Sophie Morris

ESA Chair
Sponsor View
(Research representative)

Sophie Morris is Co-Founder and Director of Sponsor View (formerly Millharbour Marketing). Sponsor View is the first-of-its-kind independent sponsor satisfaction research and measurement service helping rights holders identify how they can evolve their offering, improve their service and increase the value they provide to their sponsors.

Sophie has worked in marketing and sponsorship for over 20 years. She is a Chartered Marketer, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a member of the Market Research Society.

Sophie also sits on the Board of the Institute for Sport Business at Loughborough University and the Danish sponsorship group ‘SPOT:ON’ and judges sponsorship awards in the UK, Belgium, Slovenia and for ESA.

Nigel Geach

ESA Vice-Chair & Company Secretary
IRIS Sport
(Research/Insights representative)

Nigel is Director of Global Motorsport at Iris Sport.

Having been involved with sports marketing and sponsorship industry for over 35 years, he has seen the steady growth of the area of sponsorship evaluation as being a fundamental part of sponsorship activity.

Prior to his roles with Nielsen Sports, REPUCOM and Sports Marketing Surveys, he worked in the UK and America with multinational companies in the consumer durable industry after graduating in Business Management.

Nigel has been involved in sponsorship research since 1984 and has seen the massive growth of televised sport throughout the world.

Nigel has been an ESA Board Director for 16 years. He holds the position of Company Secretary, and brings a depth of knowledge and commitment to the Board, utilising his wealth of experience of people and techniques. Nigel was appointed Vice-Chair of ESA in June 2013.

Karen Fan

ESA General Manager

Karen joined ESA in 2017 with 19 years’ experience working in sponsorship market research for the likes of City Football Group, The Ocean Race, Standard Chartered Bank, Bank of Ireland and Nissan. Karen also worked on compliance monitoring for the IOC and FIFA for three Olympic Games and one FIFA World Cup.

Heli Kemppainen

(Brand representative)

Because of my professional experience – as a rights holder and a brand side sponsor – I have experience, skills and broad perspective of sponsoring. I am interested in influencing and broadening the operations, activities and network of the Association, and answering the continuing needs in the field of the sponsoring market. As a private person, I’m also very passioned for both sports and culture. I have 15 years’ experience in global sponsorships, event management, and brand marketing.

In my previous role, I’ve been leading Neste’s global brand marketing collaborations and sponsorships, and managing selected major brand and corporate events. Previously, I’ve also worked with the Finnish Automobile Association (country’s representative in FIA) as the Commercial Director being responsible for the FIA’s World Rally Championship Neste Rally Finland commercial partnership sales, brand marketing, and event management in a relationship with WRC and FIA.

In 2023, I was honoured to be one of the ESA Awards judges.

Amy Mansell

ELEMIS
(Brand representative)

Amy Mansell is a dynamic brand and sponsorship leader with over 20 years’ experience spanning sports, fashion, music, and entertainment. Her unique perspective comes from an extensive career working across brand, agency, and consultancy sides, delivering over 100 high-impact partnerships worldwide.

Amy has led some of the most high-profile and disruptive sponsorships in recent years—including the award-nominated Unilever x AFCON partnership and HP’s title partnership with Ferrari in Formula 1. She is currently spearheading the groundbreaking ELEMIS x Aston Martin F1 partnership, the first of its kind for a beauty brand in the sport, making global headlines for its bold, barrier-breaking presence in motorsport.

Rebecca Martin

Global
(Media representative)

Rebecca (Becks) Martin is a strategic, commercially driven leader with 18+ years of experience shaping high-impact sponsorship and partnership strategies across sport and entertainment.

Connecting global brands with major sporting rights holders, venues, and events to create game-changing experiences for fans and communities, Becks has worked for fast-paced agencies, such as Fuse Sport and Entertainment and Pitch, as well as for blue-chip brands such as Barclays and O2.

Becks is currently at Global Media where Global are creating a new home for branded sports entertainment.

Becks is on the Board of the European Sponsorship Association, judges the UK Sponsorship Awards, founded the Sponsorship Effectiveness Forum and is a Trustee of The Change Foundation.

Khadeen O’Donnell

Legends Global
(Agency representative)

Khadeen O’Donnell is a seasoned partnerships specialist with significant experience within Arts & Culture rights holders such as Southbank Centre and English National Ballet.

