Get your marketing game face on

Glenn McGrath has achieved many milestones throughout his illustrious cricket career and through his role as President of the McGrath Foundation.

Glenn and his late wife Jane commenced The McGrath Foundation to address the chronic shortage of Breast Care Nurses throughout Australia particularly in Rural and Regional Australia. The foundation currently has over 100 McGrath Breast Care Nurses throughout Australia and has helped change the lives of Australian women fighting breast cancer.

McGrath’s success to date has seen him become one of Australia’s most popular and well respected athletes. His personal courage and on field success has seen him constantly sought after by the media and he is one of the most iconic faces in Australia today. In 2009 and 2010 he was named as one of Australia’s most trusted people.

McGrath has taken more wickets than any other Australian bowler in One Day Internationals and is currently fifth on the all time Test Match wicket list. Glenn was the first Australian bowler to play in 200 One‐Day Internationals and the first Australian Fast Bowler to play in 100 Test matches.

Glenn announced his retirement from Test cricket at the end of 2006. His Test career came to an end after the 5th Ashes test in Sydney, while the 2007 World Cup marked the end of his One‐Day career.

In 2008 Glenn was named as a member of the Order of Australia for ‘service to cricket as a player’ and later that year he was the recipient of the NSW Australian of the Year Award in recognition of his dedication to the McGrath Foundation and his contribution to cricket.

Glenn also played in the Indian Premier League Twenty20 Tournament for the Delhi Daredevils in 2008 and 2009.

Bio coming soon…

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 at BT Financial Group, Chair of the Athletes Committee for the AESA, Lead of the Diversity panel for EGAA 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.

With nearing a decade of extensive experience in agency-land, Oli is most recognised for partnering with BMF co-founder and ex Campaign Palace Chairman, Paul Fishlock, in establishing and developing creative agency, Behaviour Change Partners, the first agency of its kind in Australia set up to show how modern day communications can be more engaging, persuasive and effective when borrowing from the deep wells of behavioural theory, insight and science. With a longing appetite for strategy, coupled with a wide respect and appreciation for the never-changing fundamentals of marketing, at the beginning of 2018, Oli made the switch to client side, joining the Port Adelaide Football Club (AFL) as General Manager – Marketing & Brand.

Heath McDonald is Professor of Marketing, and Co-Director of the Customer Experience and Insights (CXI) Research Group at Swinburne University, Australia. His research work focuses on the field of customer acquisition and retention, particularly in subscription markets (e.g., season tickets, memberships). Informed by a marketing science perspective, this work often involves repeated modeling employing large datasets. His work has made major contributions to our understanding of how to convert people from causal fans to season ticket buyers and of how marketing empirical generalizations apply to the sports industry. Major sporting leagues, including the AFL and BBL, have used this research to drive growth in fan and member numbers, to inform pricing decisions and evaluate stadium design and development. This research has attracted over $2 million in funding from more than fifty different industry partners, including the Australian Football League, the International Cricket Council and the Australian Research Council.

This work has been published in leading journals in the fields of Marketing, Sport Management and Hospitality. Those journals include the European Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Sport Management and the Journal of Business Research. He recently co-authored the book “Sports Consumer Behavior: Marketing Strategies” published by Routledge. Professor McDonald sits on the editorial boards of five international journals, is a lifetime Fellow of the North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM) and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Paul Kind has been a leader in the commercial and marketing functions of sport and entertainment for more than 25 years.

Paul currently leads award winning sport and entertainment agency, TSE and also holds the role of CEO at the Sydney Kings basketball team as a result of TSE’s investment in the franchise in 2018.

Paul’s role as the NRL’s Head of Commercial and Marketing Director from 2002-2014 saw him manage the games sponsorship program, digital strategy, major events including State of Origin, NRL Grand Final, brand and retail advertising campaigns. He delivered major new event innovations including the NRL All Stars, and the NRL Auckland Nines. In 2014 Paul was named one of the top 20 global innovators in sports by Sport Business International for his leadership of the inaugural Nines event.

Paul oversaw the NRL’s fastest growing period of non-broadcast revenue growth from 2012-2014, highlighted by significant increases in sponsorship, ticketing, hospitality and digital revenue. He also managed the broadcast partnerships with the Nine Network, FOX Sports & Telstra during this period.

One of his legacies is the long standing partnerships the NRL retains with major Australian companies including Telstra, Harvey Norman, VB, Cola Cola, Holden & KFC.

In 2015 Paul started the KIND Agency, a sport and entertainment consultancy that specialised in marketing, sponsor activation, events and commercial consultancy. KIND’s clients included FOXTEL, FOX Sports, NSWRL, NBL, Harvey Norman, TEG Live, The Star Group during the companies 18-month existence.

