Rod’s talent and passion lie in creating better brand experiences. Over the years, he has guided a wide range of clients, from government to retail and from start-up to turn-around. He has extensive experience in branding and marketing strategy and has led the development and implementation of integrated programs for Comcast, Western Union, JetBlue, HSBC, Scholastic, and the U.S. Department of State.

Rod’s career in advertising started with J. Walter Thompson Worldwide, where he migrated to their specialized communications division and founded its diversity practice. He then went on to support the development of two NY-based agencies. Rod also spent time in Accenture and obtained his MBA with an emphasis on marketing and his BBA with a double major in Marketing and MIS. He speaks fluent Spanish and has spent time in Mexico, Texas and Washington D.C.

Dan leads the Sports division for Publicis Media. This US based assignment includes responsibilities across the full Sports Marketing spectrum, including Strategy, Planning, Rights Acquisition, and Activation.

Prior to this role, Dan was leading the SPORTS at SMG division for Starcom Mediavest Group, which he launched in 2014.

Dan joined SMG in 2004, and led the Coca-Cola account. In that role, Dan was EVP, Managing Director, and oversaw all consumer insights, strategic planning, investment & activation, and research & analytics.

Prior to joining SMG, Dan worked at Busch Media Group, the in-house unit wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch, Inc. In this role, Dan led numerous multi-year and multi-sport negotiations, including NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS, Nascar, NCAA Basketball and Football, PGA Tour, Olympics, and World Cup Soccer.

With more than 25 years of experience as an executive in the sports and entertainment industry, Ed Horne is responsible for managing relationships with major global clients, helping to develop strategic and activation plans for the use of sports and entertainment as a business building platform. Key clients include General Electric, ABI, Marriott, USAA, Kia and Visa among others. Horne spent 15 years at the National Hockey League. Over that time, he was involved in virtually all aspects of the global NHL business, including Sponsorship, Media, Marketing, Licensing, Communications, Fan Development, and Events.
Some of Horne’s most notable professional moments include helping to negotiate the first ever Super Bowl halftime show sponsorship with Frito Lay, playing a primary role in creating the partnership with the IOC and relevant NOC’s and NGB’s that saw NHL players participating in the Olympic Winter Games, and leading the re-launch of the NHL after a full season work stoppage while realizing revenue of $2.5 billion dollars in the first year back. Horne was also an on-ice referee at the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary.

Jorge is a marketing executive with over 15 years of experience in CPG and the Beer industry in Europe, Mexico and the USA. As the Anheuser-Busch Marketing Director for the West Region, he has most recently developed and executed sports marketing strategies for Bud Light, Budweiser and Michelob Ultra, in partnership with some of the most iconic professional teams in the NBA, NFL and MLB as well as the Mexican National Soccer Team.

Rahul is Director of Global Marketing & Branding at Rakuten Inc. He joined in 2016 from Wipro to help build and drive Rakuten’s global brand and marketing agenda. One of his core missions is to position Rakuten as one of the world’s foremost innovative companies by bringing together the pillars of strategy, design and technology. By identifying innovative concepts and best practices that can be applied across multiple markets, Rahul is responsible for strategy and execution of marketing and branding for Rakuten’s extensive global business portfolio. He has been instrumental in negotiating and signing the FC Barcelona partnership and making Rakuten, FCB’s “Global Innovation and Entertainment” partner.

He has over 16+ years of proven experience across brand management, communications and field marketing in various industries with a focus in IT, Internet Services and Technology sector. Rahul received his Bachelor’s in Commerce from Loyola College, Chennai, India.

Experienced and creative professional skilled in sports/entertainment experiential marketing and promotion, negotiation, strategic planning, business development, client and account management, property and celebrity management. Since 2011 Dan has been working in Allstate. As a Director Sponsorship Marketing, he’s responsible for managing and directing strategic sponsorship platforms for Allstate:
– College Football
– Collegiate Sports
– Pro Football Platform
– Branded Entertainment Initiatives

Nick Kelly is responsible for every sports property at Anheuser-Busch, equating to more than a-quarter billion dollars in sponsorships -inclusive of league, team and venue deals within the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NASCAR, PGA, UFC, soccer and college sports.

Because of the scope of his responsibilities, Nick was named one of exclusive “Forty under 40” by Sports Business Daily in 2017

Nick continues to lead a refreshing perspective to A-B’s sports entities to rework, revitalize and position the brewer’s brand sports properties for growth.

Nick is a graduate of Marshall University.

