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.

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.

After being hospitalised three times with stress related heart problems and burnout, which included flat-lining in the emergency room, Craig Johns realised that he needed to be more than a leader of high performance and become a high performing leader. He has now transferred those strategies into working with CEO’s, senior executives, coaches and leaders from some of the world's leading companies including Nestle, P&G, K-Swiss, AIG, Boyden and Nike.

Born in New Zealand, Craig has 25 successful years of experience leading, managing, coaching and providing sport science around the globe. He has directed and organised over 300 sporting events and workshops. As an elite athlete he competed at the Hawaii Ironman, four World Triathlon Championships and continues to play competitive golf. A hip replacement and second pacemaker, at the age of 30, meant a full-time shift to focusing on being a high performance leader, CEO and National Head Coach.

He has coached and managed 3x Olympians, 10x World Championship athletes, 21x national champions and a 3x Ironman Japan Champion. He has worked with world leaders such as the Dalai Lama, Mind and Life Institute, WTA Tennis, IRONMAN Triathlon, LTAT and over 100 Olympians and World Champions.

Living in 5 countries, Craig has held senior executive and CEO roles at Thanyapura, Taipei American School, Triathlon ACT, and is the founder and CEO of NRG2Perform. He is the host of the active CEO Podcast, a keynote speaker, high performance consultant and is currently authoring Breaking The CEO Code.

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.

Girish Ramachandran is President, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Asia Pacific (APAC). In this role, he is responsible for strategy, growth and business operations in Australia, New Zealand, ASEAN, Greater China and Korea. Under his leadership, TCS APAC has consistently contributed to TCS’s industry-leading growth.

Girish joined TCS in 1994 and in his 24- year career with TCS, has held a wide variety of leadership positions across key parts of TCS’s business. Girish personifies TCS’s commitment to helping its clients “Experience certainty”. As Head of TCS Europe for 9 years, he leveraged on his strength of developing strong client relationships, backed with a disciplined focus on operations and execution to enable TCS Europe achieve record growth in revenues and margins. Subsequent to his stint in Europe, Girish headed TCS’s Middle East, Africa and the Mediterranean region. He later, took up the position of Corporate Vice-President in the CEO’s office in Mumbai where he rolled out several global strategic initiatives setting the tone for TCS’s rapid growth.

A proven leader and a strong proponent of Business 4.0 philosophy, Girish’ passion and commitment to innovation and technology extends beyond the world of business. Girish serves on the board of Amsterdam based Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), a pioneer in global sustainability reporting. He is a member of CII International Council and also serves on the International Boards of Nyenrode University in Netherlands. He is a recipient of the Frans Banninck Cocq Medal from the Mayor of Amsterdam in recognition of his meritorious service to the city of Amsterdam.  In 2017, The Australian Government appointed Girish as the Business Champion for New Colombo Plan. In 2018, Singapore Human Resource Institute (SHRI), recognized Girish with the “Leading CEO” award amongst a list of top CEOs.

Girish holds a Master’s degree in Management from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai and a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Technology from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore.

Harald is the co-founder of the Open Swim Stars series with former olympic swimmers Stephan Caron and Laurent Neuville.

Harald, Stephan and Laurent launched the Open Swim Stars adventure in 2012 in an effort to give back to the sport what it brought to them and to share our passion for swimming, the values it brings to people and the respect of the environment.

The dream started by reviving a legendary event: the swim across Paris. Led by former olympic swimmers, the attempt was immediately supported by the swimming community, institutions and the media. Since then, several open water swimming events have been created and the series expanded to 10 more cities in Europe and a few destinations in South East Asia. To date, more than 25,000 swimmers of all levels and abilities have taken part in the Swim Stars events around the world, making it one of the biggest open water series.

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.

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.

In 3Q-2018, Narongchai took up the Group CFO role at DTC, a well-known, long-established Thai hotel brand since 1940s. DTC offers full range of hospitality services ranging from luxury brands (Dusit Thani, Dusit Devarana) to mid-scale (Dusit D2, Dusit Princess) to lifestyle/new gen (ASAI) to villa management (Elite Havens). The group also diversified beyond hotel businesses including education, foods and property development.

