Jordi Ferré

Sam Cooke

I  started out working in esports as a journalist covering the industry from a betting perspective for SBC News in 2015. Recognizing a potential opportunity and gap in the market, I co-founded and grew the business news site, media, and events company Esports Insider.

Since we launched ESI in the summer of 2016, it has grown into one of the leading industry news sites globally and has organized more esports business-focused events than any other company. Also under the company banner is the Esports Insider Hall of Fame, the ESI Trust, and the ESI Media arm too.

In the Position of Managing Director, I oversee the growth and direction of the company, as well as its day to day affairs.

We’re one of the top esports business news and media platforms worldwide, and we run a number of high-profile industry networking and educational events too. As such, we can offer a platform for them to promote themselves and what they offer to the right audiences. We have a strong network via which we can help to support the start-ups involved, and we can also offer guidance as to some of the dos and dont’s in the esports space.

Anthony McGuire

I am originally from New Zealand but have an international identity crisis–having lived, worked, and studied in eight different countries – New Zealand, Japan, Russia, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, the US, and the UK. After spending five years at Facebook (New York and London) managing global partnerships with clients including Procter & Gamble, Volkswagen, and Heineken, I left to co-found Frontier X, a company focused on blockchain, entertainment, and education. I was part of the founding team of TaTaTu, a blockchain entertainment company that raised $575 million in a token sale and am about to publish a book called Music On A Blockchain, which addresses how blockchain can help solve problems in the creative fields.

Considering that Qatar is hosting the upcoming World Cup, this program is well placed to emerge as an exciting global hub for sports technology. I look forward to meeting anyone with ambitious goals to harness technology in order to create new opportunities in sports and entertainment.

My background has given me strong experience in sales & marketing, company culture, and international business development. I hope to add value to any startups looking for advice in those areas, whether their area of focus is small businesses or large corporates.

Avoid conventional thinking, think as big as possible, and hold on tight to your optimism. Steve Jobs said “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

Fouad El Fdil

I am Dutch, born in the city of Breda southwest Holland near Belgium. I studied sports and business management. My first job was with Adidas for two years and after that, I worked for 12 years at the Royal Dutch Football Federation in two different roles. I was an instructor, coach education and I was a strategic policy advisor. So, I was advising and consulting clubs, mostly board members but also, local authorities. Connecting them, helping them to develop the club, sometimes the entire club sometimes a specific subject like the academy or to improve accommodation. It was quite an interesting job for my personal and professional development. In 2012 I got an opportunity to start working in Qatar because of the world cup in 2022, with Aspire academy which plays a great central role in the planning of the world cup 2022. So, I had several meetings and interviews in Qatar and I decided to quit after 12 years and choose this adventure. So, I moved to Qatar for 5 and a half years now and it has been an amazing experience. Now, I am back to Holland working as an international football consultant for several projects.

My number one advice would be, make the pitch leading in what you develop. I see a lot of enthusiastic people, companies, and startups working on technologies. They have a lot of energy and enthusiasm and are quite convinced that they can develop something which will benefit sports on both short-term and long-term. I think it is important to work together with the people working on the pitch. I say pitch, but what I mean is the practical situation. It can be indoor or outdoor people who know what is happening. I take football as an example of coaches and assistant coaches. If you ask the right questions, it will give you valuable inputs in developing new technologies. Make sure that you gain these inputs. That you ask feedback regularly and that you work together with these people. This will lead to innovation, new technologies, and new concepts and the main objective, of course, to improve athletes and improve the game.

Orsola De Marco

Orsola is the Head of Startup Programmes at the Open Data Institute, where she leads a team that manages a range of startup and innovation programmes in the UK and internationally.

Additionally, she is a mentor in several startup accelerators and incubators where she helps early-stage startups on value proposition, product development, business models and pitching.

Orsola is a regular speaker at external events about data-driven accelerators, open innovation, empowering women in tech, as well as being part of judging panels for startup programmes.

Prior to her role at the Open Data Institute, she spent a number of years in the innovation sector, won a social enterprise award from UnLtd and co-founded a crowdsourcing and co-design platform that promotes civic engagement and collaborative urbanism.

In her spare time, she is part of several women-led networks for growing women’s leadership, in particular in tech and urbanism. She believes in using data and building great products to help solve real challenges.

She holds a BS in Economics and Management and an MA in Design Studies from Central Saint Martins – University of the Arts London.

David Geddes

I spent a few years managing people as a hotelier while studying information systems at university. I gained a strong understanding of booking engines, property operations, and yield systems to optimize revenues.

My reputation with people and systems led me to the local chamber of commerce where I advocated for increasing lodging tax. Lodging tax is a major economic development resource fueled by big sporting events. For a period of time, I worked with small teams to build economic development programs around ecological and cultural resources across the Americas too.

Most of my family members have their own small businesses so being an entrepreneur was in my blood. I eventually decided to launch several startups. One of those startups sold custom software applications to professional motorsports teams which helped me build a global reputation for advanced technologies.

