

Leaders Worth Knowing Podcast
Leaders
The biggest names in the global business of sport sit down with Leaders Editorial Director, James Emmett, and Content Director, David Cushnan.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Sep 7, 2017 • 40min
Ep 19: Brian Cookson
Brian Cookson has been President of the International Cycling Union (UCI) UCI since 2013. Seeking a second four-year term in office, the Englishman faces a vote at the UCI Congress on 21st September.
In a wide-ranging discussion, Cookson discusses the key battleground areas between his campaign and that of his election opponent, David Lappartient, and reviews the milestone moments of this presidency thus far, including:
- restoring the integrity of cycling
- re-establishing relations with WADA
- Undertaking and enacting the recommendations of the Cycling Independent Reform Commission
- introducing the women's WorldTour
We also touch on:
- international federations as regulators naturally opposed to monopolies and the UCI's relationship with Tour de France organiser ASO
- the ambitions of Chinese conglomerate Wanda in cycling
- new formats
- discredited people being welcomed back into the sport
- the pros and cons of taking a major sporting event to Qatar

Aug 25, 2017 • 40min
Ep 18: Marc Watson
Marc Watson is the Executive Chairman of global sports broadcast newcomer Eleven Sports.
A long-time sports media executive, Watson was the CEO of BT TV who masterminded the daring raid on the Premier League rights and BT’s subsequent entrance into the UK sports broadcast landscape in 2012. He left BT in 2014, spent some time away, before hooking up with Andrea Radrizzani – of MP & Silva fame – to take a role in his old pal’s new business empire, Aser Media.
Eleven Sports is the gleaming broadcast jewel in the Aser crown. According to Watson, it's the world's fastest growing sports network and an example of what can be achieved in this age of stripped down and nimble OTT broadcast distribution.
Launching with just three-months’ notice in 2015, the network now includes 17 services in seven markets across the world with 14 million paying customers. The network has different but significant services in the likes of Belgium, Singapore, Poland, Taiwan, Italy and the US and it seems like they’re doing rights deals on a regular basis, with EFL rights, MMA rights, and Drone Racing some of the latest acquisitions.
In this conversation, Watson covers:
- how to break into new markets with broadcast products;
- what he expects from Amazon and the social networks in the sports broadcast market;
- why he considers Perform and DAZN to be the bravest players in the sports media market today;
- and why Italy and Africa are ripe with opportunity.

Aug 10, 2017 • 37min
Ep 17: Behind the scenes with Facebook, FIS, YouTube, BT Sport, RMG, and Nolan Partners
Leaders is celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2017. In July, we threw a little party at the Getty Images Gallery in central London. We brought drinks, an ice sculpture, a magician, a caricaturist, some cupcakes and a microphone. We used the microphone to record a series of backstage interviews for this podcast.
Casting an eye back at the milestone moments across the last ten years in the sports industry, and an eye forward to what the next ten years might bring, a variety of industry figures spoke their minds.
On the podcast, you'll hear from:
Facebook's EMEA Sports Partnerships Lead Jerry Newman on:
- Social VR
- Being a rights holder at heart
- The Facebook sports partnerships department view on Mark Zuckerberg's potential run for president
Racecourse Media Group CEO Richard FitzGerald on:
- The development and maturity of the racing business
- Which OTT platforms to keep an eye on in the coming years
BT Sport COO Jamie Hindhaugh on:
- Why he's excited about object-based delivery
FIS Secretary General Sarah Lewis on:
- The new snow sports facilities in northern China and the country's chance of turning its promise to create 300 million new winter sports participants on the back of Beijing 2022 into reality
Nolan Partners Founder Paul Nolan on:
- The art of networking
YouTube's EMEA Head of Sport Tomos Grace on:
- esports and digital proliferation

