Hashtag Sports 2020 has been postponed

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Don Lane is Chief Marketing Officer for Saucony. In this role, he is responsible for providing strategic development and execution of Saucony’s global marketing initiatives, including brand positioning, direct-to-consumer, advertising and digital strategies.

Previously, Don was DraftKings’ Senior Vice President of Brand & Creative. He created DraftKings’ brand platform, “The Game Inside The Game,” installed several new capabilities (brand strategy, consumer insights, integrated marketing, creative operations) and also led the social and creative teams.

Prior to DraftKings, Don spent 21 years at Arnold Worldwide, most recently as Managing Partner, Executive Director, where he helped build some of the world's most iconic brands, including Volkswagen, ESPN, Volvo, Carnival & Titleist. He was the global director for Volvo, leading teams in North America, Europe and Asia. And he was a leader on the team behind Volkswagen’s iconic “Drivers wanted®” campaign, winning 13 EFFIEs in 10 years.

Don’s leadership style was profiled in Adam Grant’s New York Times’ best-seller, “Give and Take.”

Don graduated from the University of Richmond with a degree in journalism and concentration in sports marketing. He resides in Boston with his wife, Karen, and three children.

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Producer, writer and director Michael D. Ratner founded OBB Pictures in 2015 and under his leadership the company has grown into OBB Media, a leading media company with divisions in film, TV, digital, podcasts and branded content. Since its inception, OBB has carved out a stronghold in the new media space creating award winning content.

In addition to running OBB and expanding the business, Ratner continues to act as a multi-hyphenate leading creative on OBB’s marquee projects. Ratner is currently directing on and executive producing &Music for Quibi alongside Scooter Braun and Goodstory. Prior to that, Ratner served as executive producer and director on OBB’s Historical Roasts for Netflix. He is the creator, showrunner, director and executive producer of Cold as Balls, starring Kevin Hart, which has garnered over 200 million viewers to date and is currently in its third season. Ratner has also produced and directed a number of films that have premiered at Sundance, Tribeca, and SXSW, including Gonzo @ the Derby for ESPN’s acclaimed 30 for 30 series, which followed Hunter S. Thompson’s trip to the Kentucky Derby and is narrated by Sean Penn.

Ratner graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania where he received a BA in Film & minor in English. He went on to receive a Master of Fine Arts in film directing, writing, and producing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He is a member of the Producers Guild of America and was honored on Variety Hollywood’s Creative New Leaders 2018 as well as Forbes 30 Under 30 Hollywood & Entertainment class of 2019. Ratner is represented by the United Talent Agency, 3 Arts Entertainment, and Hansen Jacobson & Teller.

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Sharon Otterman, Chief Marketing Officer, joined William Hill US in July of 2018. Prior to William Hill, Sharon was the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of The Madison Square Garden Company. She joined MSG in April 2015 after nearly six years at NBCUniversal, where she most recently served as Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for MSNBC and NBC News.

Prior to joining MSNBC in 2009, Sharon spent six years at ESPN, where she last served as Vice President of Customer Experience Strategy and New Media Marketing, leading the customer acquisition, advertising, customer care, brand development and positioning efforts for all digital products, including ESPN.com, Mobile, and Broadband. Sharon graduated cum laude from Ithaca College with a Bachelor of Science and graduated from the Executive MBA Program at New York University. She resides in New York City with her husband and twin daughters.

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Chris Grove is a partner at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming where he heads the firm's sports betting practice. His research and insights are regularly cited by policymakers, media, publicly-traded companies, and financial analysts. Grove is also a founder and managing partner at SGIF, a VC fund investing in startups focused on the legal U.S. sports betting opportunity.

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Jennifer joined PointsBet as Vice President of Brand Marketing in October 2019. In her position, she oversees content, communications, strategic partnerships, creative design, events/activations and brand marketing functions while maintaining a focus on continually evolving the PointsBet brand as the company grows into new markets.

Before PointsBet, Jennifer was the Senior Director of Marketing for Monumental Sports Network where she spearheaded all marketing, including: subscription bundle marketing, email marketing, communications, media buying, creative execution, events and grassroots activations. Notably, her work at Monumental Sports Network included the launch to an OTT platform in 2016.

She began her career at Sports Illustrated, where she assisted with the marketing plan for the magazine’s 50th anniversary commemorative issue and the 40th anniversary of the world-famous Swimsuit Issue. She then ventured to ESPN where she worked on multiple marketing partnerships and helped relaunch ESPN Radio, as well as assist in the development of local ESPN websites. Following her stint at ESPN, she joined MSNBC to work on the creation of the ‘Lean Forward’ branding, along with leading marketing initiatives for several primetime programs. Jennifer was also part of the initial team that launched Hollywood director Robert Rodriguez’s English-language, Latino-focused cable network El Rey, a division of Univision.

