Paul Brewer is SVP, Brand Partnerships at ESL North America. ESL is the world’s largest esports company. In this role, Brewer is responsible for driving sponsorships of ESL’s global assets with both endemic and non-endemic brands and properties. Prior to ESL, Brewer most recently served as Turner’s Director of Sales Development and Marketing, where he worked with blue chip brands across Turner Broadcasting’s digital properties including, Bleacher Report, NBA, NCAA, PGA and NASCAR. Brewer joined Turner in 2010 from Samsung Electronics, where he served as Senior Marketing and Operations Manager for Samsung’s World Cyber Games. During his time at Samsung, Brewer oversaw operations and partnerships for the U.S. branch and worked closely with partners from major global brands, including Samsung Electronics and Microsoft Xbox. Before Samsung, Brewer started his career at ESPN in their Special Events Marketing department. Brewer holds a Master’s Degree in Sports Business from New York University.

As Managing Director of the NBA 2K League, Brendan Donohue is responsible for overseeing the newly formed esports league set to launch in 2018. Donohue, a sports industry veteran with more than two decades of experience in team and league operations, manages a league that will feature 17 NBA teams in its inaugural season. Prior to assuming his current role in April 2017, Donohue served as Senior Vice President of the NBA’s industry-renowned Team Marketing & Business Operations (TMBO) department, where he led the strategic planning and management for all teams across the NBA, WNBA and NBA G League, helping them innovate in sales, marking, digital and analytical areas of their business. He was instrumental in several of TMBO’s accomplishments, including assisting with ownership transitions in Sacramento, Philadelphia, Detroit and Memphis. His responsibilities also included leading team business discussions at WNBA and NBA G League Board of Governors meetings and presenting at frequent workshops, including assisting NBA team presidents on best practices in marketing, ticket sales and sponsorship sales. Before joining the NBA league office in 2009, Donohue spent five years as Vice President of Ticket Sales and Service with the Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Thrashers and Philips Arena. During his career in Atlanta, Donohue led five consecutive seasons of revenue growth, including ranking first in the NBA in ticket revenue growth during the 2008-09 season. He also previously held positions with the then-New Orleans Hornets, Milwaukee Bucks, Detroit Pistons and Palace Sports and Entertainment. Donohue earned a bachelor’s degree from Boston College in 1996. He resides in Fairfield, Conn., with his wife Patty, daughter Mandy and son Carter.

With extensive experience in brand and lifestyle marketing, Ryan brings a unique outlook and approach to NCompass. As Vice President, Ryan has been working with existing clients to build brand equity and awareness by leverage entertainment and sports properties in their marketing and promotional mix. Prior to joining NCompass, Ryan was the Global lead for Video Game Marketing at Red Bull where he launched and managed the company’s worldwide video game strategy. At Red Bull Ryan was responsible for all of the in-game placements of product, athletes, team, race teams, advertisements and employee incentive programs developed from these properties.

Rick Fox is Co-owner of Echo Fox, one of the world's prominent esports organizations; recruiting, developing and celebrating some of the world's best professional esports athletes. Since its inception in December 2015, the organization fields dozens of athletes across various esports competitions including League of Legends League Championship Series. Apart from Echo Fox, Rick is renowned as a three-time NBA Champion and former team captain for the LA Lakers. He is also a respected TV and film actor, as well as producer and former analyst for NBA TV. Over the last 18 years, he has worked for virtually every major television network. Rick's success also extends into the business world, with a winning record as an investor that spans over 15 years. He utilizes his popular public persona, his exemplary team building skills, his access to partnering opportunities and innate business skills to help make businesses thrive. Raised in an entrepreneurial family in the Bahamas, Rick focuses on developing an all-star cast where each clearly understands their role end importance to the venture. He was an early investor in the retail wireless business in Southern California, interactive video streaming innovator Smiletime, production studio HDFilms, esports powerhouse Echo Fox, among others. Rick holds a degree in Radio, Television and Motion Pictures from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Edward Gold is an Marketing Director for the State Farm Insurance Companies headquartered in Bloomington, IL, and has been with the company since 2003. He has over 25+ years of marketing, media and sponsorship experience.
Ed’s primary responsibility is to oversee the development of State Farm’s marketing strategy, creative, media and sponsorship efforts, for all of State Farm’s Property & Casualty product lines and customer segments. Over the years, Edward was named an “Online Media All-Star” by Mediapost, one of the “21 Most Intriguing People in Media” by min online, was named one of CableFAX’s “Sweet 16”, and most recently was inducted in the Marketing, Advertising, and Media “Leaders & Legends” by Media Village. In addition, in 2016, State Farm was honored as the “Sports Sponsor of the Year” by Sport Business Journal.
While at State Farm, Edward has overseen partnerships with the NBA, Disney/Pixar, ESPN, Riot Games, Major League Baseball, Telemundo, and Apple. He has expanded State Farm’s media efforts in traditional, online, and new media, through innovative thinking while achieving business goals.
Before coming to State Farm, Edward was Partner/Media Director for the Gold Consulting Group in Los Angeles, CA. Additionally, his previous experience includes Senior Vice President/Media Director at Kalis & Savage Worldwide Partners in Los Angeles, Vice President/Sales & Business Development for Executive Sports International, and Vice President/Associate Media Director at DDB Needham Chicago.
Edward is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana, and lives in Bloomington, IL, with his wife Lynne and two boys, Montgomery (13) and Henry (12).