Jul 13, 2017 • 55min
Ep 16: Giles Morgan
This week’s guest is Giles Morgan, global head of sponsorship & events at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, aka’d as HSBC.
HSBC spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually on sponsorship activity - and receives 11,000 sponsorship requests per year – and as you’ll hear from the first topic of conversation, we discuss how to break through the noise with your pitch to Giles and his team.
Also on the agenda:
- How the HSBC sponsorship team keeps up with the bank’s business objectives – no mean feat for a global organisation of 250,000 employees;
- How to deal with internal pushback on marketing decisions;
- The bank’s flagship sponsorships in golf and rugby, as well as it’s fabulously successful and highly visible long-running airbridge advertising campaign – we might also find out what Giles’s favourite airport is;
- The bank’s new deal with British Cycling and why cycling is increasingly appealing to the marketing teams at financial institutions;
- And we find out how, working in an organisation of data-loving bankers, HSBC measures sponsorship ROI.
Enjoy the podcast – like, subscribe etc – and, actually, why not recommend the podcast to a friend or colleague.

Jun 23, 2017 • 45min
Ep 15: Brett Yormark & Luis Vicente
A tale of two parks as Leaders Editorial Director James Emmett chats to Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment CEO Brett Yormark in London Fields before nipping across town to sit down with digital transformation specialist Luis Vicente in Wimbledon's South Park Gardens.
On the agenda with Yormark:
- Year 5 in Brooklyn
- Content programming across the Barclays Center, Nassau Memorial Veterans Coliseum, Webster Hall, and the Paramount
- The Gatorade deal that's changed the D-League into the G-League
- Suits
- Fraternal competition
On the agenda with former Manchester City and Valencia exec Vicente:
- Sports businesses as communities within a wider media, innovation and tech ecosystem
- Facebook, and Dugout - do clubs know what they've got themselves into?
- BT Sport and Eurosport - broadcast innovators
- LinkedIn as thought leadership platform
- Digital natives vs digital immigrants
Enjoy, like, subscribe, comment, review - you know the deal.

May 31, 2017 • 39min
Ep 14: Beatrice Lee
Beatrice Lee is CEO of BSI VR. The former MD for the Asia-Pacific region for MP & Silva, Lee was part of the senior leadership team when the media rights agency was bought by Chinese firms Baofeng and Everbright in May last year.
BSI - Baofeng Sports International - VR is a joint venture between tech giant Baofeng and Aser Media, the holding company set up by former MP & Silva boss Andrea Radrizzani for his multiple business interests.
Lee is on the Advisory Board for the Leaders Sport Business Summit in China on 21st July, so naturally the conversation dwelt on the growth of the Chinese sports industry, as well as her time in the Beijing office for Infront in the build-up to the Beijing Games in 2008.
Also on the agenda: Lee's formative years in Malaysia, studying communications at Penang University; VR and the proposition for sporting rights holders; the differences between Total Sports Asia, Infront, and MP & Silva - all former employers of Lee; and Premier League international media rights - will the bubble burst?

May 17, 2017 • 48min
Ep 13: Tim Leiweke
Tim Leiweke is probably best known as the long-time CEO of AEG, where he spent 18 years and was hailed as a visionary leader, before leaving the sports and entertainment giant suddenly in 2013, pitching up not long afterwards in Toronto as CEO of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment.
Almost three years later, he was back in his adopted home of LA, this time starting his own venue specialist operation, Oak View Group – or OVG – which he launched alongside his partners music biz legend Irving Azoff and the Madison Square Garden company.
James visited Tim in his well-appointed office in Westwood, Los Angeles, on a cloudless February or March day this year.
On the conversational agenda:
- OVG: What is it? Why did he leave Toronto so quickly to launch it? And is it competing with AEG?
- The arena business in general: how to fill them, how to commercialise them, how to programme them, how to secure them, how to service them, and how to pick opportunities in the space;
- David Beckham in Miami – and why that Major League Soccer project will happen;
- a new Kevin Plank-driven arena project in Baltimore;
- why Tim would never have given the go-ahead to AEG’s O2 project in London had he had real skin in the game;
- secondary ticketing; and the next frontier for content in major global arenas.