Jennifer is a native New Yorker growing up on Long Island and currently resides in Manhattan. She attended Siena College where she attained a B.S. in marketing management and played Division I volleyball for the Saints.

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Adam Kaplan is currently the Vice President of Content Business & Operations and Head of Digital Content Strategy for FanDuel Group, an innovative sports-tech entertainment company that is changing the way consumers engage with their favorite sports, teams, and leagues. FanDuel Group consists of a portfolio of leading brands across gaming, sports betting, daily fantasy sports, advance-deposit wagering, and television. The brands include FanDuel, Betfair US, DRAFT, and TVG.

Prior to FanDuel Group, Adam was the COO of numberFire, the leading next generation sports analytics company. numberFire was acquired in August 2015 and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of FanDuel.

Before joining numberFire Adam was the Director of National Accounts & Strategic Partnerships, and one of the first 25 employees at Yext (NYSE: YEXT), a digital knowledge management company.

He is an advisor to startups and rare angel investor. His current portfolio includes Fight Camp and Phone Wagon.

Adam graduated from The University of Arizona in 2008 with a BS in Regional Development and a Minor in Business Management.

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Jon Cohen co-leads the vision of award-winning companies creative agency Cornerstone and global media company The FADER, playing an integral role in the careers of many artists and recognized in the industry as a pioneer in publishing and marketing, working for some of the most iconic brands world-wide, including AB InBev, Sonos, MLS, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Google, YouTube, Converse, and Diageo.

In 1997, Cohen partnered with high school friend and sought-after music promotions executive Rob Stone at Cornerstone where they collectively applied their music industry experience in innovative ways to authentically bridge the gap between artists and brands. Since then, Cornerstone has grown to one hundred employees with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and London. With Cornerstone, Cohen has been elemental in major campaigns including Converse’s "Converse Rubber Tracks" and "3 Artist 1 Song", Coca-Cola’s "Share the Sound of an AIDS Free Generation," Sonos’ “Song Stories” and global “Gorillaz x Spirit House” activation, Budweiser's "Made" and Sprite's "Obey Your Verse".

In 1998, Cohen ventured into publishing along with Stone launching ahead-of-the-curve music and lifestyle magazine, The FADER. Now a global media company providing cross-platform reach through print, digital, mobile, and social media, including award-winning film and video, and sought-after experiential events, The FADER is responsible for providing artists Kendrick Lamar, Pharrell Williams, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, and Drake their first magazine covers, and honoring icons like The Notorious B.I.G, Serena Williams, Philip Glass, Outkast, Kacey Musgraves, Beck, and many others. The FADER has been hailed as a “music and fashion bible” by the New York Times, and championed by the likes of NPR, Fortune, The Atlantic, BBC, Newsweek, Fast Company, Billboard, and more.

Cohen and Stone took print publishing beyond the magazine in 2018 to launch the company's first-ever in-house book publishing unit FADER Books. The first release is FADER FORT: Setting The Stage — a retrospective coffee table book filled with personal stories and beautiful, rare photography celebrating over 15 years of legendary live music event FADER FORT.

Cohen heads FADER Label, a NYC-based independent record label with a dynamic catalogue of critically acclaimed albums and singles worldwide. FADER Label is home rising singer/songwriter Clairo, LA-based rock duo, The Bots, alternative pop band FUTURE FEATS, and renowned hip hop artist, poet and spoken word artist, Saul Williams. The label recently released a posthumous album from Alan Vega — prolific artist and one-half of the influential proto-punk band Suicide — and also holds the catalogues to roster alumni Yuna, Neon Indian, Ben Lee, Birdmonster, and Editors. FADER Label artists have performed on a variety of late night and early morning television shows, as well as landed syncs in films, TV shows, video games and commercials for brands including Nike, Acura, Mitsubishi, Verizon, FIFA, and Grand Theft Auto, among many others.

Prior to Cornerstone, Cohen served as Vice President of Columbia Records’ alternative music department and was head of Alternative Music at SBK/EMI. While there, he was savvy enough to sense a shift in musical tastes and championed such alternative artists including Blur, Alice in Chains and Jeff Buckley and was instrumental in shaping their commercial success.

In addition Cohen is a member of the board of directors for Sweetgreen, and for the Children’s Cancer Association, MyMusicRx.

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Melissa Riahei is President of SBTech US. In her role, Riahei oversees and leads SBTech’s US business, expanding upon its presence and partnerships already established across the country.

