Alex started his research journey in 1997. Prior to establishing Clarity, Alex was  Director of Client Consulting with The Leading Edge and has also worked at Jigsaw Research, Consensus and Ipsos-MORI.

He is an expert in working with research findings to deliver clarity, insight and direction to clients. He is an experienced quantitative and qualitative researcher, working primarily in the UK and Australia.

Alex’s specialisms are in B2B, IT, telco, finance, media and sports research, working with clients as a trusted adviser and extended part of the team.

Alex has worked with brands such as Vodafone, Microsoft, BT, BlackBerry, Commonwealth Bank, Qantas, Optus, Channel 9, ABC, SBS, APN Outdoor and Fetch TV.

Alex is a keen sportsman and when not researching can usually be found training for triathlons. He’ll watch pretty much any sport with Tour de France, cricket, NRL and F1 the must-sees.

Alasdair has worked in research since 1991 – the first decade in the UK before settling in Australia in 2001. He was previously Director of Jigsaw Strategic Research

He is an experienced qualitative and quantitative researcher. He has extensive expertise in telco, B2B, media, retail and financial services. He looks to deliver accessible, pragmatic, commercially valuable work to clients

He specialises in segmentation, brand development and customer satisfaction and enjoys considering innovative ways of tackling research challenges

Companies Alasdair has worked with in Australia include Optus, Telstra, Vodafone, News Ltd, Diageo, ABC, SBS, APN Outdoor and Fetch TV

He is a passionate, albeit contrarian, sports fan – a Scotsman who follows England’s cricket team and a long-term Sydney resident who supports the Brisbane Broncos. He is also an increasingly appalling tennis player…

With over 15 years of sports business experience Kenton Olson currently serves as the Director of Digital & Emerging Media for the Seattle Seahawks. In his current role he oversees the organization’s websites, digital content, social media strategy, digital marketing, and development of emerging platforms.

Kenton also has served as the Director of Digital & Emerging Media for the Seattle Sounders FC where played an integral role in the launch of the franchise in 2009.

Prior to his time in Seattle, Kenton began his career in collegiate athletics as the Assistant Director of Marketing and Website Management at the University of Oregon, his alma mater.

Coming in from left field, with a background of corporate marketing, bid writing and punk rock, Vickie Saunders is the world’s most recognised thought leader on athlete sponsorship education.

Founder of The Sponsorship Consultants, Vickie’s work is commissioned globally by large sports organisations such as the USA Olympic and Paralympic Teams, Sport England, Deloitte Singapore and the Australian Institute of Sport, as well as businesses of all types who invest in athletes and ambassadors as part of their marketing and business development activities.

Vickie has a passion for empowering individuals and organisations with the knowledge, skills and strategies to identify their unique value and connect with opportunities to achieve their ambitions.

Her first book ‘Sponsorship for Athletes’ has empowered thousands of athletes with the knowledge and skills to engage sponsorship, and her latest release, ‘The Ultimate Guide To Sponsoring Athletes’ is now teaching businesses (of all sizes and types) the other side of the relationship.

Tim has seventeen years experience across sports and entertainment marketing, branded content, sponsorship and event management. Landing in Australia in 2005, Tim enjoyed four years with Octagon Australia before founding Ensemble Australia, the non-traditional creative arm of Mediabrands.

Whilst at Ensemble, Tim co-wrote the bid to bring the Invictus Games to Australia, and now holds the position of Chief Commercial and Marketing Officer for the Invictus Games Sydney 2018.

John Nicholl joined the ARU as GM Commercial & Marketing in 2013 and since January 2015 is primarily responsible for the key commercial revenue components of the ARU business. These responsibilities include sponsorship, sales, government event departments, broadcast, Test match gate revenue, hospitality, licensing & travel.

John has worked in Sales & Marketing roles for the last 25 years having worked in the beverage industry with both Cadbury Schweppes and Coca-Cola for 15 years and in the Agency industry with STW Group as a Business Director for 8 years prior to the ARU. John has also worked in the business of sport over the past 15 years in the capacity of managing brand sponsorships for the Coca-Cola Company portfolio of brands, managed a sports marketing agency and now on the rights-holder side with the ARU.

Lisa joined Huawei in 2011 as the company’s head of CSR & Sponsorship. In 2012, under Lisa’s
management, Huawei Australia became the major sponsor of the Canberra Raiders. It was
Huawei’s first sporting sponsorship anywhere in the world and continues to be Huawei’s longest
sporting sponsorship globally. Lisa manages all aspects of the relationship and communication
program to provide Huawei Business Groups with networking, business pipeline and branding
opportunities. Today Huawei Australia has two major sporting sponsorships, one with the NRL
through the Canberra Raiders and secondly with the AFL through the Gold Coast SUNS.

