The SuperBowl of sports marketing conferences in Australia

Kyle is the Managing Director of R/GA’s Social practice, where he leads social strategy and campaign initiatives across the agency’s global network of clients, including Nike, Beats by Dre, McCormick, Converse, Google, Johnson & Johnson, Heineken, Unilever, Telstra, and ANZ. In 2013, Kyle also led the opening of R/GA’s Austin office, which serves as a hub for social business innovation within the company. Kyle has been with R/GA since 2007.

Prior to arriving at R/GA, Kyle led the User Experience practice at Pinacol, a boutique digital agency in Southern California. He is also an entrepreneur and has launched several successful ventures: Blogebrity, the first index measuring online influence; SEOintelligence, a search marketing analytics suite; and most recently, Blogs with Balls, a digital sports media conference series.

Kyle studied business administration and film at the University of Southern California and has taught marketing and social media courses at the Instituto de Empresa Business School in Madrid, Spain, and at Miami Ad School.

Originally from the construction industry, Matt Carroll’s career as a sports executive stretches over 24 years’, taking in all aspects of sports administration. He has worked in three sports as a senior manager, including Chief Executive Officer, with roles encompassing grass roots sport development, professional leagues, national and international organisations and global sporting events. Matt Carroll’s career to date;

• Rugby Director NSW Rugby Union (1991-1995)-responsible for representative and club rugby.
• General Manager, Rugby Australian Rugby Union (1995-1999) -Forefront of establishing the professional game in Australia including setting up Super Rugby and Tri Nations competitions.
• Chief Executive Officer Waratahs and NSW Rugby Union (2000-2001)-successfully led the financial turnaround of the business.
• General Manager Rugby World Cup (2002-2003)-led the team that staged one of the most successful sporting events held in Australia and set the benchmark for future World Cups.
• Inaugural Head of the A-League and Head of Community Football, Football Federation Australia (2004-2006) -establishing Australia’s first fully professional football competition and managing significant changes to the structure of community football and relationship with the professional game.
• Deputy CEO, Australian Rugby Union (2007-2012)-Responsible for rugby’s commercial program, broadcast rights and management of Test and Super Rugby competitions.
• Interim Chief Operating Officer, Japanese Organising Committee for Rugby World Cup 2019 (2013-2014) – based in Tokyo leading the master planning, budget drafting and establishing the organisation structure for the Tournament.
• Chief Executive Officer, Australian Sailing (2014-2017) – Led the ground breaking organisational reforms in sport, changing Sailing from a federated model to a national structure to build Sailing’s future sustainably and success.

Matt was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Olympic Committee May 2017.

Honours

• Member of the Order of Australia for services to rugby union, in particular, the staging of Rugby World Cup 2003
• Sports Medal for services to rugby union

Qualifications:
• Bachelor of Building, University of New South Wales
• Graduate Diploma in Sport Administration, University of Technology Sydney

Honorary Positions

Australian Commonwealth Games Association
• Board of Management (1997 -2002 & 2007 -2013)
• Investment Committee (1997 -2002)

Rugby
• Board Member, NSW Rugby Union (1988-1991)
• Chairman, Sydney Rugby Union (1989-1990)
• Council Member, Australia Rugby Union (1989 -1991)
• President & Committee Member, Mosman Rugby Club (1981 -1991)

Tamara Howe has been Marketing Director since October 2015.

Tamara joined Kellogg Australia in 2003 as a Brand Manager and was promoted to Senior Brand Manager, Nutri-Grain in 2005 prior to relocating and working in the US Morning Foods Division in Battle Creek Michigan in 2006.

Upon her return to Australia in 2007, Tamara assumed the Marketing Manager role, Adult Portfolio before relocating again to HQ in Battle Creek in 2009. There, Tamara took on a role in the Global Marketing team and was later promoted to Director, Special K Franchise in 2013, leading Kellogg’s largest brand for North America.

In 2014, Tamara relocated back to Australia to assume the role of leading the Innovation team before being promoted to her current position.

Prior to joining Kellogg’s, Tamara spent several years working in marketing roles within (the then) Dairy Farmers Australia.

Tamara completed her Bachelor degree in Commerce at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. She is also mother to 6yo daughter Poppy, enjoys travel, dead lifting, and is a keen 80’s music enthusiast.