Apr 27, 2017 • 49min
Ioris Francini
Ioris Francini is Co-President of agency giant WME | IMG.
He joined IMG, the granddaddy of the sports agency world, in the early 2000s through its Trans World International events arm. In 2007, he was made Head of Sales for the EMEA region for IMG Media.
By 2010, he had been made a Senior Vice President and Head of Sales worldwide at IMG Media, and in 2012 he was made an Executive Vice President with the added responsibility of heading up acquisitions, a not inconsiderable show of trust given the risk inherent in rights arbitrage.
When the William Morris Endeavour (WME) agency bought IMG in December 2013, Francini was on the rise again, becoming president of IMG’s events and media division, before, last year, taking a new role as Co-President of the whole shebang.
In a wide-ranging discussion, Francini covers:
- Last year's acquisition of the UFC in a reported $4 billion deal. How will WME | IMG make a return?
- How the decision-making process works at the global agency, between himself and the organisation's other Co-President, Mark Shapiro, and its high profile Co-CEOs, Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell;
- A new method for doing business in China: WME | IMG's 2.0 approach to the region;
- OTT, Amazon, DAZN, and BAMTech; the blurring of the traditional media rights and distribution boundaries; and the unbalancing of an industry;
- How the agency is progressing with its relationships in cycling, its commercial link-up with Giro d'Italia organiser RCS Sport, and its plans to re-engineer cycling's early season spring classics;
- How WME | IMG shook up Euroleague basketball and reaped the rewards;
- The rumours that WME | IMG is heading for an IPO.

Apr 11, 2017 • 41min
Behind the Scenes at the Leaders Retreat
Leaders have been running exclusive, relaxed gatherings away from the quotidian mind wharp that is the modern day office environment for a number of years. This year was no different, as 50 sports industry executives - rights holders, brands and broadcasters - gathered in Lisbon for the annual Leaders Retreat.
Armed with mic and a persuasive manner, Leaders CEO Jimmy Worrall and Editorial Director James Emmett wandered the room to get some hot takes on various facets of the industry.
On this episode, you'll hear from:
- AEG Europe VP Yanni Andreopoulos, who delivers a tasty stat on YouTube consumption per capita – the result, so the clickbait headline would have it, will shock you.
- Next, we’ll hear from Alex Willis, Head of Comms, Content and Digital at Wimbledon, on the celebrity-driven content marketplace we operate in, and, well, grass
- Former Norwich City marketing director, current MK Dons Executive Director Andy Cullen confirms there are no skeletons in Jimmy Worrall’s cupboard, and Richard Kenyon, Director of Marketing and Comms at Everton, explains how he aims to keep things intimate if and when the Premier League side move to a spanking new stadium
- Next up, Sina Sports’ Sam Li talks China, eSports, and an exciting new event on the horizon, while Eredivisie CEO Alex Tielbeke tells it like it is on a tough time in Dutch football
- Uefa’s Head of Revenue Operations Philippe Margraff carries Jimmy’s sun cream, and gives us a glimpse into Uefa’s new sponsorship approach
- Arsenal Business Development Director Peter Silverstone looks ahead to the club’s pre-season tour, and finally ITV’s Tom Graham surveys the changing broadcast landscape and gives his thoughts on the new digital players.

Apr 3, 2017 • 36min
LA 2024 - how an Olympic bid campaign works
Janet Evans is a Vice-Chair of Los Angeles' bid for the 2024 Olympic Games, and Chair of its Athletes' Commission.
The LA native is a three-time Olympic athlete, and four-time gold medallist, having won medals in the pool at Seoul '88 and Barcelona '92. She's a competitor to her bones, and even had a stab at the US Olympic trials for the London 2012 Games at the age of 40.
Evans sat down to record a Leaders Podcast on a beautiful mid-March day in LA at USC, her alma mater, and the home of the downtown sports park should LA win the right to host the 2024 Games.
Evans gives us a glimpse of the inner workings of an Olympic bid campaign and looks ahead to the factors that she hopes will swing it for LA when the IOC votes in Peru in September.