Lisa is also responsible for the development and implementation of Huawei’s Corporate Social
Responsibility program in Australia. She works with academia and government to deliver life
changing opportunities to ICT students through the Huawei Seeds for the Future program,
recently securing additional funding for the program through the Australian Government New
Columbo Plan. Lisa also manages Huawei’s partnerships with the Tour de Cure and the Clontarf
Foundation – both of which form an important part of Huawei’s community engagement.
Before joining Huawei Lisa was Senior Manager, Event Marketing for PWC Australia.

With over 20 years of sports marketing and sponsorship experience, Brodie has built a successful career around the creation of unique non-traditional brand partnerships. His approach is entrepreneurial, fresh, unconventional and sometimes disruptive.

For the last 5 years Brodie has been based in France, running his own sports marketing and brand agency with clients including Swatch, Oakley, Red Bull, Quiksilver and others. He has one of the most complete global black books in the youth lifestyle space with an impressive connection of athletes, influencers and brands.

From 2005 to 2011, Brodie was the Global Chief Executive Officer at the World Surf League (formerly ASP) where he drove a significant cultural change, transforming the business into a highly professional and profitable media and entertainment entity. Early in his tenure at the WSL, Brodie identified that digital gave the opportunity to own the connection and engagement with the fan. The WSL was an early embracer of social, digital and webcasting that laid the foundation for it being the envy of many big end of town sports today.

Prior to the World Surf League, Brodie had stints with Basketball Australia, NBL, AOC and the Sydney Olympics.

Sam Brennan is a commercially orientated leader with 12 years’ experience in media. In his role as Nine’s director of sales – sport, Brennan’s focus is on developing collaborative, multi-platform integration partnerships that deliver memorable results around Nine’s sports assets, including NRL, Cricket and more recently Netball.

Mr. Brennan has a long standing career within media and sales, including various roles at Nine and Seven West Media Group. He holds a Bachelor of Business – Marketing from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

Jenny has over 15 years’ experience spanning various sponsorship and marketing positions in both the financial services and sporting industries across multiple codes. In her current role with Suncorp, Jenny oversees the development of sponsorship and marketing engagement strategies across brands, including delivery of end-to-end multi-channel brand and customer campaigns to meet business needs.

Jenny leads Suncorp’s Principal Sponsorship of Netball Australia, including the Suncorp Super Netball national competition and has launched a brand initiative called #TeamGirls to support the game from grass-roots through to the elite.

Chris Maxwell is an experienced and innovative sports & entertainment marketer and dealmaker, having successfully negotiated over 300 million dollars’ worth of sponsorship contracts, partnering with Australia’s leading sports & entertainment organisations.

As Consumer Connections Director for Carlton & United Breweries, Chris leads the team responsible for “weaving CUB’s brands into consumers’ lives”, through integrated brand communications and activations.

Over the past 10 years Chris has worked across a variety of roles at CUB, and in his current role oversees a portfolio spanning Media, Digital, Sports & Entertainment Partnerships, Experiential, Agencies and Marketing Capability.
Prior to CUB, Chris spent five years in the United States working on the agency side for brands like Coke; Ford; PlayStation; and Miller Lite where he led major sponsorship campaigns at events including the Superbowl; X-Games; NBA Finals; Coachella and New York Fashion Week.

Chris and his wife Jennifer live in Sandringham with their two beautiful kids Levi and Maya, where they spend their weekends cooking pancakes, stepping on Legos and picking tiny pieces of Playdough out of the carpet.

Simon has led the strategic marketing approach for Opta, the Perform-owned world-leading provider of detailed, live sports data to major clients around the world, since 2014. Prior to this, he was responsible for the development of OptaPro, the specialist Opta sub brand that provides data and statistical insight to leading professional sports teams in multiple sports. In his current role as VP Marketing at Perform Group, he also has responsibilities that encompass Perform Group’s partnerships with major rightsholders including the NFL, WTA and FIBA.

As Head of Mumbrella Bespoke, Alex helps brands talk to Mumbrella’s audience in a relevant and engaging way through events, written native content, podcasts, video and platforms.

In this role, he also oversee the curation of the Mumbrella Sports Marketing Summit and the Mumbrella Awards, the biggest and most robust awards program in the Australian industry.

Michael Thorn is Chief Executive of the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), and has been responsible for leading FARE’s efforts to stop alcohol-related harm in Australia since January 2011.