For the past 25 years, Ann Hand has served as a market-facing executive across several industries, including live event gaming, sustainability, and consumer retail. She has a proven track record in brand creation and turn-around at the intersection of social impact with consumer trends and technology. At her core, Ann is a retailer, operator, and builder of enduring strategic partnerships, brands and cultures. In her current role as CEO and Chairman of Super League Gaming, Ann drives the vision of giving competitive gamers entirely new ways to enjoy the games they love through the formation of the leading platform for amateur eSports. Super League’s 16-city North America league along with compelling online experiences, rich content and membership programs is a unifying lifestyle destination for local, competitive gaming. From 2009 through 2014, Ann served as CEO of Project Frog, a venture-backed firm whose mission is to democratize healthy, inspired buildings that are better, faster, greener, and more affordable than traditional alternatives. From 1998 through 2008, Ann served in a variety of senior executive positions with BP plc, including most notably Senior Vice President, Global Brand Marketing & Innovation from 2005 to 2008 overseeing the entire brand portfolio of B2C and B2B brands including BP, Arco, am/pm and Aral. Prior to that, she ran the Global Liquefied Gas Business Unit with $3B in annual revenue and over 3,000 employees worldwide. Throughout her career, Ann has garnered industry recognition, including “100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs” by Goldman Sachs, “Top 10 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs” by Fortune, “100 Most Creative People” by Fast Company, “40 under 40” by Advertising Age along with integrated marketing campaigns that won Grand Clios and Cannes Lions. Ann earned a BA in Economics from DePauw University and a MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management along with executive education at Cambridge, Harvard and Stanford Universities. Having spent a significant part of her career abroad in China and the UK she holds a dual US/UK citizenship, but is a proud Midwesterner at heart.

As executive director of Partnership Marketing for Xfinity, Matt Lederer leads the development of strategies to leverage Comcast’s numerous partnerships to enhance and promote the Xfinity brand. He is charged with forging new partnerships across sports, music, eSports and entertainment properties and maximizing Comcast’s national and regional sponsorship investments. Matt spearheaded some of the company’s largest sports partnerships to date including the entitlement sponsorship of the new NASCAR Xfinity Series and the official entertainment sponsor of NASCAR, which went into effect in 2015. Most recently, he lead Comcast’s efforts into eGaming by securing official Xfinity brand sponsorships with ESL, the world’s largest esports company, and Evil Geniuses (EG), the most successful esports organization. In addition, Matt lead Comcast partnership of the Taylor Swift 1989 World Tour and is currently leading the brand’s partnership of the the Katy Perry Witness the Tour. Matt has more than 15 years of experience in sports and brand marketing for FORTUNE 500 brands including Nextel and Sprint. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from State University of New York at Geneseo College and resides in the Philadelphia area with his wife and two children.

Nathan Lindberg is the Director of Global Esports Sponsorships at Twitch. As an esports veteran, Nathan is dedicated to educating brands about the competitive gaming phenomenon and ways to leverage Twitch to reach marketing goals. Nathan’s esports experience began in 2010 while working at Curse Media as VP of Global Sales. Before joining Curse, Inc., Nathan worked at GamePro Media, IDG Entertainment, and Universal McCann where he worked front and center with live streaming, mobile, and other emerging media. Nathan holds a BS in Sports Media from Ithaca College.

