The Business of Sport - Mike Buckley
The Business of Sport
Born and raised on Cape Cod, MA, Buckley was introduced to sailing by his single mother who worked multiple jobs and sports became both an outlet and a foundation for discipline, resilience, and drive. What started as an unexpected extracurricular pursuit quickly grew into a defining passion that shaped his personal and professional trajectory. From high school waters to global competition, Buckley’s career ascended quickly. He went on to become a 2-time world champion sailor, competing at the highest levels of the sport and earning recognition for his strategic sharpness and relentless...
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The Business of Sport - Isabella Bertold
The Business of Sport
A multiple world cup medalist in the sport of Olympic Sailing, and an athlete on the Canada SailGP team, Isabella Berthold also leads a Next Gen Legacy Fund, focused on providing financial support to youth athletes in British Columbia. Isabella is also a professional cyclist, racing a European focused UCI Road Calendar. A former venture capital analyst, Isabella believes that responsible business, is good business. She believes that sport and sustainability can work side-by-side to develop innovative products and business models that drive real change, fast-tracking our journey towards a...
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The Business of Sport - Ursula Romero
The Business of Sport
From having Olympic Games accreditation at the age of just 4, to leading one of the world's biggest broadcast operations, Ursula Romero has a fantastic story to tell. The daughter of early pioneers in major event broadcasting, Ursula is the CEO of ISB, International Sports Broadcasting. With over 20 years experience providing coverage of global sporting events, Ursula and ISB are now transitioning away from mainstream sports to providing a platform for emerging sports and events.
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The Business of Sport - Michael R. Payne
The Business of Sport
Michael Payne has been at the forefront of Sports Marketing for over 40 years, most of that time spent leading and advising on deals around the Olympic Games. Payne has brokered over 25 billion dollars worth of deals and sold his first sponsorship package at the age of just sixteen! He worked alongside all of the great leaders who built the industry – from two decades at the IOC with President Samaranch, and in those early days Horst Dassler of adidas, to over a decade with Bernie Ecclestone at F1 as his right hand person, to now Chairing Volleyball World - a joint venture between FIVB and...
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The Business of Sport - Hugo Inglis
The Business of Sport
Hugo Inglis is a four-time Olympian with New Zealand. For over a decade, he scored goals at the very top of international elite Field Hockey. Nowadays, Hugo is a co-founder of High Impact Athletes (HIA), a global movement empowering athletes to fund the world’s most effective climate and social solutions. Under his leadership, HIA has grown to over 220 athletes across 48 sports and 34 countries, collectively driving almost $2 million in donations, improving almost half a million lives, protecting nearly 7 million animals and mitigating more than 600,000+ tonnes of CO₂e. ...
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Her Business of Sport - Lindsey Eckhouse
The Business of Sport
Lindsey Eckhouse is the Chief Revenue Officer at Mercury 13, a multi-club ownership group focussed on acquiring controlling stakes in professional women’s teams in Europe and Latin America. Lindsey has previous experience in sport with the NFL and Maclaren Racing.
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Her Business of Sport - Sally Sheppard
The Business of Sport
With the Women's Rugby World Cup 2025 in full swing, the RFU’s Head of Consumer Engagement, Sally Sheppard, joined our Her Business of Sport podcast to assess the success of the tournament so far and to reveal an insight into England Rugby’s plans to harness new supporters in the future.
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Her Business of Sport - Emily Heath
The Business of Sport
After more than 15 years with Unilever and over a decade as Global Lead of their Rexona/Sure brand of deodorant, Emily has led numerous high impact global campaigns and strategic partnerships. The Sure brand, known as Rexona globally, is over a hundred years old, but Emily’s focus is very much on the future, developing on-going partnerships with Manchester City FC, the reigning World Club Champions, Chelsea Football Club and the UEFA Women’s Euro Tournament, recently won by England. This is part of a broader strategy to drive brand growth, global visibility and deeper consumer engagement....
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Her Business of Sport - Thayer Lavielle
The Business of Sport
Thayer Lavielle says she is never afraid of a blank page, something she has proven over the last 6 years, by leading the development of The Collective, a women-focussed division of Wasserman, designed to bridge gaps in gender equity in sport and music through community, insights, events, tools and services. Since 2019, that “blank page” has grown to include The Collective Think Tank, The Goal Post and the Collective Marketplace. Thayer has negotiated over $250m worth of deals across talent, brand, property and venues and has extensive experience with leading female-focussed brands...
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The Business of Sport - Justin Papadakis
The Business of Sport
A year out from the next FIFA World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico, one man is leading the charge to create a sustainable platform for soccer in the USA. For over 50 years, American soccer has relied on importing players from around the world, mostly at the end of their careers, to play in stadiums designed for more popular American sports. Now though, a former college goalkeeper turned entrepreneur is trying to change all that. Justin Papadakis is the Chief Real Estate Officer and Deputy CEO of the USA’s fastest growing pre-professional and professional soccer organisation, which is...
info_outlineJason Webber joined the Football Association of Wales almost five years ago, to lead on EDI and Sustainability, a brand new role at the time.
Prior to that, Jason worked in various Football Development roles, including coaching at the Cardiff City Academy.
On leaving University, Jason worked for Show Racism the Red Card, which was his introduction to the Equality World.
Jason on the emergence of EDI in football:
“We’ve seen quite a shift in recent years and certainly since the murder of George Floyd. There has been quite a gulf of EDI related roles, particularly in football, but in sport more broadly.
Sport is starting to be under the microscope a little bit more and being held accountable for progress, or lack of it, which maybe other industries have gone through.
So there’s certainly more focus in this area for Chief Executives, National Governing Bodies and in clubs across the game.”
Jason on opportunity:
“Through our BE: Football programme, we do a lot of work in schools, providing playing football opportunities.
Unfortunately, there are still many schools that don’t offer football for girls and it’s very much an exclusive offer to boys.
The Be: Football programme enables skills development and opportunities for girls to be mentors themselves in their own schools and be Ambassadors for younger girls.”
Jason on Governance:
“It is so important that EDI is an explicit and visible core element in any governance.
Many National Associations are often a little bit archaic with how they are structured and set up and that’s been the case for maybe a hundred years.
WE have had a big change ourselves in terms of our own governance models and structures, but also ensuring that EDI is a core part and embedded within those changes and processes and likewise for clubs as well.
We are currently working through to make sure that every club in Wales, from our professional clubs to grassroots, all have their own strategic plans, so that they are very clear on the direction they are going.
The changes we have made ourselves, have brought about better representation and we have made huge changes to our recruitment process.”