Michael previously worked for the federal government as a senior official in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Michael has a strong strategic policy background, with extensive experience in social policy development and implementation. He has also worked as a policy and management consultant in the fields of housing, Indigenous affairs, regional economic development and employment.

Jeremy Loeliger was appointed General Manager of the National Basketball League from 1 July 2015, and Chief Executive O cer from 2016. Since that time Mr Loeliger has overseen the League’s commercial transformation, establishing the foundations for a successful and sustainable future for professional basketball in Australia.

Before joining the NBL, Mr Loeliger was a partner of a national law rm, practising corporate
and commercial law with a focus on mergers and acquisitions and capital markets, but also including a successful niche sports law practice.

Mr Loeliger also sits on the Executive Committee of the Victorian Chapter of the Australia China Business Council, and is a champion of Sino-Australian trade and the important role of sports diplomacy.

Clare Gill is the Director of Regulatory Affairs for Nine Entertainment. In this role Clare is responsible for Nine’s engagement with Government and Regulators on matters of media policy and regulation. Prior to Nine Clare was Head of Government and Corporate Affairs for Optus. Clare has also held senior public affairs roles at SunRice, Ericsson and NICTA

Clare started her career in Victorian politics before moving to the corporate world where she has spent the last 20 years dealing with the promotion and regulation of advancements in technology. Clare holds a Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, Post Graduate Diploma in Commerce and a Post Graduate Diploma in Media and Communication.

Fergus Taylor is the Executive Director of Alcohol Beverages Australia. He is responsible for the day to day operation of ABA and represents the organisation to the public, the media and to governments. Fergus has previously worked as a media adviser and chief of staff to senior government ministers and as a strategic stakeholder engagement and media and communications management consultant.

Simon Canning is a communications and content specialist. He is former Communications Manager Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia for Adobe Systems.In a career spanning journalism and communications, he has become one of Australia’s most respected analysts and commentators on the advertising, marketing and media industries. As Marketing and Advertising Writer with The Australian for a decade he was at the forefront of covering the world of marketing and communications during perhaps the most dynamic phase in the history of media.

A regular commentator on radio and TV, Simon launched Simon Says after leaving The Australian and advised companies on how to navigate the fast changing world of media while remaining close to journalists embracing the new opportunities being created. Simon also handled the role of Communications Manager for renowned ad agency Droga5, is the moderator for the Australian Data Marketing Association’s Altitude Series of CMO breakfasts and also helped launch The Observer Effect with Ellen Fanning and Shine on SBS. Other clients included The Australian Association of National Advertisers, Weber Shandwick, Third Avenue and Turner Broadcasting. During his career he has also worked in the UK where as a health correspondent he covered dramatic changes to the National Health Service and the US where he began as a researcher for a national entertainment magazine.

Away from the office, Simon has represented his country of birth as goalkeeper for the New Zealand National Ice Hockey team and continues to play at a recreational level – although the hunger for winning has never diminished. His other passions include motor sport, surfing, jazz and trying to keep pace with his three young sons.

Finn has been helping organisations with their digital strategy since the days of dial-up. He currently leads Cricket Australia’s award-winning digital division, which includes an independent newsroom that covers cricket across the globe. Prior to Cricket Australia, Finn headed News Corp’s national AFL (SuperFooty) and racing (SuperRacing) networks, before becoming its first National Digital Sports Editor. While there, he was a two-time Quill winner for best use of the online medium. In a varied career, Finn has been Founding Editor of Triple J’s magazine JMag, a sports reporter and the author of a pretty unsuccessful bar guide. He still pinches himself that he gets paid to watch, talk and argue about sport for a living.

Marcus is a communications and corporate affairs professional with nearly 20 years’ experience in a variety of industry sectors. He holds a Bachelor of Business and Executive MBA. Marcus has worked as a consultant, advised ministers and CEOs, steered the insurance response to floods and cyclones, plugged tourism and even helped sell a few pineapples. Currently he is selling the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games dream. Marcus has built a career on finding the line between strong strategy and getting things done. He also has an unnatural love of metrics.

Bio to come…

Stu is a sports business futurist with a professional background that includes over 20 years in the Australian and international sporting industry. For the past 6 years, Stu has been CEO of Relevant Innovation, working with numerous members of the global sports ecosystem on the feasibility, design and implementation of new initiatives transforming the future of fan experiences.

John is a communications expert with 20 years of experience working with big brands, with much of this time directly involved with sports and entertainment properties. With a team of over 200 across Sydney and Melbourne, DT works with great brands like Optus, Tourism Australia, Disney and ASOS. In 2017, it formed a partnership with globally renowned AKQA.