In July 2017, the KIND Agency was acquired by TSE, a Sydney based sport and entertainment agency. Over the past year TSE has undergone a business transformation, built on the platform of a successful twenty five years as a leading leverage and activation agency. TSE is privately owned and well capitalised which allows for a nimble approach to opportunities including investment in commercial rights, team rights or business acquisition.

TSE’s clients include Fairfax Events, Netball Australia, Foxtel, Fox Sports, Gatorade, Citi, The Star Group, Tropfest, NSWRL and the Sydney Kings.

Tom Parker is a China specialist with a focus on collaboration between Australia and China to broaden the bi-lateral relationship. A Mandarin speaker, Tom’s long-term engagement with China has resulted in impressive networks and successful business outcomes. He has held China focused roles in The Asialink Centre, Austrade (Beijing), City of Melbourne and as writer and reporter for the ABC in both China and Australia for Radio National’s Asia Pacific Program.

In 2007, Tom established Red Tape Consulting a China Advisory business that helped stage the first AFL exhibition math as part of the Shanghai World Expo and delivered intercultural training programs as well as conducted trade missions on behalf of the Victorian and NSW governments.

In 2015, Bastion acquired Red Tape and Tom established Bastion China, as one of Australia’s leading Chinese language marketing and communications business with clients including Tennis Australia, Mirvac, Australian Grand Prix, and Virgin Australia.
Last year, he joined the AFL in a newly created role as Head of China to drive commercial outcomes from the ongoing engagement and games being played in Shanghai.

Tom incorporates a life-long passion for China into his professional life having studied Chinese (Mandarin) since 1987. He has completed a Bachelor of Arts (Asian Studies) with honours from Melbourne University and the Australian National University and a Graduate Diploma of International Business Studies (in Mandarin) at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. Tom has also studied in the Advanced Chinese Language Program at the East China Normal University in Shanghai.

Tom is a well-connected Australia-China facilitator with extensive experience assisting business and government better understand and access their opportunities in China.

Tyson “Star Boy” Pedro was born and raised in Sydney, Australia, where he grew up surrounded around Martial Arts most of his life because of his father, He currently trains out of Sydney and also Jacksons Wink MMA Academy in Albuquerque, US.

Started his love of fighting from the young age of 8, Doing Kenpo Karate and weapon tournaments, but after dominating the league he always sought after taking it to another level with boxing. After a successful and undefeated 7 fight win streak in amateur boxing he decided to have a run at Jiu Jitsu at the same time winning various state, national and pan pacific titles. Then in 2010 Tyson was awarded the accolade best boxer after winning his division in the NSW State Titles. Then Tyson moved on to win the Abu Dhabi world trials in the Blue belt Jiu Jitsu open weight division in 2012 qualifying for the world championships in Abu Dhabi however was unable to compete due to work commitments. Later Tyson then won his first a class amateur MMA debut and immediately turned Pro. He then took on the local MMA scene by storm, his first Pro bout was a first round KO of punches, then in 2016 he had 2 fights which finished both of them first round by submission. Since dominating the local scene within the Light Heavyweight division got into the UFC and has made a statement within his first year making top 15 in the world. Has Black Belt in BJJ and has a MMA pro record of 7-3

In 2018 Esther introduced Audience of Value (AoV) as an influencer trading metric, reinforcing her commitment to bringing discipline and measurability to engagement channels. She has delivered business success to brands such as Sydney Airport, Olympus, Rimmel, Steggles, OPI, and Olympus with content grounded in audience rigour and measurable KPIs.

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 1100+ 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.

Andrew also produces a number of podcasts and content for a wide range of clients across sport and professional services industries through his content marketing company, Apiro.

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.

Michelle is currently a Group Account Director and sports and entertainment lead at Thrive PR + Communications.

Michelle joined the agency in 2018 with extensive sports PR and sponsorship experience, having worked with some of the biggest sports properties in the world in soccer, Formula One and athletics in Australia and London.

Michelle has led teams to create and execute integrated communication and sponsorship leverage strategies for consumer and B2B brands. With expertise across media relations, content, digital and experiential, she has also worked across talent management, rights and sponsorship contract negotiation and stakeholder engagement.

Recently, Michelle spearheaded the Thrive team to launch a new, global racing league SailGP into the Australian market, including the world premiere in Sydney. The annual championship, founded by Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, features teams from six nations, competing in five grand prix around the world.

She is passionate about raising the profile of women’s sports, and in her downtime loves playing netball, watching AFL, and supporting Liverpool in the EPL.

Thrive’s sports portfolio includes SailGP, Swimming Australia, STIHL Timbersports, Collective Wellness Group (including Anytime Fitness), Pickstar and ANZ including their sponsorship of the Australian Open tennis.