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The biggest names in the global business of sport sit down with Leaders Editorial Director, James Emmett, and Content Director, David Cushnan.
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The first major of the golfing season takes place this weekend. It's a fixture on the global event calendar, the first real harbinger of a major sporting summer, and arguably the finest example of sports marketing strategy in action.In this episode of the Leaders Worth Knowing podcast, James Emmett is joined by MSQ Sports + Entertainment founding partner Steve Martin to pinpoint why and how the Masters has become the north star for so many sports marketers.From the look and feel to the sport itself, the TV product and packaging, the secrecy that permeates the membership and the comms policy, the phone ban and the pimento cheese sandwiches, the less-is-more approach and the surety to stick steadfastly to a singular strategic approach, the Augusta National is home to a Masters-class on how to run an iconic global event.
Arthur Blank remains a compelling public speaker, even into his ninth decade.The Atlanta sports doyen was one of a clutch of US sports owners on stage and wandering the halls at the Business of Soccer event at Mercedes-Benz Stadium last week.David Cushnan was also there, and on his return to the Leaders studio in London, he teams up again with James Emmett to talk about what makes the billionaire class of individuals who own US sports franchises different from their counterparts around the world. Storytelling and status are baked into the proposition.The pair also discuss plans being made from the myriad brands looking to capitalize on what will no doubt be the most commercial World Cup in history this summer.
With the World Cup just a few weeks away, tournament and team sponsors are rolling out activation plans across the United States, Canada and Mexico. A trio of senior brand executives sat down with David Cushnan, on the sidelines of Sports Business Journal and Leaders’ Business of Soccer event in Atlanta last week, to run through their activation plans, hopes and targets for the upcoming tournament, and consider what happens afterwards.Allison Kolber is VP Integrated Marketing at The Home Depot, which is an official tournament supporter amongst several soccer sponsorships, and is engaging David Beckham to help promote its World Cup sweepstakes.Lauren Flanigan, Head of Global Brands, Refreshment Categories at Mondelēz International, looking after brands like Halls and Trident, discusses how she's planning to engage Gen Z consumers during the World Cup.And Kim Tunick, Head of Brand Experiences and Partnerships at Walmart - a more recent entrant to soccer sponsorship, with deals signed last year to partner Major League Soccer and LaLiga - explains how the retail giant will celebrate the tournament in its stores throughout the country.
On the eve of the IPL's 19th season comes confirmation that its defending champion franchise - in both the men's and women's competitions - has been sold by Diageo to a conglomerate led by Blackstone and its serial team-buying chairman David Blitzer. David Cushnan and James Emmett dig into the details of the sale, and reflect on the latest iteration of the IPL as it heads into the penultimate year of its latest media rights cycle. Change is afoot. Elsewhere in the episode, the art and science of engineering atmosphere at sports events, prompted by this week's podcast interview with music pioneer DJ Skee; and LIV Golf finds a formula that works as record crowds form an evocative backdrop at the latest tournament in South Africa.
DJ Skee - also known as Scott Keeney - has carved out one of the most unconventional careers in modern entertainment. From discovering future stars like Kendrick Lamar to becoming the first DJ to perform live at NFL and NASCAR events, he has spent two decades operating at the crossroads of music, media and sport.Today, he leads The Realist, a fast‑growing memorabilia company partnering with major leagues, teams and entertainment brands to build authenticated, story‑driven collectible lines.What began with mixtapes and trend‑spotting in the early 2000s has evolved into a new form of storytelling - preserving iconic sporting moments in physical form, whether it’s match‑worn jerseys or even snow from an NFL playoff game.In this conversation with James Emmett, Skee discusses how he identifies emerging talent, how DJs became part of the stadium experience, what defines great in‑venue music, and why the memorabilia market is primed for global growth. He also explains how The Realist helps rights holders protect authenticity, engage fans and unlock new revenue through items that capture the emotion behind sport.