A woman-in-sport pioneer, Louise Evans was the first female sports journalist employed by The Sydney Morning Herald and the first female sports editor appointed by The Australian.

Louise has also worked around Australia and around the world as a reporter, foreign correspondent, editor and executive for media companies including
Australian Associated Press (5 years), The Sydney Morning Herald (8 years) and The Australian (10 years).

Louise is now the Communications Director and Mentor for Women Sport Australia, the peak national advocacy body for women in sport.

She’s also an author and documentary maker who’s first book Passage to Pusan, based around the Korean War, was turned into a documentary and touring exhibition.

Karen is a former professional golfer who is now the CEO of Australian Ladies Professional Golf, the governing body for womens’ professional golf in Australia and New Zealand.

As a professional player Karen played on all of the major womens’ tours between 1985 until her retirement in 2013, and was the winner of 14 major international professional competitions including the 1993 Women’s British Open. Karen also represented Australia four times as a professional in major international competitions.
During her time on the Ladies European Tour Karen served on the board of Directors for a period of 14 years and as Chair for 10 years.

Karen has also worked extensively as a TV commentator for Sky Sports in the UK and UCOM in Germany and has also been a mentor for many of Australia’s young female amateur and professional players.

Karen joined the ALPG in September 2013 and as a part of this role also sits on the Australian Golf Industry Council, the Australian Golf Olympic Council and the Rolex Women’s world rankings committee.

Georgie Parker is a former Australian hockey player who played over 100 games for the women’s national team the ‘Hockeyroos’.

She competed in the 2016 Rio Olympics, won a silver medal at the 2014 World Cup in Holland and played a pivotal role in the Hockeyroos gold medal winning performance at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where she is the third equal top goal scorer of all time at the event.

She retired from international hockey after the Rio Olympics and took a year off, living and playing in Belgium before she was called upon to play in the newly created AFLW league, where she signed as a rookie for Collingwood.

Learning a new sport at 28 was one of the most challenging things Georgie has done, however making her debut in the 2018 AFLW season after only ever playing seven games in her life was of her greatest accomplishments.

Outside of sport, Georgie is an AFL Players representative, panellist on NITV’s Marngrook Footy Show, a host on athlete media platform PlayersVoice and holds a Bachelor of Commerce (majoring in PR) and a Bachelor of Arts (majoring in Journalism) from Curtin University.

Paul is currently the General Manager of Sports Partnerships for Sportsbet, the local arm of the global wagering and broadcast business, Paddy Power Betfair. In 2017, Sportsbet had revenues of over $6B and 2.0m registered customers, with an active customer base of 1.1m and contributed over $150m to domestic racing and sports bodies.

In this role he has responsibility for commercial and regulatory arrangements with major sports and racing including product fees, media rights, commercial partnering opportunities and integrity-in-sport agreements. He also is the lead for a number of B2B projects and the development of Sportsbet’s international racing content and offering, which links to his previous experience in horseracing globally.

Paul has held a number of senior executive and Board roles including as Chief Executive of British Horseracing, where he had operational oversight for all aspects of the delivery of British Racing, a sport encompassing 60 racecourses and generating over $15B in turnover globally. He has also held other senior strategy and commercial roles within sport, racing and wagering.

Since his return to Australia three years ago and prior to Sportsbet, Paul provided advisory services on issues as diverse as digital media rights, the Tabcorp and Tatts merger on behalf of Queensland Racing, a review into the integrity functions of Victorian Racing on behalf of the Victorian Government and Tabcorp’s establishment of SunBets in the UK. He is has held numerous Non-Executive Director roles since 2006 and is active in a number of SME’s including a crop dusting business!

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. 

Andrew Brown is the Executive General Manager, Wagering & Gaming of News Corporation Australia.

Andrew started his professional life as a lawyer with Baker & McKenzie, a Management Consultant with Oliver Wyman, and Director of Business Development of ITV Plc. He was then the co-founder and COO of Racing UK, and the CEO of the NZ Racing Board, which operates the NZ TAB.
He was also non-exec Director of online bookmaker McBookie, Managing Director of the Clermont Club, a high-roller casino in London, and has worked as a consultant to betting and gaming clients in the UK, NZ and Australia.

Andrew holds a BSc and an LLM from the University of Sydney and an MBA from INSEAD.

Julian is one of Australia’s leading sport marketers, he currently heads up Marketing at the AFL and was previously with Cricket Australia and the Gemba group.