Kurt Melcher is the Executive Director of Esports at Intersport, a Chicago-based Marketing and Media Solutions Company. Previously an athletic administrator for 15 years, Melcher recognizes the core educational elements involved in traditional sports and believes the same hold true for esports. Through his efforts and vision, Robert Morris University became the first university to recognize esports as part of the athletic department and offer athletic scholarships to gamers, helping to legitimize the world of collegiate esports. Most recently, Melcher and Intersport’s Esports Group was contracted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to further its exploration of the collegiate esports landscape. A prominent esports evangelist, Mr. Melcher has been featured in a number of prominent news sources including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Time Magazine, ESPN, NPR, HBO Real Sports and in the documentary film All Work All Play.

Michele Morrow is a professional broadcast host, notorious video gamer, producer and actress. As the co-creator, executive producer and lead actress of YouTube Red Original, "Good Game", Morrow took her experiences in esports and turned it into a scripted comedy with Dan Harmon's Starburns Industries. She has appeared as host for several of the biggest esports tournaments to be broadcast on national television (ESPN2, Eleague / TBS), as well as news coverage for Bleacher Report, Blizzcon, 2K Games, Playstation, and more. She’s had a multitude of shows that range in genre from gaming and geek, to mainstream Hollywood. Morrow founded Under Pressure Productions in 2017.

Ben officially entered esports in 2010 through StarCraft after spending years as a community member, player and fan. With his start in streaming and coaching, he eventually transitioned to casting and hosting professional esports events and has worked stages as prestigious as BlizzCon, DreamHack, and The Intel Extreme Masters. From there, Ben moved behind the camera, working as a producer and manager at ESL and then NASL before moving to Red Bull where he was worked for the last four years. At Red Bull, Ben led the US esports program, producing hundreds of events and managing all partnerships and licensing with developers, teams and other brand partners. Outside of work, Ben’s a lifelong gamer, a passionate foody, and a novice rock climber who loves spending time outdoors.

Robert Occhialini is the VP of esports Products and Technology for Turner Sports. A Turner Sports employee for more than a decade, Occhialini was one of the first employees assigned to Turner’s esports initiatives, helping to strategically work through the esports landscape with the Turner Sports senior leadership team, and eventually working on the formation of ELEAGUE, the premium esports tournament and content brand formed in partnership between Turner and IMG that launched in 2016. In addition to being a member of the leadership team for ELEAGUE, Occhialini is currently responsible for new technology adoption, development and deployment of emerging technologies and new digital products related to the esports market. In this capacity, he led the conception, design and development of ELEAGUE’s innovative Game Command mosaic video player. Occhialini was also integral in negotiations between ELEAGUE and Twitch, which in early 2018 yielded a multi-year agreement for Twitch to be the exclusive third-party streaming platform for ELEAGUE’s popular live event coverage. Prior to his career shift into the esports market, Occhialini served as the digital products executive for NBA Digital, managing the portfolio of digital products and services for the NBA in the United States, including NBA League Pass and the NBA app across phones, tablets, game consoles, TV connected devices, smart TVs and watches.

Nicole Pike is Managing Director of Nielsen’s global esports business. Her mission is to not only help clients understand why esports is an important trend to activate against, but also how to strategically invest themselves while remaining authentic to their own audience and the passionate esports fan base. She has built her career with Nielsen, consulting with key players in the gaming and esports industries, bringing insights and actionability to their strategy around fan engagement, sponsorship, and new product launches. With her expertise, endemic gaming companies, brands, broadcasters, and more have successfully entered and excelled in the fast-paced gaming marketplace. Nicole led Nielsen’s jump into the rapidly expanding global esports market, coordinating experts and products across the well-established Nielsen Games and Nielsen Sports verticals to form the new Nielsen Esports division. Under her leadership, Nielsen has developed a tailored practice area for clients looking to understand the fans, sponsorship opportunities, and future trends in the ever-evolving esports space.

Pete Vlastelica is President and CEO of Major League Gaming (MLG), a division of Activision Blizzard devoted to creating the best esports experiences for fans across games, platforms and geographies. Prior to MLG, Vlastelica was the Executive Vice President of Digital at FOX Sports, where he focused on content and product development, social media, technology, and creation of multi-platform content properties, including the Emmy-award winning “Garbage Time with Katie Nolan.” He directed the growth of FOXSports.com and the mobile app FOX Sports Go, where he oversaw the streaming of thousands of live sporting events, including Super Bowl XLVIII, which set a new internet record for streaming viewers for a sporting event. Recognized for his influence in the sports media industry, Vlastelica is a member of Sports Business Journal’s prestigious “Forty Under 40” Class of 2014. Vlastelica earned an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and a Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy from Stanford.