With the Fifa men’s World Cup looming ever closer on the horizon, James Emmett and David Cushnan consider the tensions between US host cities and Fifa’s central organising committee over who pays for what and the overall value exchange around staging games - and the particular challenges Fifa is facing by staging this year’s tournament in three democracies.They reflect on James’ conversation with Bay Area Host Committee CEOZaileen Janmohamed, and her thoughtful perspective on evolving the model and ultimately giving host cities more flexibility.Elsewhere, they discuss the NBA’s plans to hold an initial vote next week on whether expansion teams should be created in Las Vegas and Seattle, and the thinking and vision behind the league’s bold growth plan.—-Leaders Week London has a new venue for 2026 - Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea FC on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th October. To find out more: leadersinsport.com/leadersweek
Zaileen Janmohamed was only a few weeks in the job when she found herself in a windowless room, standing in front of 32 of the most powerful people in America. With just ten minutes on the clock, it was her first to task as CEO of the Bay Area Host Committee to pitch for the hosting rights for the 2026 Super Bowl. She decided to throw the templated stump speech in the trash and go with something bold. In this episode of Leaders Worth Knowing, Janmohamed unpacks the high pressure, high impact presentation she gave to the NFL Owners meeting that resulted in Levi's Stadium winning the right to host the most recent Super Bowl Janmohamed became CEO of the Bay Area Host Committee in 2023. It's essentially the sports commission for the Bay Area, and bids for and then operates major, top-tier sports events. Janmohamed runs a team responsible for raising revenues for those events, telling coherent stories about the impact they'll have across the region, then making sure that comes true, while ensuring a legacy too. She looks ahead to the upcoming Fifa World Cup, which will play six games in the Bay Area; and attempts to unpick and explain a lattice-work stakeholder environment that is creating tension in various host regions just a few weeks out from the biggest World Cup in history. Janmohamed is a member of the Leaders Under 40 class of 2017, and she also reflects on a career that has seen her play leadership roles at rights holder, brand, and agency organisations; the sport industry full house!
The sharpest operators in sport met the smartest minds from other sectors at Leaders Meet: Innovation in London this week, and James Emmett and David Cushnan are on the ground at 180 Studios bending the Chatham House Rule as far as possible to share a little about what they saw and heard. They reflect on a few of the standout presentations and panels, including a leadership masterclass from PizzaExpress CEO Paula MacKenzie; the story of The Guardian's reader monetisation model; and how Unilever's AI-powered content studio might be a new model for sport. And James also caught up with Viagogo's VP of Open Distribution Shaun Stewart, hot off the stage at the event for a potted history of ticket sales and why, even with the help of transformative technology, sport is still taking cues from the airline industry of the 1950s and 60s.
As the Dana White-fronted Zuffa Boxing, backed by TKO and Saudi's Sela, makes its move to dethrone promotional giants Matchroom Boxing and Queensberry Promotions, James Emmett and David Cushnan consider the latest disruption in the fight game and Turki Alalshikh's role as chief string-puller. They also reflect on their conversation with Uefa Marketing Director Guy-Laurent Epstein and European Football Clubs CEO Charlie Marshall, to unpack the new commercial programme being developed by the UC3 entity, a joint venture between Uefa and EFC - and the flexibility that is being built into the media rights and sponsorship sales packages being taken to market by agency partners Relevent and Two Circles. And there's reaction to the Premier League confirmation it will launch a direct-to-consumer service in Singapore.
UC3 Co-Managing Directors Charlie Marshall and Guy-Laurent Epstein join Leaders Worth Knowing this week to shine some light on an organization that has been quietly pulling the strings of European football in the shadows for a little while. It was set up in 2017 as a joint project between what was then the European Clubs Association (ECA) and Uefa to consult on the commercialization of European club competitions - principally the Champions League. Last year, the project became an incorporated joint venture and has moved from a consulting role to a management capacity. In the wake of the failed attempt at a European Super League breakaway, Uefa and the continent's most powerful clubs are now bound tightly together. UC3 exists to manage the commercialization of both the men's and women's club competitions; it has contracted Relevent Football Partners and Two Circles as agencies to enact that work in the market. But how does it work? What's being done differently? And what does it mean for the future of European and world football. Marshall - who is also the CEO of the EFC - and Epstein - the Marketing Director of Uefa - are thrusting UC3 into the limelight.