Dan Mannix is the President & CEO of LeadDog Marketing Group, a New York City-based integrated, experiential marketing agency that was named the “2016 Best in Sports Event and Experiential Marketing” by SportsBusiness Journal. Dan founded LeadDog 17 years ago, growing it into an agency of 180 make-it-happen, passionate people that is now a part of CSM, a global leader in sport and entertainment.

LeadDog has developed longstanding relationships with marquee brands including ABC-TV, America’s Cup, Audi, AVON 39, Coca-Cola, Intel, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NFLPA, REI, Reebok, and WWE, built multi-tiered cross-promotional, revenue-generating partnerships, and invested in new business ventures like the sport of extreme pogo, Xpogo.

A past SportsBusiness Journal Forty Under 40 honoree, Dan has over 20 years of strategic marketing, partnership development, and program activation experience. After starting his career in sports marketing at the Houston Astrodome, Dan moved over to the NBA where he worked on signature events and ran team operations for the launch of the WNBA. Additionally, Dan ran the basketball competition at the Atlanta Olympics.

Dan graduated from the University of Richmond and lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Michelle and son, Jackson.

Perez was born in Malaga, Spain and has been active in the sports world for more than 15 years. Since December 2016, Perez leads Spains’s top soccer league La Liga’s expansion in the U.S. Previously Perez was CEO of la Liga team  Malaga CF. He also held leadership positions at New York Cosmos. Perez earned his MBA  at the University of Malaga. Additionally, he holds two masters degrees in Sports Business; One from the University of Malaga and another one from Michigan State University.

Adolfo Romero serves as Director of International Events at Major League Soccer/Soccer United Marketing. Romero leads and oversees placement of MLS/SUM International matches with NFL/MLS host venues across the US. Under his role he also manages all areas of game day revenues including sales and marketing for the CONCACAF GOLD CUP and Mexico National Team US Tour games. He also served as the lead for all host marketing of the 2016 Copa America Centenario.
Prior to MLS Romero oversaw Global Sponsorships for Herbalife including the management and execution of more than 200 international sponsorship relationships including Cristiano Ronaldo, LA Galaxy, Flamengo, Special Olympics World Games, Pumas and Olympic Committees in Costa Rica, Italy and Vietnam. Romero led the globalization of the LA Galaxy relationship for Herbalife which included international and national tours in the US, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Philippines and Australia.
Romero’s 13 year career in sports has also included sales and marketing roles with Chivas USA and the Los Angeles Angels where he interned after attending Cal State Fullerton.
Romero was born in Mexico, grew up in Orange County, California, and currently resides in New York.

Benno Ruwe joined FC Bayern Munich in October 2010 as Key Account Manager responsible for several partners of FC Bayern including Allianz SE, Paulaner, Siemens and Yingli amongst others. In his role he also worked on projects like the UEFA Champions League Final in Munich in 2012 and FC Bayern’s first pre-season summer tour to China in 2012.

In April 2014 Mr. Ruwe took the role of Senior Project Manager at FC Bayern’s new office in New York and got promoted to Head of Partnerships in October 2016. In his current role he is responsible for developing partnerships with new and existing partners as well as executing events and marketing initiatives helping to raise the brand awareness of the club in the US & the Americas.

Prior to joining FC Bayern Munich, Mr. Ruwe worked five years at a sports marketing agency in Munich working with clients like Allianz and FIFA.

Benno Ruwe studied Sports-Economics at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.

Marcelo Salinas joined The Marketing Arm in June 2013 as the Account Director responsible for the strategy and execution of AT&T Hispanic Sponsorships portfolio, which includes sports, entertainment and community. In his role, Marcelo worked on projects like the Mexican National Team US Tour, Golden Boy promotions, and several top-Hispanic artist and celebrities. He has played an important role helping the AT&T engage and connect with the Hispanic consumer, drive traffic to retail, and ultimately increase its net customer count.

In January 2015 Mr. Salinas was promoted to Group Account Director. In his current role, he continues to lead the efforts with AT&T’s Hispanic sponsorship portfolio and help drive the implementation of the Total Market & Segments approach across the agency’s existing and new clients.

Prior to joining The Marketing Arm, Mr. Salinas worked four years at Heineken USA. He was responsible for the development of Heineken USA regional marketing strategy for Southern California.

Marcelo Salinas studied International Marketing at the University of Monterrey, Mexico.

Jay Sharman founded TeamWorks Media, a purpose-driven marketing company, in 2000 and has served as CEO since 2006. TeamWorks helps clients combine purpose and profit by creating innovative marketing strategies and implementing content-centric campaigns that authentically connect with relevant audiences. Sharman proudly leads a team of content strategists, award-winning storytellers, social media experts and strategic marketers to inspire clients to achieve extraordinary results by harnessing their expertise in a niche media world.