He has been at the forefront of some of Australia’s most innovative sporting programs including the launch of the Big Bash and introduction of eight new BBL sporting teams. The introduction of the AFL’s Sunday Funday and Super Rounds, AFLX and managing the Toyota AFL sponsorship.

He has also worked on some of the country’s most creative, award winning, sports marketing campaigns including bringing back the “I’d like to see that” campaign and the AFL’s new “Don’t believe in never campaign”.

He has a Masters degree from the University of NSW and has studied entertainment, media and sport at Harvard Business School. He is passionate about building new things, brands, storytelling and great content.  

Bio to come…

With over 18 years through-the-line experience in London, Melbourne and Sydney, he runs M&C Saatchi S&E in Australia. We create sponsorship, experiential and branded content programs for leading Australian brands such as CBA, Woolworths, Bankwest, Optus, Reebok, Powerade and Audi.

He believes brands are defined by their actions and what they stand for. Ultimately people buy into why your brand exists and how it emotionally resonates.

He has extensive experience in the development of integrated brand campaigns, direct and below the line comms. In the last 10 years he’s focused on brand experience and sponsorship leverage including everything from traditional sponsorship through to branded content, TV shows, media integration and experiential programs. We create sponsorship, experiential and branded content programs for leading brands such as CBA, Woolworths, Bankwest, Optus, Reebok, Powerade and Audi.

Craig has almost 15 years experience in Public Relations, media and digital and is the Head of Media & Digital with the Wests Tigers NRL team. In his current role he heads up one of the NRL’s leading media and digital teams. Craig has experience both in-house and in agencies and has worked on major international sporting events including two Olympic Games, an Asian Games and a Rugby Union World Cup.

Kerry is the Founder of PlayersVoice. By elite sportspeople – for sports lovers – PlayersVoice focus on the Human Behind The Headline.

Prior to launching PlayersVoice in 2017, Kerry was Global President of RadiumOne, a data driven marketing company and before that was the the Director of consumer and online for Microsoft across Asia Pacific.

Kerry has worked in Europe, Asia and the U.S with sports rights holders on data gathering and usage, fan engagement and sponsorship. 

Kerry is also the Founder and Chairperson of UnLtd.org.au, the Australian foundation for the media, marketing and advertising industry.

Scott is the founder and Managing Director of Showdown.

Scott has been a major driver in bringing media into gaming within the oceanic region. In 2013 Scott created a partnership between Twitch.TV and 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 operates multiple business divisions including media + partnerships, streaming + esports studios & esports.

Scott has dedicated his career to the adoption of technologies to enable meaningful communication for both communities and brands. Through the success and growth of Twitch, Scott and his teams at showdown have been able to connect twitch’s live stream platform to a community that has evolved from gamers watching live game play to the largest live social video platform & live esports platform in the region reaching in Australia over 1.6 Million monthly users.

Scott is active in supporting the development of esports programs for professional and amateur gamers in the region. He is the founder of Throwdown esports which operates leagues for major esports franchises inc League of Legends and Rocket League.

Carlo is a creative marketer with a background in developing digital strategies for retailers and non-profit organisations. His forte is analysing data to derive key insights to improve user experience and overall digital marketing activity. Having worked with brands such as Harris Farm Markets, Bonds, Sheridan and RSPCA NSW, Carlo also spent some time as a volunteer at Chelsea Football Club in London with their youth and outreach programs. With a passion for football, Carlo joined Football Federation Australia in February 2017 as the Digital Marketing Manager overseeing the digital and social media channels. Over the past 6 months Carlo has been an integral member of the project team that established the E-League, Australia’s first eSports competition linked to a professional football league and the global FIFA 18 FUT Championship.

Dominic has over 30 years’ experience in the sport, entertainment, media and marketing fields, including successful senior management positions with Cricket NSW, Sony Pictures, Glaxo SmithKline and SC Johnson. He has recently commenced as CEO of Gfinity Esports Australia, is a former member of the Male Champions of Change Sport and former General Manager of the Sydney Sixers, the reigning Women’s Big Bash League Champions.

Eileen was the first professional female gamer in Australia, she has with 15 years experience in gaming & esports and 7 years experience within the financial industry.