Riahei is a highly accomplished legal and business executive with more than 20 years of experience spanning across the highest levels of state government, including serving as Deputy Chief Counsel to the Governor of Illinois and managing legal affairs of a $2.2 billion annual gaming enterprise as General Counsel to the Illinois Lottery.

She has made significant contributions to the gaming industry throughout her career, helping pave the way for the emergence of legal online gambling in the US. While serving as General Counsel to the Illinois Lottery, she spearheaded the initiative to challenge the U.S. Department of Justice’s federal prohibition on Internet gambling under the Wire Act on behalf of the State of Illinois. Her efforts, in coordination with the State of New York, resulted in the monumental 2011 DOJ decision that enabled states to legalize and regulate most forms of internet gambling, and led to the emergence of the current online gambling market in the United States.

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Nick Lopezzo is the Director of Marketing Campaigns for Gatorade. In this role, he is responsible for 360 campaign strategy and execution as well as helping to lead campaign integration across internal and external partners.

A five-year veteran at Gatorade, Lopezzo’s most recent role was heading up Gatorade’s Social & Cultural Engagement initiatives where he spearheaded a collaboration with Nike on the Gatorade-inspired PG4s. Prior to that, he was on the Long-term Technology and Product Innovation team, managing brand strategy and the rollout of BOLT24, Gatorade’s newest brand. He started his career at Gatorade working on the Sports & Influencer Marketing team, managing programs designed to directly engage with sports-nutrition practitioners.

Prior to Gatorade, Nick specialized in brand marketing at General Mills and Constellation Brands. There he managed integrated marketing communication efforts, including brand development, positioning and portfolio expansion.

Nick received his bachelor’s degree in Economics and Exercise and Sport Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated from the University of Michigan with his MBA in Marketing and Strategy. Nick lives in Chicago with his wife Blake.

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Courtney Tincher is the Head of Global Alliances at Bose. She leads the company’s consumer-facing strategic partnerships in sports, entertainment, and health that are positioned to drive reach, demand and affinity for Bose around the world. Courtney and her team are responsible for leading key partnerships with the NFL, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport Formula 1 Team, celebrities, and musicians. In addition, her team supports consumer engagement platforms and experiential moments at premiere annual events. In 2019, Hookit’s Brand Score metric determining which brands “get the most bang for their sponsorship buck” rated Bose number one amongst all US sports sponsors.

Prior to her role at Bose, she was a brands consulting manager at Wasserman focused on the marketing activation of Microsoft’s NFL sponsorship, and partnership strategy for large brands and properties. She is an accomplished brand management and marketing professional with 10+ years of experience in sports and entertainment marketing for some of the world’s most respected brands including Mastercard and Lexus. She holds a bachelor of arts from Boston College.

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Jeremy Jones is currently the Engagement Manager at the V Foundation for Cancer Research. He oversees athlete and influencer engagement which include events, marketing campaigns and donations. In addition, Jeremy facilitates strategic partnerships that drives revenue towards the foundation. As a marketing and business development professional of 8+ years, Jeremy has collaborated with national brands, organizations and influencers in the sports and entertainment industry. His previously held positions include, Learfield Sports, the Brooklyn Nets and as a freelance event marketer. He holds a Bachelor of Arts focused in Communication from the University of Kentucky and is a former 2007 Music City Bowl championship wide receiver for UK Football.

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Jen Kavanagh was named the team's Senior Vice President of Marketing and Media shortly after the Eagles' Super Bowl LII victory during the 2018 offseason. Kavanagh is responsible for the team's content, marketing and media strategy.

An award-winning industry leader for the past 15 years, Kavanagh was most recently the founder of JK Media, an advisory firm providing insight-driven strategies for Fortune 500 companies and high-growth startups. Previously, as Principal at BRaVe Media Ventures, Kavanagh led advisory work for major clients, placing an emphasis on brand strategy, sales strategy, marketing strategy, organizational development and OTT strategy. Additionally, she was responsible for the content acquisition and development arm of the business, driving innovation around packaging for co-production partners.

Prior to joining BRaVe, Kavanagh served as the Executive Vice President and U.S. General Manager of Beamly, a socialmarketing platform for television. Beamly recruited Kavanagh from NBCU, where she was the Senior Vice President of Digital at the company's Oxygen network. During her tenure with Oxygen, Kavanagh drove high-profile innovation and original streamed content that resulted in the network being recognized as a digital leader within the entertainment landscape.

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Long regarded as one of the media industry’s most influential executives, David Levy currently serves as the Founder at Back Nine Ventures, LLC, his recently formed sports consulting and investing firm. Prior to Back Nine, Levy served as President of Turner, offering content and advertising solutions to some of the most valuable brands in the world to audiences in sports, entertainment, news and children’s programming.