Over 40,000 people volunteer at Parkrun events worldwide each week, with around 20,000 in the UK alone, which prompts James Emmett and David Cushnan to discuss sport’s reliance on volunteers to help run - and effectively help market - big events.They reflect on this week’s podcast interview with Elizabeth Duggan, Parkrun’s CEO, and on the word of mouth-driven success story it’s become in the UK and further afield.Elsewhere, as Gianni Infantino celebrates his 10th anniversary as Fifa President in Instagram style, it’s a timely moment to assess his front-foot approach to communications, in a week when IOC President Kirsty Coventry miscued during a press conference and a leading voice in women’s football, Victoire Cogevina Reynal, stepped away from her Mercury13 multi-club investment firm.
Elizabeth Duggan is approaching one year in the role of CEO at Parkrun, the volunteer-led running organisation that is held up as a blueprint for sports participation in the UK. Duggan and her team do a lot with a little. What started 21 years ago as one man - Paul Sinton-Hewitt - looking for company on a 5km run around Bushy Park in London has blossomed into a global community of 'fun-runners'. Parkrun welcomed its 12 millionth registrant recently and now operates weekend events - 5km runs and walks, as well as 2km runs for children - in 23 countries around the world. In the next few years, Duggan anticipates reaching 800,000 weekly runners taking part. In this conversation, she explains the principles that have driven the charity's success. For more detail and analysis, subscribe for free to the weekly Leaders Worth Knowing newsletter at leadersinsport.com/newsletters/ ------ Leaders Week London is moving to Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea FC. We’ll see you on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th October. For more details visit leadersinsport.com/leadersweek
The proposed merger between the ATP and WTA remains on the table, but as James Emmett and David Cushnan discuss, the time it's taking to finalise tells its own story. On this week's show, there's reflections on conversations with Marina Storti, CEO of WTA Ventures, the commercial arm of the WTA, and Eno Polo, the new CEO at the ATP - and the challenges tennis faces with calendar congestion, balancing the demands of tournaments of various sizes, and player influence. There's also time to discuss Casey Wasserman's decision to sell his stake in his agency, and the possible forms the sale could take, and as the NFL hires TMRW Sports to operate its planned new flag football league, how and where rights holders can create new IP, to make a greater footprint, expand geographically or fuel player development. ---- Leaders Week London is moving to Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea FC. We’ll see you on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th October. For more details visit leadersinsport.com/leadersweek.
WTA Ventures CEO Marina Storti joins the podcast to review a transformative year for women's tennis. She takes us inside the process of landing Mercedes-Benz as a new headline partner, in what is being widely reported as the biggest sponsorship deal in the history of women's sport. She details the gains the tour has made across its digital output and in its internal structure. And she explains the rationale behind the new PIF WTA Maternity Fund programme, an industry-leading scheme that provides WTA players up to 12 months of paid leave. This episode is part of a series exploring PIF’s growing sports sponsorship portfolio, detailing how it is striving to help solve societal and sporting challenges across its portfolio. Listen to episode 1, with PIF Director and Head of Events and Sponsorship Alanoud Althonayan, here.----- Leaders Week London is moving to Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea FC. We’ll see you on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th October. For more details visit leadersinsport.com/leadersweek.