In 2017, Sharman led the launch of La Vida Baseball, a Latino baseball digital media company serving up daily lifestyle content to the U.S. Latino audience. The joint venture with the National Baseball Hall of Fame has become the fastest growing Latino baseball digital media company in the world and reached 13 million fans in its fifth month (July, 2017). The platform is designed as social media-first approach to combine historical context with a unique passionate lens to MLB.

TeamWorks Media has produced large scale digital media properties for the Big Ten Conference, BTN, Bank of America Chicago Marathon, National Baseball Hall of Fame, World Golf Hall of Fame as well as award-winning long form content work for ESPN, MLB, and PBS and experiential marketing for Northwestern University and Tulane University.

Jay speaks regularly on helping clients transform their business in to the mindset of a media publisher. He has recently spoken at the American Marketing Association (AMA) Higher Ed Conference, AMA Non-Profit Conference, International Tennis Hall of Fame Board of Governors and Intercollegiate Tennis Association Annual Meeting.

Prior to founding Chicago-based TeamWorks in 2000, Jay honed his storytelling skills as a television producer for FOX Sports Net where he earned a 1998 Emmy Award. He is a 1995 graduate of Northwestern University and the proud father of three girls – Eva, Janel and Nora – and lives in Lake Bluff, Illinois.

Mike Tasevski has been an accomplished senior business leader with a track record of advancements and accomplishments thru a very diverse career path involving a unique variety of business verticals; Restaurants community/Loyalty vertical/Sports industry and the banking community for over 25 years. Mike is currently overseeing the US landscape as Senior Vice President of US Sponsorship, MasterCard’s largest sponsorship territory. Mike has also held roles within MasterCard Canada as a Senior Business Leader on the Issuing Account team as well as the Technical team of MasterCard Canada and also managing the 2nd largest issuing account and Canada’s largest retailer.

Additional key accomplishments, Board Member The Ontario Restaurant Association, chosen as one of Toronto’s Top Restaurant owners, Official Executive Chef to many of Toronto’s key landmarks,NACS Member ( Petroleum industry), PCATS Committee member (Petroleum Industry), MasterCard Sales Champion Nominee 2011, Winner of the Canada Region Canada Goose Award 2012.

Octagon’s Chief Strategy Officer Simon Wardle, Phd oversees Octagon’s multi-faceted inights and strategy efforts to help Octagon clients identify the opportunities across sports and entertaitment, and then make the next right move.

Among his successes is the creation of Passion Drivers®, pioneering research designed to understand why fans are fans. In addition, he developed the architecture for many of the interactive measurement and management tools that Octagon uses to help clients engage consumers and drive business results. In 2014, Wardle released The Passion Shift™ that quantifies how fans feed their passion for sport across a myriad of digital, social media and mobile channels, in-home and in-stadium.

In 2014, Wardle spoke at SXSW and The Economist’s – The Big Rethink to share The Passion Shift™ and his insights around how brands can successfully connect with fans through passion. That same year, he was named to SportsBusiness’ 2014 Innovators of the Year list.

David Wright currently serves as Minor League Baseball’s Chief Marketing & Commercial Officer. In support of MiLB’s vision to be a dynamic leader in sport and entertainment, Wright is tasked with leading all marketing and commercial business units, including strategy & research, brand development, communications, media, business development and partnership marketing. In addition, Wright oversees the MiLB Enterprises initiative, designed to maximize enterprise value through integrated national and regional partnerships by leveraging the power and overall scale of the 160 member clubs.

Wright joined Minor League Baseball in 2016 following a 15-year run at Major League Soccer (MLS) and Soccer United Marketing (SUM), most recently as its Senior Vice President, Global Sponsorship. He oversaw new business efforts for the premier soccer properties in North America (including Major League Soccer, U.S. Soccer Federation and the Mexican National Team). Wright also managed a Partnership Marketing team tasked with day-to-day management, growth and retention of more than 40 MLS/SUM partners. Prior to leading global sponsorship efforts for MLS/SUM, Wright was Director of Fan Development, managing a department dedicated to connecting Major League Soccer to participants and key influencers within America’s soccer community.

A SportsBusiness Journal Forty Under 40 Award recipient, Wright earned a Bachelor of Science in kinesiology from Indiana University and a Master of Science in sports management from the University of Massachusetts. Wright resides in St. Petersburg, Florida, with his wife, Jaren, and two kids, Braeden and Riley.