Lynne is recognised as one of the pioneers of the sponsorship and evaluation research industry in Australia. Lynne has more than 15 years specialist experience in helping sectors of the industry (sports, sponsors, government and media) with commercial decision making around sports, sponsorship, tourism and events. Lynne took on a new role and joined the Australian Paralympic Committee in August 2015 as the Chief Executive Officer.

Previously the Marketing Manager for the Canterbury Bulldogs Rugby League team (1993-1997), Lynne established her own sponsorship research consultancy in 1998 with S-COMM Australian and New Zealand, which was acquired by Repucom in 2007. Lynne was MD Australia and New Zealand of Repucom from December 2007 – October 2014. Lynne has lectured at University of Western Sydney and Victorian University of Technology’s Post Graduate Sports Marketing program.

Lynne has experience on several boards including; the Museum of Applied Arts and Science (current), Australian International Military Games (current), the Gold Coast Titans (current), Parramatta Stadium Trust, as the Deputy Chairperson, as well as the 2002 Melbourne World Masters Games, and Camp Quality. Lynne was also an Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Brand Strategy and Sponsorship until 2013.

Simon has led the strategic marketing approach for Opta, the Perform-owned world-leading provider of detailed, live sports data to major clients around the world, since 2014. Prior to this, he was responsible for the development of OptaPro, the specialist Opta sub brand that provides data and statistical insight to leading professional sports teams in multiple sports. In his current role as VP Marketing at Perform Group, he also has responsibilities that encompass Perform Group’s partnerships with major rightsholders including the NFL, WTA and FIBA.

Sam Brennan is a commercially orientated leader with 12 years’ experience in media. In his role as Nine’s director of sales – sport, Brennan’s focus is on developing collaborative, multi-platform integration partnerships that deliver memorable results around Nine’s sports assets, including NRL, Cricket and more recently Netball.

Mr. Brennan has a long standing career within media and sales, including various roles at Nine and Seven West Media Group. He holds a Bachelor of Business – Marketing from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

Conor Woods is the Managing Director, Australia & New Zealand, for beIN SPORTS and is responsible for beIN’s five sports channels (three in Australia, two in New Zealand) and digital products in the region.

beIN SPORTS is a leading global network headquartered in Doha, Qatar, broadcasting in the Middle East and North Africa; Turkey, France, Spain, USA, Canada, Indonesia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.

Prior to working with beIN, Conor was the MD of Setanta Sports Asia-Pacific. Conor has 15 years experience running sports channel businesses across Asia-Pacific.

David Barham joined Network Ten in December 2010 as Head of Sport Production and was promoted to Head of Sport in April 2011.

In his current role, David is responsible for Network Ten’s innovative, high-rating and award-winning KFC Big Bash League and Women’s Big Bash League coverage, as well as the Formula One Australian Grand Prix.

Securing and producing event television for the Network, David has delivered myriad successful sporting events including The XXII Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, The XX Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, live international swimming meets and live Qantas Wallabies Rugby Union matches. He has also cemented Network Ten’s position as the home of big event motorsport with Supercars, Formula One and MotoGP.

In signing key experts and well-respected professionals in their field – Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Mark Waugh, Damien Fleming, Sir Viv Richards, Andrew Flintoff, Ian Thorpe OAM, Leisel Jones, Gordon Bray OAM, Nathan Sharpe, Mark Webber, Alan Jones MBE ASM and Daryl Beattie to name but a few – David has placed credibility, expert knowledge and personality at the core of his commentary teams.

David has had a career in television spanning more than 35 years. He had previously acted as Executive Producer of Network Ten’s Australian Football League content from 2002 to 2011. He has been Executive Producer of nine AFL Grand Finals and produced more than 300 games of AFL Football. David was the Executive Producer of Network Ten’s Delhi Commonwealth Games coverage in 2010. Before he joined Network Ten, David ran his own business in Melbourne, AFL Films, employing 10 people. This business has now become AFL Media.

David is also a production consultant to Racing Victoria and a member of the board at the Essendon Football Club.

Showdown has been a major driver in bringing media into gaming. In 2013 Twitch.TV partnered with Showdown to provide Twitch with a local presence. Prior to Twitch, Scott launched and built teams to develop the media businesses for IGN Asia and EA Games Media.

Showdown now operates several business units including the Twitch.TV Media and influencers business, an esports division running programs and leagues including Throwdown esports, and Showdown Studios which provides live broadcast studios and production for variety gaming and eSports.

Scott has dedicated his career to the adoption of technologies to enable meaningful communication for both communities and brands. Most recently Scott has seen the growth of new broadcast and audience development through launching new esports programs on Twitch reaching over live 100,000 viewers each broadcast.

LinkedIn: Scott Wenkart
Twitter : @swenkart

Rebecca is the Director of Product Development and Innovation in the Telstra Media team. In this capacity, she leads the team responsible for Telstra’s AFL app and web products, NRL products, as well as our entertainment offering Telstra TV. Prior to joining Telstra in February 2016, Rebecca was the Director of Digital Products for the Nine Network Australia, launching Nine’s live streaming and Video on Demand offering, 9Now. She has led transformation projects focusing on moving businesses from traditional media to new customer channels over the past 20 years.

Jeremy Loeliger was appointed General Manager of the National Basketball League from 1 July 2015, and Chief Executive O cer from 2016. Since that time Mr Loeliger has overseen the League’s commercial transformation, establishing the foundations for a successful and sustainable future for professional basketball in Australia.

Before joining the NBL, Mr Loeliger was a partner of a national law rm, practising corporate
and commercial law with a focus on mergers and acquisitions and capital markets, but also including a successful niche sports law practice.

Mr Loeliger also sits on the Executive Committee of the Victorian Chapter of the Australia China Business Council, and is a champion of Sino-Australian trade and the important role of sports diplomacy.

David Ray is a senior media, digital and business development executive with extensive strategy, commercial, product, marketing, technology, legal and content rights experience. David’s career has focused on building digital and mobile businesses end-to-end, binding strategy creation and implementation with ongoing commercial management.

David has held executive roles at local and global digital media companies, most recently as the Director of Audiences and Growth for Twitter Australia. At Twitter David was responsible for creating and implementing the country strategy and business plan, driving the delivery of audience and commercial targets. David was also part of Twitter’s global live rights team, which led Twitter’s drive into live streaming of sports, entertainment, news and politics.

Prior to Twitter, as General Manager NRL Digital Media, David led the business case, negotiation and implementation of Telstra’s partnership investment in the National Rugby League. Under David’s stewardship, NRL Digital Media launched over 100 digital products to market across online, apps, mobile, video and IPTV channels, achieving significant commercial success and record audiences.

Michael Nearhos was appointed General Manager, Brand Experience at NAB in October 2016, having worked at NAB since mid-2013 in a number of marketing leadership roles. He manages the NAB brand portfolio, including MLC, and plays a key role in driving customer thinking across the group.

Passionate about brands, corporate responsibility and reputation-building, Michael led the reinvigoration of MLC in its Let’s Save Retirement campaign, and the launch of NAB’s biggest repositioning in six years with the More Than Money campaign in mid-2016.

Michael spent 10 years at Qantas in a number of roles, concluding GM Strategic Marketing. He led the Qantas brand plan, worked on the float of Qantas, the formation of oneworld, product development, and on the Qantas and Frequent Flyer insights programs.

Michael has worked previously with CommSec and Commonwealth Bank, Insurance Australia Group, Newscorp Australia and set up an innovation lab for Virgin Australia. He spent almost five years as Director of Strategy with global agency Interbrand in London. This included leading the global repositioning for Barclays Bank, Holiday Inn and other banking and hotel brands.

Previously a corporate finance lawyer, Michael enjoys bringing both creative and analytical thinking to marketing. Outside of work, Michael lives at Bondi Beach and is an active member of North Bondi SLSC.

Jo-Ann is the Head of Research and Insights at Nielsen Sports, where she leads the design and delivery of strategic, research led projects. Over the last few years she has consulted across a wide range of projects looking at unlocking fan and participant motivations and experiences, to identifying commercialisation opportunities, for major rights holders, the ASC and its sports, as well as brands involved in sport.

She has a passion for understanding cultural change and it’s impact on society, through the lens of sport. This year, as part of her immersive approach to getting to know consumers of sport, she has committed herself do #52in52 – attend and observe 52 elite level sporting events in 52 weeks.

Bio to come…

Marne Fechner is one of the nation’s leading sports administrators with broad experience within the netball sector and unparalleled strategic, analytical and operational expertise. Appointed Netball Australia Chief Executive Officer in April 2017, Fechner played an integral role in the formation of the new Suncorp Super Netball, including a landmark broadcast deal with Nine and Telstra and further improved conditions for athletes. She has demonstrated her ability to drive strong commercial outcomes and is well respected across corporate Australia, government and within netball. Fechner has 20 years experience in netball and continues ensure that innovation within the sport remains on the agenda. She was named CEO Magazine’s Sports Executive of the Year in 2016.

Emma Freedman is a fresh faced, 28 year old who is one of Australia’s brightest media talents. Emma has forged a highly successful career as a radio and television presenter. She is the host of Nine Network’s sports panel program, Sports Sunday, and an integral part of Triple M’s highly successful Sydney breakfast team, The Grill Team.

In 2015, Emma showed her incredible versatility by winning Seven Network’s ‘Dancing With The Stars’ and Cosmo magazine’s ‘Fun Fearless Female Radio Personality of the Year’. In 2016, Emma’s debut novel, ‘Turning Pointes’, was published by HarperCollins to critical acclaim.

Emma is also an active Ambassador for the Captain Courageous charity, helping to raise funds to assist in finding the cause, and hopefully the cures, for children suffering from Bone Marrow Failure diseases. Emma’s primary professional interests lie in media, sport and fashion; in all of which she is forging a successful career.

A super athlete and Fremantle’s most decorated player in its 22-year history, Matthew Pavlich was long admired as one of the game’s biggest stars. His combination of size, speed and skill saw him respected as one of the AFL’s best all-round talents of the modern era.

Hailing from Sacred Heart College and Woodville-West Torrens in Adelaide, Matthew was selected by Fremantle with the fourth pick in the 1999 National Draft.

He starred in a number of roles for the Dockers over his 17-year career, becoming the first and only WA based player to play over 300 AFL games. Matthew was named as an All-Australian six times including in the midfield, fullback, half forward and full forward. Early in his career Matthew helped Fremantle advance to their first finals series in 2003 and a preliminary finals berth in 2006.

As Captain throughout the 2007/08 seasons he was at the coalface of the club’s rebuild, and enjoyed that labour nearing the end of his career where he led Freo into five finals series including the club’s first Grand Final appearance in 2013. He captained the Dockers for a record 9 years which sees him ranked 6th all time for games played as an AFL Captain.

Off the field Matthew has obtained a Bachelor of Science from UWA and is near completion of his MBA. He is the AFLPA’s President and a member of their board of directors, as well as spending time on the AFL Laws of the Game Committee.

He has been a brand ambassador for a number of corporate organizations including Woodside, Frasers Property Group, Homeloans, Crown Resorts, Kia Motors and Adidas. He was a competent media performer with a number of organizations throughout his playing career and is about to embark on a career with Fox Sports, Nova and Channel 9.

Matthew has also been involved in a number of small business ventures. He is co-founder of PickStar, an online platform providing direct connections to over 500 sports stars for events, marketing and promotions, as well as being a director of PMY Group which develops, implements, manages and commercialises digital, technology and data projects for its clients.

Matthew has also played a role in a variety of charities including the Starlight Foundation, Camp Quality and PBF.

Matthew is married to wife Lauren and they have three young children together, Harper, Jack and William.

Matthew is a sought after speaking talent given his vast experience within the AFL industry. He opens up on his various anecdotes from his 17 years in the game focusing on dealing with failure and adversity, operating a high performance culture, the importance of diversity and inclusion, team dynamics, feedback, values and behaviors and leadership.

As Head of Mumbrella Bespoke, Alex helps brands talk to Mumbrella’s audience in a relevant and engaging way through events, written native content, podcasts, video and platforms.

In this role, he also oversee the curation of the Mumbrella Sports Marketing Summit and the Mumbrella Awards, the biggest and most robust awards program in the Australian industry.

Rickett’s 25-year track record of helping brands embed themselves into people’s lives through creativity, relevance and purpose coincides with PRISM’s global history of managing sports and entertainment sponsorships. His specialty of unlocking the commercial value of client’s existing commercial assets, and identifying and activating new revenue streams helps client engage new and existing consumers.

Sally has lead KFC’s activation and sponsorship of cricket through the last decade. In that time KFC BBL has grown from a small niche league to a mass reaching national sport.

Sally has driven the transformation for the brand from just being a naming rights sponsor to being an authentic part of cricket culture over summer.

Andrew has worked for Heineken in various countries over the past 11 years and for the last 2 ½ years he has been Managing Director of the Heineken Lion Australia business based in Sydney. During this time he has led his teams through the brand, consumer and trade activation of various sports partnerships including Rugby World Cup, Champions League and most recently the 2017 opening round in Melbourne of the new Global Heineken Partnership with Formula One.

Sarah Chibnall is General Manager of Communications at Swisse Wellness.

Sarah is responsible for Corporate Communications, Government & Public Policy, Partnerships & Ambassadors, Public Relations, Digital Content and Swisse Social Media platforms.

As part of Swisse’s 360-degree marketing model, the company aligns with many sporting codes, teams and elite athletes. Sarah has been involved with the Rio Olympic Games campaign, AFL & Hawthorn FC, Super Rugby, Wallabies, Cycling Australia and most recently the launch of the brands international partnership with Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1® Team. Within these campaigns, Sarah has worked with our inspiring ambassadors including Cate & Bronte Campbell, All Blacks Captain Kieran Read, Lleyton Hewitt, Ricky Ponting, Mark Webber, Dylan Alcott and Ellie Cole, who bring our campaigns to life.

Swisse as a company focuses on culture, starting with the belief that people are at the forefront of everything we do. We fundamentally believe if you focus on people, principles and passion – profit will follow. Positive thinking, great relationships, nutrition and exercise are all part of living a healthy, happy life. Sarah subscribes to this model in her personal life and has a passion for fitness and sport. Many moons ago Sarah was an elite rower and takes much of what she learned into business. She believes in a ‘work fit’ team and loves the sense of belonging and satisfaction that comes with working in a great team. Sarah is a Mum of two young children and juggles work, life, family and fitness…it has its challenges.

Prior to joining Swisse Sarah held positions of Public Affair Manager at Medibank and Account Director at various public relations agencies including Haystac and CPR. Sarah has extensive experience working across social and behavioural marketing through government and public health campaigns.

Dave Martin is the driving force behind trans-Tasman growth of Sanitarium’s community events program in recent years. This includes the biggest under 16s kids triathlon series in the world; the Sanitarium Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon, a series of 26 events delivering an exceptional experience to approx. 45,000 kids and another 135,000 supporters annually. To supplement this program in the cooler months Dave introduced an new event program called Little BIG DASH, an obstacle based family fantastic event drawing big crowds in its early stages of development.

Sanitarium value their government and commercial sponsor partnerships that include many blue chip brands and Dave is also responsible with his team for making sure Sanitarium and the sponsors achieve their sponsorship objectives year after year.

As General Manager of HAVAS Sports & Entertainment across Australia & New Zealand, Fracnis’ division is responsible for partnering brands with the emotional world of sport & entertainment, via insight, strategy & creative execution, then delivered through powerful marketing, communication & live activation campaigns, and measured with data-driven proprietary tools.

HAVAS Sports & Entertainment is supported by the local and international media, creative, digital, PR and live event and activations teams of the broader HAVAS group, which totals more than 20,000 employees.

Mark Knowles is one of only two athletes that remain from the Kookaburras’ 2004 Olympic gold medal winning campaign in Athens. Having been one of a number of co-captains in the Kookaburras’ ranks over the years he was handed solitary responsibility for the captaincy in January 2014. He was also named FIH International Player of the Year and Kookaburras Player of the Year in 2014.

Also captain of the Jaypee Punjab Warriors in the Coal Hockey India League, Knowles helped his team to secure the 2016 crown after narrowly missing out on it in 2015 to the Ranchi Rays.

Married to the sister of fellow Rockhampton product Jamie Dwyer, the couple have two young sons, Flynn and Luca. With family time spent at playgrounds, parks and beaches, Flynn’s his dad’s number one fan. Knowles says Flynn’s favourite part is watching the singing of the national anthem at international matches.

Opting to focus entirely on hockey, Knowles steered away from university. In 2007, he and Dwyer started up their own coaching business, 1&9 Coaching. With a passion for cafes and freshly ground coffee, Knowles hopes to venture into the hospitality industry in the future.

Having spent lots of time watching parents Ryan and Barbara play hockey when he was younger, they can now often be seen cheering him on in the crowd.

Having been around the Diamonds squad since 2008, Cailtin or ‘CBass’ is now their go to goal shooter with a world class shooting percentage. She has the experience under her belt to know what it takes to be a successful player at international level as well as being the known game changer and match winner.

Caitlin finished the 2011 ANZ Championship season with more goals than any other shooter to earn her a spot on the Diamonds team for the World Championships in Singapore. Here she scored 151 goals from 155 attempts at an incredible 97 per cent for the tournament. Caitlin was used as the ‘super sub’ in the grand final and became a household name when she shot the match-winning goal with one second left on the clock in extra time.

Caitlin continued her strong form over the next few years and in 2015 she was crowned “World’s Best Netballer” along with Australia’s top netball gong the “Liz Ellis Diamond” cementing her sport as one of Australia’s greatest ever goalers.

In 2017 Caitlin moved from Perth to the Sunshine Coast to play for the newly formed Lightning as part of the newly formed Suncorp Super Netball league. She now has her sights set on competing at her 2nd Commonwealth Games in 2018 in front of her new home state of QLD.
Outside of netball Caitlin is die-hard coffee fan and a self proclaimed crazy animal lover. She is studying Broadcast and Journalism and hopes to one day be involved in sports media.

Robbie is a professional footballer with over 250 games experience, currently playing with Western Sydney Wanderers in the Hyundai A-league. He spent 5 and a half years playing throughout Asia in Korea and Malaysia, in which time he represented the Australian national team – the Socceroos on 8 occasions. A career full of obstacles, ups and down which he has been able to draw on to make him the person and athlete he is today.

A super athlete and Fremantle’s most decorated player in its 22-year history, Matthew Pavlich was long admired as one of the game’s biggest stars. His combination of size, speed and skill saw him respected as one of the AFL’s best all-round talents of the modern era.

Hailing from Sacred Heart College and Woodville-West Torrens in Adelaide, Matthew was selected by Fremantle with the fourth pick in the 1999 National Draft.

He starred in a number of roles for the Dockers over his 17-year career, becoming the first and only WA based player to play over 300 AFL games. Matthew was named as an All-Australian six times including in the midfield, fullback, half forward and full forward. Early in his career Matthew helped Fremantle advance to their first finals series in 2003 and a preliminary finals berth in 2006.

As Captain throughout the 2007/08 seasons he was at the coalface of the club’s rebuild, and enjoyed that labour nearing the end of his career where he led Freo into five finals series including the club’s first Grand Final appearance in 2013. He captained the Dockers for a record 9 years which sees him ranked 6th all time for games played as an AFL Captain.

Off the field Matthew has obtained a Bachelor of Science from UWA and is near completion of his MBA. He is the AFLPA’s President and a member of their board of directors, as well as spending time on the AFL Laws of the Game Committee.

He has been a brand ambassador for a number of corporate organizations including Woodside, Frasers Property Group, Homeloans, Crown Resorts, Kia Motors and Adidas. He was a competent media performer with a number of organizations throughout his playing career and is about to embark on a career with Fox Sports, Nova and Channel 9.

Matthew has also been involved in a number of small business ventures. He is co-founder of PickStar, an online platform providing direct connections to over 500 sports stars for events, marketing and promotions, as well as being a director of PMY Group which develops, implements, manages and commercialises digital, technology and data projects for its clients.

Matthew has also played a role in a variety of charities including the Starlight Foundation, Camp Quality and PBF.

Matthew is married to wife Lauren and they have three young children together, Harper, Jack and William.

Matthew is a sought after speaking talent given his vast experience within the AFL industry. He opens up on his various anecdotes from his 17 years in the game focusing on dealing with failure and adversity, operating a high performance culture, the importance of diversity and inclusion, team dynamics, feedback, values and behaviors and leadership.

Emma grew up playing many sports but found her niche with touch football. She started playing at age 6 and found a love for ‘footy’, but when she was 16 and was asked to join a Rugby League team she took on the new challenge and rose up the representative ranks, eventually winning the World Cup with the Jillaroos in 2013 at the age of 18. During this time she was also scouted to play Rugby 7’s and couldn’t turn down the chance to go to the Olympics. Emma was offered to be a part of the first full time contracted group in 2014 and has never looked back.

Tonegato made her debut in Dubai, 2013 and has become a key member of the team. She was named Player of the Tournament for the Atlanta leg of the Sevens World Series in April 2016 and a month later she was named in the 2015-16 Team of the Season by World Rugby. She is one of just two players on the series to score five tries in a single World Series match since the competition’s inception.

in 2016, Emma was selected in the team to go to the Rio Olympics were she’ scored seven tries in six games – including one in the Gold Medal match against New Zealand. Her team were victorious and now hold the title of the first ever Rugby 7’s team to win at an Olympics.

She now has her sights set on a home 2018 Commonwealth Games, followed by the 2018 Rugby Sevens World Cup, and ultimately the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games.

When James Begley was playing AFL, he wasn’t among the top few athletes commanding big money sponsorship deals. Like most of his teammates, James was on the lookout for more paid opportunities, and the chance to broaden his experiences and engage with the community.

Following his sporting career, James joined the corporate world and found there was a huge demand to engage sports stars, but few people knew how.

Some would spend hours calling and emailing player managers, others would ask their friends if they knew any athletes who would “help out”, or they would try and contact sports stars via social media. Many people gave up, thinking that they couldn’t afford a sports star.

The booking process was a headache for the community and athletes alike.

Seeing the problem from both sides, James began planning a centralised marketplace that would help people connect with sports stars, and handle the process from start to finish.

He took the idea to Matthew Pavlich, an AFL legend and President of the AFL Players Association, and the duo set about developing the website, signing up athletes and building the business.

James’ hunch was right. The community and sports stars embraced PickStar, which quickly became known as the most trusted platform for facilitating paid engagements large and small.

PickStar is now entering a new era of growth, with a soon to be launched state-of-the-art booking management platform and international expansion.