Narongchai is now responsible for transforming the finance function to be able to cope with new requirements, help drive the business through the transformation phase in a new multi-business environment as well as head up the Dusit Central Park project, a 5-year US$1bn 444,000 sq.m. mixed used development project comprising of hotel, residences, office and retail space. Situated in the heart of city, Dusit Central Park will definitely be the new landmark overseeing Suan Lumphini, the Central Park of Bangkok.

Narongchai has over 25 years in banking industry working in multiple banks such as BofA, Citi, StanChart, Siam Commercial, and CIMB. His last post prior to joining DTC was as CFO of THAI Airways. As the first outsider to the position, he transformed finance function to a more robust, more efficient, more business oriented with financial insights for business decision. He also succeeded in managing a highly fluctuated FX P&L (resulting from 50+ transactional currencies operation as well as large assets & liabilities mismatched). His achievement also earned him the Asia’s best CFO award from Corporate Treasurer in Singapore in Mar-2018.

Narongchai has great interest in sport where he played golf for over 30 years. He started taking up long-distance running in Jun-2014 and now completed 14 full marathons. He also earned Abbott World Marathon Major in completing 6 marathon majors in the span of 2 years (London, Berlin, New York in 2017; Tokyo, Boston, Chicago in 2018) – the 3rd Thai to do so and probably the fastest Thai to achieve the six majors. He also does cycling and now has started to get into swimming in the past 2 years.

He obtained a bachelor degree in Economics from Thammasat University, an MBA in Finance from University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and a MS in Information Systems from Golden Gate University, San Francisco.

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).

Robert de Castella AO MBE (Deek) was blessed with high aspirations and expectations.

He ruled the world through the 1980’s in the most demanding running event, the marathon, setting world records, winning the World Championships, the Commonwealth Games marathon twice and is still the fastest Australian over the distance, with a winning time of 2.07:51 in the 1986 Boston marathon.

What environment, culture and attitudes enabled this Australian to beat the world, in an event now dominated by the famous African athletes?

Rob has not stopped achieving after hanging up his marathon shoes.

He led the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) through its golden era, building a winning culture leading into the Sydney 2000 Olympic, and in 2003 he showed incredible resilience and leadership after the devastation of the Canberra fires that took four lives and destroyed 400 homes – including his home and all his memorabilia and belonging. In the immediate aftermath of this devastation, he worked on the four person ACT Government Bushfire Recovery Task Force in the healing and rebuilding of Canberra’s spirit and infrastructure.

In 2005 he co-founded Deeks Health Foods (www.deeks.com.au), a national gourmet grain-free health food manufacturer and wholesaler, pioneering quality health foods free from grains and gluten and supporting people with compromised health and immune function.

He is passionate and concerned about children’s health, especially child obesity and the increasing levels of their physical dysfunction.

In 2010 he launched the Indigenous Marathon Foundation (IMF) (www.imf.org.au), a registered DGR health promotion charity that uses running to celebrate Indigenous health, wellbeing and pride and create inspiration Indigenous leaders. Each year IMF selects twelve Indigenous men and women (18 to 30 years old) most non-runners, and in just six months take them on a transformational journey to run the New York City Marathon.

He remain in great shape, keeping physically active every day, with running and is a Sensei in traditional Okinawan karate having been graded to Yondan (4^th degree black belt) in 2017.

As a sought after speaker, he draws on his amazing background and experiences to tell stories that entertain, inspires with change lives.

Sarah is the Head of Partnership Marketing, APAC for City Football Group.

With a passion for partnerships and over 15 years experience working in sports marketing across Asia and the Middle East, Sarah has spent her career working with local, regional and global corporate brands to extract maximum, measurable value from sports partnerships.

Sarah is currently responsible for CFG’s partnership marketing operation in APAC and (working with an outstanding team) delivering ‘best in class’ activation strategy and support to the diverse portfolio of commercial partnerships for Manchester City Football Club and other CFG clubs across the region. In addition, Sarah is responsible for the Group Marketing function and developing the City brand in the region with a focus on fan acquisition and engagement across platforms.

A bold, strategic and creative approach has led Sarah to advising a range of rights holders and corporate brands across a diverse range of industry sectors including automotive, healthcare, banking & finance, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, robotics, mobile technology, media to name a few.

Sarah has lived in Singapore for 10 years and outside of work is equally consumed by football with her 2 'energetic' little boys!