In his capacity as President, Levy oversaw Turner’s leading portfolio of domestic entertainment, sports, kids and young adult networks and businesses, including TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Boomerang, truTV, Turner Classic Movies, Bleacher Report and Turner Sports. He also led Turner’s two domestic revenue divisions – ad sales and distribution. During his 30-year tenure at Turner, Levy assumed executive oversight for increased investment in original premium content across the portfolio, and in 2018, Turner programming was nominated for 33 Emmy Awards.

Levy’s Turner Sports accomplishments were many since assuming leadership of the division in 2003. He was instrumental in deepening and expanding Turner’s media rights and defining the division via its association with premium sports content, brands and events, including the NBA, Major League Baseball and the PGA Tour. He negotiated a variety of multi-faceted agreements, each representing a significant change extending far beyond traditional television rights. In 2010, Levy orchestrated a landmark NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball deal, partnering with CBS for multi-media rights, including exclusive televised rights to the 2014 Final Four and National Championship Game in 2016. This marked the first time in the event’s history that these key games were televised by a cable network. In 2017, under Levy’s guidance, Turner added to its portfolio of premium sports properties by acquiring rights to UEFA, including UEFA Champions League, Europa League and the UEFA Super Cup. All were launched on B/R Live, the company’s direct to consumer offering.

Levy also led a significant expansion in digital media and new businesses designed to grow Turner’s portfolio. In 2012, he spearheaded Turner’s efforts in acquiring the Bleacher Report, a leading online multi-sport destination. In 2015, Turner purchased a majority stake in streaming video pioneer iStreamPlanet, expanding capabilities to offer live events and cultivate future digital opportunities. Adding to the mix, in 2016, Turner launched ELEAGUE, a new professional esports league created in partnership with WME/IMG, and FilmStruck, the company’s first U.S. domestic subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service. It quickly followed in 2017 with Boomerang, its second SVOD offering. Additionally, David supported strategic investments in Refinery29 and Mashable, and championed new business alliances with Snapchat and Twitter.

David Levy has been the recipient of multiple awards for his professional achievement, including being elected to the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame in 2012 and being named in 2018 by Sports Business Journal as one of the most influential executives over the past 20 years. In 2016, JDRF, the leading research and advocacy organization funding type 1 diabetes, honored Levy and his wife Niki, with the organization’s annual Humanitarian of the Year Award.

Will Bortz serves as the Director, Brand Partnerships which handles all Sponsorships, Promotions and Licensing for Taco Bell Corp., a subsidiary of YUM! Brands, Inc., (NYSE: YUM). Taco Bell is the nation’s leading Mexican-style quick service restaurant chain with more than $9 billion in annual system-wide sales and more than 7,000 restaurants.

In his position, Mr. Bortz is responsible for Taco Bell’s sports marketing relationships with the College Football Playoff, National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball, leading its entertainment sponsorships with MTV, iHeartRadio and Pandora, gaming with Sony Playstation and Blizzard as well as its music strategy.

At Taco Bell, Mr. Bortz has created integrated marketing programs including the “Live Mas Student Section” at the College Football Playoff, “Steal A Game, Steal A Taco” during the NBA Finals, “Steal A Base, Steal A Taco” held at MLB’s World Series, “Feed the Beat,” a music program that helps new music get heard, connecting up-and-coming artists with fans and “Feed the Beta” which connects indie video game developers with valuable resources to get their game ideas developed. He also crafted the “Live Mas Scholarship” for the Taco Bell Foundation, which awards young adults who are innovators, creators and dreamers with scholarships to pursue their dreams.

Mr. Bortz has been with Taco Bell since 2005 and served various roles within the marketing department including media, brand experience and public relations. Prior to joining Taco Bell he worked at Hill & Knowlton, Inc where he was a Vice President in charge of sports, automotive and lifestyle marketing as well as branding initiatives. At Hill & Knowlton, his clients included Mazda, Ford Motor Company, BFGoodrich Tires, Motorola, Allstate, adidas, Goodyear, TaylorMade-adidas Golf, DirecTV, Proctor & Gamble, USA Swimming, Krispy Kreme and the Rose Bowl.

Prior to Hill & Knowlton, Bortz worked for the Miller Brewing Company’s sponsorship of the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour. He also managed sports marketing and public relations programs for Target, Coppertone, FILA, Diners Club and Speedo. His programs included professional basketball, PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour golf and the 1996 Olympics. He began his sports marketing profession at World Cup USA 1994.

Mr. Bortz graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He lives in Orange County with his wife Monina and their two children.