Advisory Board

A born entrepreneur, Scott invested everything as a child into his first passion…competing in sports. Shortly after college in 2001, his former life as an athlete interconnected with a natural business sense and SponsorHouse was born. The original mission was simple…support and connect athletes with sponsors through the ‘Internet’…the first concept of its kind. That vision later evolved into Hookit, which pioneered the sponsorship technology and analytics space (Spontech). Today, Hookit aggregates billions of data points from social and digital platforms and uses machine learning and predictive analytics to provide real-time insights and valuations for brands and properties to quantify and maximize sports sponsorships.

Tim has been at the forefront of sports marketing and sponsorship for over thirty years. After roles as a marketer for English cricket and director of a global sports stadium advertising company, he joined Karen Earl Sponsorship and evolved it into sports marketing powerhouse Synergy, where he was CEO for ten years. He is now an advisor and investor across a wide range of companies at the intersection of sports, media, marketing and technology.

Brianne leads the EME marketing team, which manages NBA brand marketing, social media channels, and CRM initiatives. The primary focus is to drive fan growth and increase following and engagement amongst core fans in the region. As part of this, she oversees the NBA’s European primetime game campaign, “NBA Sundays,” to drive viewership in the region. The goal of the NBA’s country-specific social channels is to engage fans authentically through locally relevant content. Our following is industry leading and continues to grow in both engagement and reach.

Joanna became RFU Director of Digital, Marketing and Communications in May 2016 and is responsible for the England Rugby digital, marketing and communications strategy, integration, planning and delivery.

Her remit covers: England Rugby content and channels, including digital strategy and delivery, team and corporate communications, media relations and media operations, CRM, the England Rugby brand as well as setting and delivering the fan's stadium spectator experience and match-day sports presentation.

She was Communications and Marketing Director for three years at England Rugby 2015, organisers of Rugby World Cup 2015.

The tournament delivered record ticket sales and digital reach, and the tournament’s marketing campaign won a Sports Industry Award for the best integrated marketing campaign in 2014. Her previous roles include Head of PR and Media for LOCOG, organisers of the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, and Director of Global Communications for the Financial Times. She has over 20 years' experience in communications roles and was awarded an MBE in 2017 for Services to Sport.

As Vice President of Brand and Integrated Marketing for Major League Soccer, David Bruce is charged with managing the internal brand function of the top-flight soccer league in the United States and Canada. In this role, Bruce leads all positioning work for the League and its big events, as well as campaign development and marketing execution. He is actively involved in developing new branded platforms and initiatives that enable MLS to continue to grow the scale and reach of its fan base. Bruce led the recent rebranding of the League, which was launched at the beginning of the 2015 season. A native of Sunderland, England, Bruce currently lives in New York.

Joel is Head of UK for Octagon, the global sports and entertainment marketing group. Joel has been in the industry for over 15 years, with the focus of his work having been to help brands find the right place to play in sport. He has worked on deals across all major sports for clients including ABInbev, Adidas, AIG, Cisco, Delta, Mars, MasterCard, Shell, Sony and Standard Chartered. In his role in the UK, Joel’s focus is now to continue lead the agency’s successful transition from a global sponsorship agency, to a creative agency with specialism in sports and entertainment. This has been driven by the development of in-house teams across creative, planning, design, social & production, and a focus on integrated campaigns that earn attention.
 

Following working in the UK for six years in various roles, Fiona Taag first joined DHL in 2005 as Marketing Manager in New Zealand, and later moved to Bahrain as Middle East & North Africa Marketing Manager. She then returned to New Zealand to manage the DHL Express global sponsorship of RWC 2011. In 2012, she joined the Deutsche Post DHL Group head office in Germany as Global Sponsorship Manager, and again had the opportunity to manage DHL’s partnership of RWC 2015. As Head of Global Sponsorship, she currently manages partnerships for DHL Express including the World Rugby Sevens Series, Manchester United, MotoGP™, Exhibitionism – The Rolling Stones, The Grand Tour and AEG, as well as assisting colleagues around the world to activate Formula 1®, Fashion, Formula E and a variety of local partnerships.

Since graduating from the University in Bath, Elie has spent the past 12 years working within the Sport Industry. Having spent time working agency side at Fast Track Agency with GlaxoSmithKline (Lucozade Sport) she moved brand side to work at QBE Insurance on their rugby portfolio, before moving to SKY to manage their cycling marketing. Elie joined LVMH Watch and Jewellery Group at the end of 2016, where she now assumes the role of Marketing Director for TAG Heuer. Her responsibilities include overseeing activations for the brand’s global sponsorships of the Premier League, Manchester United, Red Bull Racing, the London Marathon and the Rugby Sevens World Series in the UK. Away from the office, a keen sportswomen having played International hockey for over a decade and competing at two Commonwealth Games (Delhi, 2010 and Glasgow 2014) Elie currently plays National League for Hampstead and Westminster hockey club, she is also on the board of trustees for ‘Women in Sport’. 

James Young leads Lucozade Sport’s partnership activity, a role he has held since late 2012. This includes defining the brand’s partnership strategy, campaign creation and managing partnerships with the Premier League, the FA, the Virgin Money London marathon, Tough Mudder, England Rugby as well as brand ambassadors Anthony Joshua, Harry Kane and Emily Skye. 

 

Before this, James worked in a range of sponsorship and marketing roles at British Airways, O2 and Sony Ericsson, where he was involved with projects including Rugby World Cup 2003, the London 2012 bid and The O2 music venue.

Consumer Marketing lead for HPUK.  Love tech and anything to do with tech.  Currently building the Omen by HP brand in the UK with a focus on supporting the eSports industry.

Charlie McEwen was appointed April 2015 as Chief Operating Officer of the British & Irish Lions following outstanding success as Commercial Director of The Lions and PRO12 Rugby.  He is responsible for the day to day growth and management of the business.  Charlie joined the Lions in 2010 having been Managing Director and Founding Partner of Accelerate Sports and Music Ltd., a company that was acquired by Chime Sports Marketing.  Charlie is working on his fifth Lions tour.   

Born in Padova on 24 July 1972, he graduated in Business Administration from Bologna University before furthering his studies in Colorado. His first role in Italy was with Ferrari, where he worked on marketing, brand management and market analysis between 1998 and 2000. After a spell at consultancy agency Landor Associates, he returned to work for the Ferrari-Maserati Group in 2002 as Licensing Manager, Head of International Communications and PR and Licensing and Sponsorship.

His CV, which also boasts experience as a tutor at Bologna University, was enriched between 2006 and 2008, when he served as Licensing Manager for Ferrero Group. This was then followed by Head of Marketing and Communications and Strategic Planning positions at Bonfiglioli and Bormioli Rocco Groups. Vigato’s most recent venture saw him co-found and act as Chief Marketing Officer for start-up company Ship&Duck.

From 2015 he joins the club’s management as Head of Brand, Licensing and Retail. In 2016 he also took on the title of Co-Chief Revenue Officer.

After an award winning career agency side working for various clients, including alcohol, telecoms and FMCG, James was recruited to work for Coca-Cola on the integrated marketing communications team. After various marketing roles in the Northwest Europe BU James was moved onto the London 2012 Olympic project team to lead the execution of the Olympic Torch Relay for the company. After delivering Coca-Cola’s most successful torch relay, in 2012, he was posted to Coke Brazil to lead the marketing and sponsorship for the Rio 2016 Games. In Rio he created one of the most talked about and integrated activations for the games. He is continuing his career with Coca-Cola and the Olympics with his recent move to Japan as Vice President of Olympic assets and marketing for the Tokyo 2020 Games.