such as IPL, Aircel Chennai Open, Lakme Fashion Week, Ravi was charged with developing potential new business opportunities in the field of Sports, Entertainment and Media. Other notable achievements include being involved in the formation of a Joint Venture with Reliance Industries Ltd. to form IMG Reliance, which oversaw the securing of long-term arrangements with both the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) and the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to develop those Sports in India.Since leaving IMG, Ravi has been on a path to create an IP focused SME business, partnering/ advising global stakeholders on market entry and establishment in India.Ravi is the Chairman of KWANAbler, a Company focused on partnering global stakeholders in Sports, Media and Entertainment looking to create long term value for both sides in the Indian market. In this venture, he has partnered with KWAN, India's premier marketplace for entertainment and pop culture.In 2019, KWANAbler has partnered with City Football Group owners of Manchester City FC to build commercial opportunities in India.Ravi has also joined the World’s First Franchisee-Based Motor Racing Series, X1 Racing League as Chairman (NE). The League is backed and sanctioned by the Federation Internationale de I’Automobile (FIA) and the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI).