Michael DAVIES

EVP, Field and Technical Operations, FOX Sports

Michael Davies oversees the daily operations and technological advancements of live broadcasts at FOX Sports. With nearly 30 years in sports television, he brings extensive experience in technical production and innovation, excelling in coordinating global teams for major live sporting events. As the leader of field and technical operations, Davies manages a dedicated and passionate team responsible for delivering FOX Sports' wide-ranging live broadcasts, including high-profile events such as Super Bowls, FIFA World Cups, MLB Postseason, Daytona 500, and marquee NCAA College Football games and pregame programming. Davies' expertise in developing technical partnerships has significantly improved production quality and viewer experiences across multiple platforms. He is known for adopting cutting-edge and experimental technologies to elevate live sports coverage. Before joining FOX Sports in 2006 as Director of Field Operations, Davies gained valuable experience at HBO Sports. His work has earned multiple Sports Emmy Awards for technical team remotes and long-form programming in NASCAR, FIFA, MLB, and NFL. An inventor, he also holds patents for several innovations in sports broadcasting. In addition to his work at FOX, Davies serves as Chairman of the Sports Video Group (sportsvideo.org), where he supports professionals and companies in the industry. He resides in Los Angeles and Virginia with his son, Kai.

Ken KERSCHBAUMER

Editorial Director, SVG

Ken Kerschbaumer is co-executive director of editorial services for the Sports Video Group and SVG Europe. He has been writing about how sports networks and leagues use video and audio technology to deliver a quality TV experience since 1991. In 2000, he joined Broadcasting & Cable magazine as senior editor of technology where he covered technology for the broadcast industry. He helped launch SVG and SVG Europe in 2006 and today the company holds events for sports production professionals around the world.

Eric FISHER

Newsletter Writer, FRONT OFFICE SPORTS

Eric Fisher, a three-decade veteran of the news business, is a newsletter writer at Front Office Sports, serving as the one of the lead voices for The Memo, the outlet’s flagship, twice-daily newsletter. He joined FOS in 2023 after prior editing and reporting roles with SportBusiness, Sports Business Journal, The Washington Times, and the Easton (Md.) Star Democrat. Fisher has reported from some of the biggest events in sports, including the Super Bowl, World Series, all-star games in every major league, and World Baseball Classic. Originally from upstate New York, Fisher now lives in northern New Jersey, and is a graduate of St. Bonaventure University.

Kirsten CORIO

Chief Commercial Officer, USTA

Kirsten Corio is the Chief Commercial Officer of the USTA. In this role, she is responsible for revenue generation for the US Open, including ticket sales, hospitality, global media rights, and sponsorship as well as digital strategy, business intelligence, analytics, and CRM. Prior to the USTA, Kirsten spent 15 years at the NBA in its TMBO division, working alongside its 30 teams to optimize team business results. Corio hails from Woodstock, NY, and currently resides in Tenafly NJ with her husband, Chen, 15 year old daughter, Chloe, and 10 year old son, Dean.

Nilay SHAH

Marketing & Brand Strategy, NEW YORK GIANTS

Marketing and media professional with over 15+ years of experience leading strategy for a top ten most valuable sports franchise. Focus areas include creating fully integrated campaigns and platforms tied to content development, sponsorship strategy, ticketing revenue and audience growth. Additional areas of focus include digital & social media strategy, performance marketing, branding and creative, and strategic communications.

Boris GARTNER

President, RELEVENT SPORTS and CEO, LALIGA NORTH AMERICA

Boris is a sports and media executive currently serving as President and Partner at Relevent Sports, the premier global sports marketing and media organization dedicated to commercializing international soccer. He also serves as CEO of LALIGA North America, a joint venture between Relevent Sports and LALIGA, Spain’s top-flight soccer competition and professional association. Relevent Sports is part of Stephen Ross’ sports and entertainment portfolio, which includes the Miami Dolphins, Hard Rock Stadium, Miami F1 Grand Prix, and the Miami Open Tennis. Previously, Boris was as Chief Operating Officer for Grupo Televisa’s Content Division, the world’s largest Spanish-language content producer. In this role, he oversaw corporate strategy, business management, and company operations for the group’s content unit. Before joining Televisa, Boris held various executive positions at Univision Communications Inc., including serving as part of the founding team and Chief Operating Officer of Fusion Media, a joint venture between Univision Communications Inc. and Disney/ABC Television Group. He also served as VP and GM of Univision’s in-house digital studio, and VP of Strategy and New Initiatives for Univision Noticias.

Wim SWELDENS

Co-Founder & CMO, KISWE

Wim is the Co-Founder and CMO of Kiswe, a pioneer in direct-to-consumer streaming. He is also responsible for the partnership between Kiswe and the Olympics. Previously Wim was the head of the Alcatel-Lucent Mobile Division and Ventures Group. Wim has a PhD in Applied Mathematics, is a fellow of the IEEE, and a member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Sciences.

Mark BOCCARDI

SVP Programming & Marketing, INDEMAND/PPV.COM

Mark Boccardi oversees the Marketing department as well as the Events/Sports Programming department at iNDEMAND. A 20-year veteran of the company, Mark led the launch of PPV.COM, iNDEMAND’s first digital streaming destination for pay-per-view (PPV) content. In collaboration with Kiswe, PPV.COM has rapidly grown into a popular and respected PPV destination for sports fans and industry journalists. Mark serves as integral member of senior leadership team and during his time at iNDEMAND has generated $2B+ in gross revenue for the company by negotiating distribution and marketing deals for the most-watched PPV events in history. Mark is a graduate of Northwestern University and received his MBA at Fordham University.

George BEVIR

Editorial Director, SVG EUROPE

George Bevir is editorial director at SVG Europe, where he is responsible for leading the SVG Europe editorial team across the organisation’s physical and digital events, website and newsletters. Bevir joined SVG Europe from Broadcast magazine where he was facilities and technology editor and launched Broadcast Tech magazine. Prior to this, he wrote about the media and telecoms sectors in the Middle East. Before moving into journalism, Bevir worked for the BBC and Red Bee Media.

Anmol MALHOTRA

Head of Sports and Media Partnerships, SNAP INC

Anmol currently serves as Snap’s Global Head of Sports and Media Partnerships, and oversees its relationships with broadcasters, publishers, leagues, and rights holders including the NBC, Channel 4, ESPN, NFL, NBA, UFC, FIFA, IOC, and many more. In this role, he focuses on strategy for several content partnerships and sales initiatives to help partners engage new audiences, experiment with innovative forms of distribution and achieve their business objectives. In addition, his team oversees Snapchat’s relationships with teams and athletes who use the platform to meet their fans, and the next generation of fans, where they are. Snapchat reaches a key fan base (over 75% of 13- to 34-year-olds in over 25 countries) that is hard to find on other platforms. Anmol also manages international growth initiatives with sports and media partners across Asia, Europe, MENA, and Latin America.

Esmeralda NEGRON

Co-CEO Women’s Sports, DAZN

Esmeralda is DAZN’s Co-CEO, Women’s Sports. She joined in August 2023 after co-founding ata football, a streaming platform and community for women’s football fans. She led the growth of the business from its inception in September 2020 to its acquisition by DAZN, managing all media rights, premium broadcaster partnerships, product development, and strategic growth partnerships with professional clubs, leagues, and federations. Prior to that, Esmeralda worked at Relevent Sports Group under RSE Ventures directing the Women’s International Champions Cup, a competition that brings the four best women’s teams together from Europe and the US each year.  She brings a wealth of expertise and network within the women’s football market having played professionally in Europe and for the U21 USWNT, followed by eight years of coaching at the DI collegiate level in the US.

Andrew REICH

Sr. Industry Specialist – Media & Entertainment, Games, Sports (MEGS), AWS

Andrew Reich is a Sr. Industry Specialist supporting customers in the Media & Entertainment, Games, Sports (MEGS) vertical for AWS. Andrew has been in the MEGS industry for 15+ years and currently works closely with customers to transform video & data workflows, drive cloud adoption & foster technological innovation. Andrew has led major cloud adoption initiatives and projects involving live & post production, visual effects (VFX) rendering, content data & analytics, media pipeline and services deployment. Prior to AWS, Andrew spent 8+ years working for NHL & MLB Networks on the media services team. He is a seven-time Sports Emmy award winner and graduated from Syracuse University.

Copán Álvarez

Sports Commentator, NBCUNIVERSAL TELEMUNDO

Since joining Telemundo in 2015, Copán Álvarez has played a valuable role as play-by-play and studio commentator for Telemundo Deportes’ extensive soccer coverage, including FIFA events, the CONCACAF FIFA World Cup qualifiers, Premier League, Olympic Games and other events. Álvarez began his journalism career in Honduras in 2002, working with top media outlets such as Corporación Televicentro and Radio Suprema Stereo. While at Televicentro, he was host of the sports newscast “Fútbol a Fondo” and a panelist on the weekly show “5 Deportivo.” Throughout his career, he has covered leading sports events, serving as play-by-play and studio commentator for every FIFA World Cup since Korea-Japan 2002, the Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, FIFA’s youth World Cups, the CONCACAF Copa de Oro, and FIFA World Cup qualifying matches. You can follow Copán Álvarez on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Ghislain COLLETTE

VP, Product Management, HAIVISION

Ghislain Collette has over 20 years of experience in video networking, working in broadcast, cable distribution, and streaming industries. Prior to Haivision, Collette served as a project engineer at Videotron, designing and coordinating the deployment of multi-million-dollar projects. He also worked at Miranda Technologies / Miranda Media Networks where he served as product manager for the transport and multimedia products. Collette holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from University of Sherbrooke (Canada).

Jeff JACOBS

SVP and Head of Production, NEP GROUP

Having spent 10 years with NBC Sports/Olympics and another 10 with Viacom's MTV, Jeff Jacobs left to form his own company, Skyline New Media- a 3rd party Sports and Entertainment content production company specializing in the utilization of emerging technologies. Jeff is a 6-time Emmy Award winner, multiple Webby Awards recipient and sits on several advisory boards and is a member of the Executive Board of the Sports Video Group. Based in NYC, Jeff is well known for his innovative productions and advances in the expansion of live events, live streaming, emerging technologies and alternate production workflows. In August of 2020, he sold Skyline to EY-Tech. Recently, Jeff joined the NEP Group and runs the newly expanded Production Group and special projects for the worldwide content enabling technology company.

Lowell CONN

President & Co-Founder, PROTOCOL SPORTS MARKETING

President & Co-founder of PROTOCOL SPORTS MARKETING and President of satellite/internet transmission provider TV2GO INTERNATIONAL – Lowell Conn is an expert in media rights distribution, content delivery and live sports production. Over the past decade, Protocol has licensed tens of thousands of hours of sports programming to broadcasters around the world. As traditional broadcast is being gradually displaced by digital and streaming, Conn and his team have pioneered creative approaches to leverage new platforms to enhance revenue for traditional sports properties, and to launch/monetize emerging sports.

Nic BENSON

CEO, MAJOR LEAGUE RUGBY

As the CEO and Commissioner of Major League Rugby, Nic Benson brings a wealth of expertise and an expansive vision for American rugby to the helm of the growing league. With more than 20 years of experience launching and leading sports, political and public-funded programs in the United States and overseas, Benson provides valuable insights to help guide the growth of professional rugby in the U.S. as the country sets to host the Olympics in 2028 and the Rugby World Cup in 2031. Prior to his role as CEO and Commissioner, he served as the founding deputy commissioner of MLR and was an integral member of the pre-launch and start-up team for the league. Benson also served as the COO of the league’s Utah Warriors and was the former CBO of Willow TV. He also has served as an advisor for the launch of the Indian Premier League, as well as dozens of political campaigns and initiatives in the U.S. Africa and Latin America.

Pamela DUCKWORTH

Head of Fubo Studios, FUBO

Pamela Duckworth, an award-winning executive producer with extensive experience across all production disciplines and brand marketing, is head of Fubo Studios for Fubo, the leading sports-first live TV streaming platform. Duckworth is responsible for all strategy and creative direction including original programming on the company’s growing owned and operated TV networks, including Fubo Sports which launched in 2019, Fubo Movie Network, Fubo Latino Network and more. Additionally, she leads Fubo Studios, Fubo’s original production division dedicated to sports and entertainment programming across multiple formats. Duckworth brings more than 25 years of experience with cable start ups, commercials, live sports and events, syndicated television series, and short-form content from initial conception to final distribution. Prior to Fubo, Duckworth spent 10+years at DIRECTV as the head of advertising production and events. Throughout the course of her career, Duckworth’s work has been honored with 12 Cannes Lions, 3 Clios, 3 AICP’s, 2 Effies, 3 Andy’s, 2 D&AD’s and a One Show.

Deven ORIE

CEO, LINGOPAL.AI

Deven Orie is the CEO of LingoPal.AI, based in New York City. His background is in AI and product management at Microsoft. Deven specializes in building large language models and foundational AI solutions at scale. His expertise drives LingoPal’s mission to revolutionize sports translation, ensuring fans around the world can connect with the game in their own language.

Lukas GYSIN

Commercial Advisor, DYNAVISUAL

Lukas Gysin is Commercial Advisor at Dynavisual, Zug/Switzerland and the Founder and Managing Partner at 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗚𝗔𝗣 GmbH, Zurich/Switzerland, a consultancy boutique for Startups and Corporates. Lukas has also the Founder at 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗾𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗗 AG (ETH Zurich spin-off), a leading provider of software-based virtual sports advertising solutions in Zurich/Switzerland, New York/USA and Hannover/Germany. Lukas, father of 4 children, is a Swiss Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and has a MBA of the University of Rochester/NY.

Will KRETH

Founder/CEO, HAND (HUMAN & DIGITAL)

HAND (Human & Digital) founder/CEO Will Kreth has been involved in broadband and digital media for more than three decades. Former executive director of the Emmy-award winning Entertainment ID Registry (EIDR.org); and director of metadata governance at Showtime Networks. A current working group co-chair at the music industry’s standards body Digital Data Exchange (DDEX.net), a contributor member of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA.org), a member of the Media Provenance Working Group at the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC.org). A co-founder of Wired Magazine; and alumni of the Apple Multimedia Lab - Kreth currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Maite AMUCHASTEGUI

Head of Sports Partnerships, STOYCO

Maite Amuchástegui Tessmann is an experienced marketing and sports partnerships professional with expertise in event management, brand activations, and customer experience. Currently Head of Sports Partnerships at StoyCo, she has led impactful projects with prestigious organizations like Formula 1 and the PGA TOUR. A graduate in Hotel Management with a diploma from École Hôtelière de Lausanne, Maite excels in creating exceptional brand experiences, engaging with international sports leagues, and driving strategic communication initiatives.