She has most recently played CS:GO for Athletico-Fem and has been featured in various publications including BOSS magazine, the AFR, PwC and others. She is a Senior Manager of Digital & Innovation at BT Financial Group, Chair of the Athletes Committee for the AESA and consults in esports as her side-hustle, with a deep knowledge and understanding integrating corporate strategy and digital trends within the esport industry.

She is extremely passionate about advancing women in esports and linking the cognitive aspects of gaming to that of transferrable corporate skills and gamification principles.

Josie Tutty is Mumbrella’s opinion and features editor. She’s previously written and edited in the UK for Jungle Creations and Trinity Mirror.

Eric O’Brien is the Executive Creative Director and Co-founder of Sydney-based creative agency, Digilante. The rapid success of Digilante has seen it rank in BRW’s Fast Starters two years in a row, and achieving turnover into the millions in only a few short years. With over twenty years experience in the advertising industry, Eric started his career in Ireland, Dublin, working with Helme/TBWA on brand advertising accounts that included Sony PlayStation, BMW and Miller Brewing.

In 2001, Eric left Ireland for Sydney and prior to launching Digilante worked alongside some of Australia’s best creative minds on major accounts including Subaru Australia, Woolworths and Diageo.

He is a master story teller and has a distinct ability to capture the attention of his clients and audience. In his role as Executive Creative Director, Eric leads two, multi-disciplinary creative teams with a digital and creative split. Both teams work collaboratively to create future focused digital brands.

Having worked, played and commentated for over 20 years in professional Rugby, Adam Freier has a unique skill set that allows his views to be represented at all levels of the sport.
Adam is the Head of Marketing and Digital at Rugby Australia Ltd., formerly the Australian Rugby Union (ARU), and has played an instrumental role in the organisation’s rebrand strategy over the past eighteen months.

As a professional rugby player, Adam has played at both state and national level, including a total of 105 Super Rugby caps, 25 tests for the Wallabies and forming part of two Rugby world cup campaigns in Australia and France.

During his time in Rugby, Adam has held the role of President of the Rugby Union Players’ Association (RUPA) and prior to joining Rugby Australia was the General Manager of Media and Communications at the Melbourne Rebels.

Adam is a Rugby Life member of The Rugby Club Foundation, working across many boards and foundations in sports, including the Randwick Rugby Club, Classic Wallabies and SpinalCure Australia.

Nikki is a US immigration and human rights attorney living and working in Australia. Born and raised in Canada to Aussie parents, Nikki is a swimmer (and not an ice hockey player!) and competed in two Olympics (Barcelona & Atlanta) and two Commonwealth Games (Victoria & KL) where she won bronze.

She has stayed involved in sport since retiring, covering two more Olympics (Athens & Beijing) as a journalist, as an Editorial Board Member for LawInSport, and as an Athlete Ambassador for a number of non-profits that use sport and play to help disadvantaged children improve their lives including Right To Play.

After 15 years living her own American Dream in New York City, Nikki and her family relocated to Australia where she is now a Director at PwC with a particular focus and passion helping Aussie businesses and entrepreneurs realize their dreams in the US. She is also a judge and mentor for the UQ HYPE sports technology innovation start-up accelerator.

Nikki’s pro bono human rights work focuses on legal issues at the nexus of sport and human rights, including government sponsor doping, athletes’ rights, gender discrimination, sexual abuse and bad governance in international sport. She writes, speaks and advises on these issues, including on Olympic campaigns for Team Darfur and Human Rights Watch.

Adir Shiffman is a registered medical practitioner with a background and expertise in the internet and technology space, as well as the medical and healthcare sector.

Adir is one of the foremost experts in the internet space in Australia, having founded, built and sold a number of rapidly growing businesses. He has been an advisor to dozens of the largest companies in Australia and NZ regarding their online strategies and execution, and continues to provide strategic advice to a number of CEOs and senior managers. He has advised companies across many sectors, including banking, finance, health care, insurance, retail, airlines and travel, and media.

Adir mostly focuses on chairing Catapult and ASX-listed Disruptive Investment Group ($DVI), as well as helping grow startups, accelerating other early-stage companies, leading and structuring investments, consulting and advising to senior management, and chairing several businesses in which he is a significant shareholder. Of particular interest are opportunities to create value in overlooked and unidentified niches within the web and health sectors.

Adir is an SXSports Advisory Board Member at SXSW, Director and Partner at Disruptive Capital, Co-founder and Chairman of StartHere.com.au, Co-founder and Non-executive Chairman of Global Reviews., Co-Founder and Director of Innovative Online, Owner of Alia Group, and Founder and CEO of HelpMeChoose.com.au.

Adir is a charismatic strategic thinker that has a strong vision for Catapult’s future, and has the persuasive and motivational characteristics to help lead the company. He also regularly speaks at events in Australia and the US, and his views on technology and innovation have been widely published.

Adir holds a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery from Monash University.

As the Community Manager at The Sponsorship Consultants and co-author of The Athlete Brand, Charlotte is often the first point of contact for clients who want to learn about developing their brand and profile, and connecting with sponsorship opportunities.

Curating and managing our online community with athletes, sports professionals and sponsors from all around the world who seek information, Charlotte offers support, guidance and creative ideas as well as curating and managing the engagement content across all our digital platforms.

Charlotte has a well developed understanding of brand and the ways that our clients are able to portray and communicate their message and ambitions, as well as the strategic approach that sponsors and athletes need to take to create and manage effective sponsorship relationships.

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.

Jaimie Fuller is Executive Chairman of the international sports compression wear company, SKINS (www.skins.net). Jaimie is committed to the SKINS ethos of ‘Fuelling the True Spirit of Competition’ and in recent years has set his sights on SKINS leading the way in advocating for some of the big social issues in sport that need to be addressed.

Jaimie is a regular commentator on the role sport can play in helping to change society for the better. He is a regular contributor to public forums and conferences in Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, South Africa, Australia and the USA. Jaimie also presented at the 2016 Lions in Cannes on the topic of Purpose Marketing and SKINS journey therein to make a difference. He blogs regularly at watercooler.skins.net

Jaimie Fuller is Executive Chairman of the international sports compression wear company, SKINS (www.skins.net). Jaimie is committed to the SKINS ethos of ‘Fuelling the True Spirit of Competition’ and in recent years has set his sights on SKINS leading the way in advocating for some of the big social issues in sport that need to be addressed.

Jaimie is a regular commentator on the role sport can play in helping to change society for the better. He is a regular contributor to public forums and conferences in Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, South Africa, Australia and the USA. Jaimie also presented at the 2016 Lions in Cannes on the topic of Purpose Marketing and SKINS journey therein to make a difference. He blogs regularly at watercooler.skins.net

Andrew Montesi is a marketer, content producer and former TV sport reporter.

He is head of marketing at PickStar, Australia’s largest marketplace to book sports stars for events, marketing campaigns and experiences. PickStar is a startup that provides direct access to 900+ elite athletes and sports personalities, working with brands like Caltex, Sportsbet, Coles, Seven West Media, Optus and Bendigo Bank, as well as many schools, sports clubs and fans.

Previously, Andrew was a sport reporter and producer with 9 News and started his career in the media and communications department at the Adelaide Crows.

Virginia Hyland launched her own start up independent agency 12 years ago. As a one woman band she single handedly pitched to clients, knocked out the competition and created a unique agency that has grown to 40 people. HYLAND is now the largest Independent female owned Media Agency in Australia today.

HYLAND works with an enormous breadth of clientele from beauty, fashion, accounting, entertainment, FMCG, Pharmaceutical, Home and Lifestyle industries. Some of the clients that work with HYLAND include Calvin Klein, Natuzzi, RIMMEL, OPI, Gucci, Hugo Boss, Sally Hansen, Lilydale, Steggles, Olympus and Silversea Cruises.

In 2017 Virginia launched Programmatic Media Pty. A managed services business which trains and support marketers who want to develop inhouse programmatic buying teams. Marketers access transparent and independent guidance across leading Tech and Media. Companies such as Citibank, Flight Centre, Ubisoft, Commonwealth Bank, Sony and MIT have engaged Programmatic Media across areas such training and planning.

Her passion to launch both businesses is based on the premise that to be effective marketers need to unlock all possibilities in how to engage audiences. Virginia says “There is a great need to inspire and communicate effectively with audiences”. Her goal today is to build a team of entrepreneurial thinkers who support marketers to harness multiplatform campaigns and relevant content that works in individual channels.

She has won numerous awards such as NSW Finalist Telstra Business Women of the Year, Top 30 Female Powerlist in Media, Media Agency of the Year Finalist and Employer of the Year Finalist.