ATP CEO Eno Polo joins the podcast to reflect on his first 100 days in charge of the men's tennis tour. The Kenyan sets out his strategic priorities in what could end up being a transformative year for tennis, with a merger between the ATP and the WTA firmly on Polo's agenda. He also outlines the support that the PIF brings to the tour's work with its players, particularly through its sponsorship of the ATP Rankings and through its investment in the Tennis IQ analytics platform. This episode is part of a series exploring PIF’s growing sports sponsorship portfolio, detailing how it is striving to help solve societal and sporting challenges across its portfolio. Listen to episode 1, with PIF Director and Head of Events and Sponsorship Alanoud Althonayan, here. ------ Leaders Week London is moving to Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea FC. We’ll see you on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th October. For more details visit leadersinsport.com/leadersweek
James Emmett and David Cushnan look ahead to a new Formula 1 season and another potentially seismic shift in the sport. With significant gains in audience and commercial growth for the motorsport series in recent years, teams have felt the trickle down benefit, logging their own commercial gains. With the biggest set of rule changes for over a decade coming into force this season, the playing field - theoretically - has been levelled. At this stage, championship contention is a realistic goal for almost all the teams. One that stands a particularly realistic chance of improvement is Aston Martin, whose commercial MD Jeff Slack is the featured guest on the interview show this week. James and David reflect on Slack's comments, and take some time to look back on the Super Bowl as well as ahead to the future of the IOC's TOP sponsorship model. - -- -- -- -- Leaders Week London is moving to Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea FC. We’ll see you on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th October. For more details visit leadersinsport.com/leadersweek
As F1 pre-season testing gets underway in Bahrain, Jeff Slack, Aston Martin F1's Managing Director of Commercial and Marketing, lifts the lid on how the team intends to reach the front of the grid. He reflects on the way the team has grown to over 1,100 people since it was rebranded as Aston Martin in 2021, its move into a new purpose-built facility at Silverstone and, after a 7th place finish in 2025, how owner Lawrence Stroll has set the course towards competing for world championships in the next few years, with the help of Honda and Aramco. Slack also draws on his wider sports industry experience, including stints in leadership roles at Inter Milan and IMG, to assess the overall health of F1 and the way it's evolving for brand partners as the 2026 season dawns - and reveals what the sport must be wary of as it enjoys its current fan and corporate boom.--- Leaders Week London is moving to Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea FC. We’ll see you on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th October. For more details visit leadersinsport.com/leadersweek
James Emmett in Brisbane and David Cushnan in London reflect on conversations with Australian Open CEO Craig Tiley and his top team, and explain how the expansion - outwards and upwards - of Melbourne Park hints at a new trend across sport's major events - and opens up the opportunity to create new sponsorship, entertainment and fan-friendly spaces. There's also time to look ahead to the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, which begins on Friday, and will be spread across Northern Italy - bringing with it the potential for operational and sustainability challenges, that will help determine the future of the winter Games ahead of regional editions in the French Alps (2030), Utah (2034) and, most likely, Switzerland (2038). Plus, there's a run-through of the broadcast innovations Olympic Broadcast Services are rolling out for the Games. - -- -- -- -- -- -- - Leaders Week London is moving to Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea FC. We’ll see you on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th October. For more details visit leadersinsport.com/leadersweek
As the dust settles on a tournament that attracted a record 1.3 million attendees, we explore the inner workings of the Australian Open in a special episode. James Emmett spent the weekend on the ground at Melbourne Park, as Carlos Alcaraz and Elena Rybakina claimed the big prizes, to find out how the AO operates, as a tennis and social event, and a best-in-class fan experience. James sits down with Tennis Australia CEO and Tournament Director Craig Tiley, and then a trio of Tiley's key executives: Chief Content Officer, Darren Pearce; Director of Product and Customer Experience, Amanda del Prate; and Director of Partnerships, International, Roddy Campbell. They explain all aspects of how the AO does what it does: designing, developing and delivering sponsor activations, creating hospitality offerings to suit all tastes and price ranges; retail and merchandising experiences; innovative content and broadcast products; and wide-ranging entertainment programmes. - - Leaders Week London is moving to Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea FC. We’ll see you on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th October. For more details visit leadersinsport.com/leadersweek
The world’s top tennis have been barred from wearing Whoop wearables at the Australian Open, reigniting a debate over who owns personal performance data.James Emmett is on the ground in Melbourne for this week’s show, with David Cushnan back in the UK, to examine the various cases for ‘owning’ that data.They also reflect on recent events in Saudi Arabia, as well as the Public Investment Fund’s global sponsorship strategy, laid out in David’s conversation with PIF’s Director and Head of Sponsorship and Events, Alanoud Althonayan.And as British Cycling’s Jon Dutton is appointed as the next CEO of the British Olympic Association, what will the next period of leadership look like for British Olympic sport and its many governing bodies.- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -Leaders Week London is moving to Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea FC. We’ll see you on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th October. For more details visit leadersinsport.com/leadersweek
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