I learned a lot about sport and technology that is why my partners and I started the world’s first sports technology association. Today, I still dabble with my own small websites, technology consulting, and running the association.

Rajesh D’Souza

Stuart Brown

Duncan Knight

Duncan is an entrepreneur, 2-time co-founder and business advisor. He
has worked for more than 25 years in the UK, Australia, Asia, and the US.

His primary business skills and experience includes sales and marketing,
operations and talent acquisition. Basically, getting stuff done.

Recently, Duncan spends his time helping entrepreneurs at Accelerators
such as Startupbootcamp, IoTA Wales, The Accelerator Network’s
Accelerator Academy & Cyber 101 and CRL’s Hardware Lab.

Duncan is also active with the Tech London Advocates Health Working
Group, where he manages the program that brings together HealthTech
entrepreneurs & mentors from Partnering, Regulatory, Funding, Business
Models and Growth backgrounds.

Duncan co-founded and managed 2 businesses for 15 years. Most
recently as the CEO & CTO of MyCognition, a disruptive HealthTech
startup. During this time, he developed MVP’s, worked in clinical trials to
help validate their products and sold into B2B enterprise clients, schools
and partners.

Previously, Duncan co-founded BizCarta Australia, an IT services
consulting firm, which specialised in working with blue-chip organisations.
Duncan developed BizCarta Australia from start-up through to sale.
BizCarta became the most successful business of its type in the region
and was the only tier 1 software partner with Lenovo in the world.

Duncan served on the board of the Sydney chapter of the Entrepreneurs
Organisation for 3 years and has been a technology advisor to a number
of companies involved in M&A activities.

More information on Duncan can be found at:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/duncanknight

Duncan writes about sales, startup life and more at:
https://www.duncanknight.com

Victor Sánchez del Amo

David Braun

My name is David Braun, I’m a serial entrepreneur, primarily in the sports tech vertical. After my third company, I switched sides and started getting more involved on the enabler side. I joined SBC Digital Health as Entrepreneur in Residence in 2016 and from there, got more and more involved in various other accelerators and incubators, such as Google Launchpad, Lead Sports Accelerator, 360 Lab and a bung more. I then joined a Venture Capital fund, the Leann Family’s sports tech focussed fund Go4.it, as Dealflow Manager for the European and Israeli Geographic regions. I have a Background in UI/UX Design, Product Management, and Electronic Engineering, and I also Lecture at the LCI Design University in Barcelona for their Master’s Program on Management in the Creative Industries.

Prior to kicking off my entrepreneurial journey in Europe, I was living in Africa for 10 years. My passion for adventure and sports has led to me having traveled all my life, visiting around 82 countries to date. Sports has always been an integral part of my life and I’ve tried almost every extreme sport that exists. I conquered Africa’s second highest mountain at age 8, have been hang gliding since age 16 (and won 1st place at the regional cup 3 years later), jumped out of a plane solo and got my AFF license a week later, and most recently started with kite surfing. I tend to add a new sport every couple of years to keep things interesting.

Mentoring is both about sharing knowledge and experience so that others don’t have to make the same mistake I did, as well as asking the right questions, so as to unlock the answers that are already residing within.

As to the first part, my area of expertise is in full-spectrum venture building and strategy, going from idea to funded company, having done that a couple of times myself, both as founder and funder. But also in any UI/UX and product management topics, as well as community building.

So again, it’s about sharing knowledge and experience, but also asking the right questions because I believe that everyone has the answers to everything within and that the problem always contains the solution.

The sportstech community is still relatively small, yet tight-knit, highly engaged and supportive. So my advice would be to make it a point to get as connected as possible within this vertical and you will be surprised at the abundance of opportunity you will stumble into. There is emerging sportstech media that would be happy to cover any exciting new project in the space, there is plenty of sportstech focused conferences and events popping up, always looking for speakers and interesting topics to present, just to mention a few.

So go out there and crush it! As Woody Allen once said, 80% of success is showing up.

Sergio Cervantes

Matthew Eisner

Trevor Smith

I have worked in the field of sports development for over thirty years, mostly based within the UK but on projects as far afield as South Africa, Kurdistan, Georgia, Zambia and most recently in Qatar. The focus on my work has been to support public sector organisations design, develop and implement policy, strategy and programmes to increase participation levels in sport and physical activity, as a tool to develop better health outcomes, better social outcomes and better sporting outcomes in terms of performance levels, education attainment levels and social cohesion. I have worked with national government departments in many countries to help them develop or implement a joined-up approach to sport and physical activity, embedding it within national strategic plans for education, health, and community development. This work has often been alongside such reputable organisations as UNICEF and the British Council. During the run-up to and immediately after the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games I helped develop and deliver three of the Games’ legacy programmes, all of which were designed to “inspire a generation” to choose sport for life. My current consultancy work in Qatar is to develop a space within the Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum which will also inspire participation, by helping visitors to identify which sports and activities are best suited to them and where in Qatar they can go to take part in these activities.

