FIFA, Macron, eToro, Facebook and FC Bayern Munich To Feature at 2019 Paris Summit

iSportconnect is delighted to announce that Colin Smith of FIFA, Mike Farnan of Macron, Iqbal Gandham of eToro, Anna Chanduvi of Facebook, and Benjamin Steen of FC Bayern Munich are the latest to join the speaker lineup at the second event of this year’s Global Event Series, the 2019 Paris Summit, which will be held on Thursday 4th July at PwC.

iSportconnect has assembled a content programme that will bring together thought leaders from premier rights owners and brands to discuss and debate strategic issues impacting the future of the global sports business, including digital content strategies, sponsorship and partnership issues, hosting major events and the future of sporting facilities.

The speaker lineup includes:

• Colin Smith, Chief Competitions & Events Officer, FIFA
• Brett Gosper, CEO, World Rugby
• Dan Rossomondo, Head of Global Media & Business Development, NBA
• Mike Farnan, CEO, Macron
• Iqbal Gandham, Managing Director – Business, eToro
• Claudio Borges, Global Director of Digital Planning, adidas
• Anna Chanduvi, Sports Media Partnerships EMEA, Facebook
• Benjamin Steen, Head of Customer Care, Digital Licensing & Stadium, FC Bayern Munich
• Olivier Dufour, CEO France and President of Video & OTT, Motorsport Network
• Sébastien Audoux, Head of Sports, Canal+
• David Dellea, Director, Sport Business Advisory, PwC

Colin has been part of the FIFA senior management team since 2015, with responsibility for delivering the wide range of tournaments and events across the globe. Prior to joining FIFA, Colin held senior positions at PGA European Tour, UEFA, and Pro League Committee. Colin was also a Country Manager at Rothmans, based across Africa, in the early part of his career. Now leading FIFA’s Competitions and Events team, Colin was responsible for the recent 2018 World Cup in Russia, and has been appointed Managing Director of FIFA’s joint venture with Qatar 2022.

Mike is Redstrike Groups founder and CEO. Mike has over 20 years’ experience in sports marketing, principally as MD of Manchester United International and Macron’s New Business Development Manager for 14 years. Mike helped build the Macron brand into the number three technical sportswear brand in Europe, negotiating the first major sponsorship for Macron in Europe with Leeds United. This was followed by sponsorship of West Ham, Millwall, Sheffield United, Aston Villa, Bolton, Stoke City and Nottingham Forest to name a few.

At United, Mike developed the commercial strategy that drove the club’s meteoric rise in popularity throughout the Middle East, Asia and Oceania. Mike has also held various board positions across Europe at leading organisations in football and Formula 1.Iqbal manages eToro’s business activities in the UK. Prior to eToro, he held senior positions as a CMO and CTO, in addition to founding several companies. He co-founded India’s largest web-hosting business, launched a telecoms startups and then progressed to cloud computing. Following this, he joined a fledgeling startup called Nutmeg as CMO and helped shape it into the UK’s largest robo-advisor.

Anna recently joined Facebook’s Sports Media Partnerships team where she focuses on the EMEA region. Previously, she was the Manager of Acquisitions and Content Strategy at beIN Sports looking after all beIN markets on a world-wide basis acquiring rights across all sports and Leagues. Part of her role at beIN was to centralise the acquisitions and content strategy across 43 countries in order to achieve a consistent content portfolio across the group and leverage economies of scale. Additionally, she was part of the Digital Strategy group at beIN where she evaluated new business opportunities, strategic partnerships and development of beIN Media Group’s OTT digital product. As an advocate of gender equality in the sports industry, Anna founded the WBR Network – a platform that shares stories of women breaking records in sport.

Benjamin is a native from Munich, Germany, who studied Media Management and Sports Marketing. Benjamin is working for nearly 15 years now at Germany’s largest and most successful soccer club, FC Bayern Munich. Since 2010, Benjamin has been responsible for operations, marketing and development of digital projects. In 2014, Benjamin was put in charge of customer care, digital licensing, media rights as well as the digitalisation of the Allianz Arena.

To register your interest in attending the 2019 Paris Summit, please contact Chloe McCombie at info@isportconnect.com