Matt Stark

Peter Lazou

For the last 25 years, I have been venture building and investing in early-stage startups and scale-ups, whilst also advising startups at various levels as well as mentoring across various accelerator and incubator programs. My passion is building new meaningful and enduring technology companies and over the years I have designed groundbreaking & award-winning technologies in FinTech, Automotive, IoT/Wearables, with three successful company exits.

I am genuinely passionate about supporting entrepreneurs in any way I can, creating stories that bring alive the power of tech startups and along my journey across 4 different continents, I have been privileged to have worked with some amazing and brilliant people. Joining Qatar SportTech as a mentor is a pleasure for me because it’s a sector I know extremely well from being involved in sports from a very young age but also as I have a very exciting tech startup in this space that will disrupt the status quo over time. However, it’s my collective experience and passion for building startups that excites me to be involved.

Technology is certainly impacting the world of sports and as mentioned before I have a tech startup in this space which is very exciting and will definitely disrupt the status quo over time. However the advances in technology have had a profound impact on sport such as analysis of sport performance and enabling coaches to greatly improve the quality of feedback to players/athletes, increasing accuracy in time measurements of sport performance, enabling referees, umpires and sport officials to make better decisions on rule infringements, improvements in the design of sport equipment and apparel as well as providing spectators with better viewing of sport performance. Sport is now a business with so much at stake!

Most and foremost is for them to know that I’m available at any time during their journey. They will definitely get to witness my passion, energy, and commitment for helping them get their ventures off the ground. My support will also be focused on helping them with understanding customer experience, design thinking, visual storytelling, the art of creative pitching, how to present themselves and understanding what investors really look for in founders, last but not least their vision meaning their future scalability.

Andrew McDonough

Bijan Martin

Currently Head of Business Development at Burda Bootcamp. Most of my education was UK based (University of Nottingham), I have a background in international relations and Mandarin

First job in risk management for currencies, after which I enrolled in Germany’s largest start-up incubator Rocket Internet as Global Venture Developer and accompanied two companies through high growth phases, at which I lead both the Marketing Team and Key Account Management Team (hiring, building up the team, scaling the product)

Qatar SportsTech has a fantastic array of companies, which I would love to stay in touch with and help out where I can

Passionate hobby athlete myself, a huge industry (holistic wellness industry is estimated at $4.2 trillion)

I can help out in the areas of Marketing and Sales

Motasem El bawab

I like to call myself a globetrotter, a techie and a sportsman aka #DigiMan. I moved from country to country in my youth which thought me English, French, Portuguese, Arabic, and Spanish. I picked up a basketball at the age 6 while playing against my older brother Mazen, and my passion was cemented at 12 when I played three years at the Wehda Club in Tripoli, Libya. Later I pursued careers in both basketball and digital, including playing for the Flamengo Basketball Club in Rio de Janeiro and the junior Brazilian Basketball Team and graduating with honors from the John Molson School of Business. Currently, I am working as a digital manager for the International Basketball Federation, leading 4 development teams for web, mobile and IT architecture.

I am always fascinated by new startups and products, more specifically their ability to look at a problem and to find a vital solution for it. I believe that being part of the exciting world of Startups and new ventures are always thrilling. Not to mention the huge potential in sports technology fueled by the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar adds more edge to these startups to become game changers in each of their own respective sectors.

Being part of the Sports Technology throughout my entire career, I believe it is always great to be able to contribute indirectly or directly to the improvement of this sector. SportsTech has always been a driver to even other industries outside of the sports world to make a change in the world. Thus being part of this vertical is always great for me to see the evolution of the next big thing.

As a former athlete, and a 10+ years experience in sports and more specifically in technology, I believe I can be a pragmatic approach on the solutions provided and how they can be implemented in real-world scenarios for an athlete, an international organization or a World Sports Event.

Max Schulkens

George Ankomah

Max Rollinger

I have worked at the intersections of sports, entrepreneurship and emerging technology throughout my career so it has been an eye-opening experience to see how rapidly the sports tech landscape has grown around the world since I graduated university in 2009. I founded Sports Mobile Summit, one of the first conferences in the U.S. to focus on mobile technology in the sports industry, with events in Boston, Toronto, and Los Angeles. Now that I’m based in Boston, one of the world’s great academic hubs, I have had the opportunity to mentor students who are the next generation of tech entrepreneurs at Wentworth Institute of Technology and a number of other leading institutions in higher education.

Qatar (and the Middle East in general) is poised to emerge as an epicenter for innovation in the sports industry in areas ranging from stadium design to fan engagement technologies, so I’m thrilled to play a small role in helping to serve as a connection point between the U.S. sports community and the companies who are part of the Qatar SportsTech cohort.

My specialties are partnership and business development strategy. I like to find opportunities to connect sports tech entrepreneurs with industry leaders who have complementary skill sets and can benefit from their expertise. I’m also looking forward to advising the Qatar SportsTech cohort on opportunities to bring their technologies to the North American marketplace.

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