Khadeen has been on the Board at the European Sponsorship Association (ESA), since July 2021.

Grace O’Grady

Live Nation
(Rights Holder representative)

If you’ve attended a festival or concert, it won’t be a surprise to learn that an entire ecosystem is working behind the scenes to bring live music experiences to life. From artists to agents to ticketing and sponsorships – countless people are involved in making live music possible.

Leading the way in one area is Grace O’Grady, currently Vice President of Account Management for Live Nation UK’s Marketing Partnerships.

Grace entered the live music industry at 18, steadily progressing to take up roles such as Head of Brand Partnerships for Academy Music Group, leading the team that manages venue partnership delivery across the group’s 21 venues nationwide for brands including O2, Carlsberg, Barclaycard, and Pepsi.

Moving to Live Nation initially as Head of Venue Partnerships, by 2023 a 31-year-old Grace was promoted to Vice President of Account Management, currently the youngest VP role in the division. Today, Grace leads a team responsible for delivering some of the most successful music sponsorships in the country across Live Nation UK’s 40+ festivals nationwide, working with brands like Sky, Audi, Klarna, TK Maxx, Three, and Co-op.

Grace’s aim is to bring clarity and a deep level of trust to Live Nation’s partners, always asking the challenging questions and guiding towards solutions and success.

Risto Oksanen

Red Carpet Brand Alliances Oy
(Agency representative)

Risto is a passionate voice for sponsorship and events. He was Chair of the Board of the Finnish Sponsorship & Events Association (spot.fi) for a long time. He is CEO and partner in sponsorship agency Red Carpet Brand Alliances Oy (rcba.fi), working with both Brands and Right Holders in the Sports, Events, Culture and Movie sectors.

Risto works to reinforce the role of sponsorship in an ever-changing media landscape. He is also passionate about strengthening cooperation between European countries within the sponsorship industry.

Career highlights:

• Current work with both Brands and Rights Holders in the Sports, Events, Culture and Movie sectors
• Co-authored a book about the Values and Future of Sponsorship in 2018
• Highly respected keynote speaker and instructor
• Marketing Director, Finnish Football League Association – Veikkausliiga 2010-2017
• Various managerial positions for football and ice-hockey clubs since early 90’s
• Experience in information technology and international industrial trade.

Daragh Persse

The Brand Fans
(Agency representative)

Daragh Persse is a sponsorship specialist and Founder of The Brand Fans, an international independent sponsorship and cause marketing consultancy based in Dublin. Daragh was previously Global Sponsorship Director at Vodafone working with UEFA Champions League, Formula 1, Manchester United, England Cricket and numerous music artists, festivals and events. Daragh pioneered the development of a proprietary model for the evaluation of sponsorship properties on behalf of brands and rights holders. The Brand Fans work with numerous partners including Heineken, Santa Rita, Virgin Media, Energia, Barclays, AIG, Live Nation, Betway, Bacardi, IRFU, FAI and Leinster Rugby, working across strategy, planning, rights negotiation, activation and evaluation.

Ceri Powell

Orchard Media and Events Group
(Agency representative)

Ceri is a senior commercial and marketing leader with nearly 18 years’ experience spanning sponsorship, brand partnerships, events, and integrated campaign strategy. As Director of Sponsorship and Events at Orchard Media and Events Group, she leads a team delivering strategic consultancy, sponsorship development, brand outreach and event partnerships for rights holders across charity, government, public service and the cultural sector.

Her experience includes planning and leading multi-million-pound campaigns for Visit Wales Tourism, Public Health Wales, and the national COVID response (Keep Wales Safe), as well as managing high-profile brand partnerships for Netflix, Diageo, Jaguar Land Rover, and Cadbury during her time at Hearst and Verizon/Yahoo!/RYOT.

A Chartered Marketer (MCIM) and Accredited MIPA, Ceri brings a strong mix of strategic thinking, operational leadership, and commercial focus. She is passionate about making ESA more inclusive and visible across the UK’s nations and regions – particularly Wales – and strengthening its marketing workstream to deliver consistent value to members.

Martin Prendergast

Martin Prendergast Communications
(Agency representative)

I am an arts sponsorship professional with 30 years’ experience working with some of the world’s most exciting brands and arts organisations. I was Arts Manager at The Guardian where I helped create award-winning sponsorships across arts, books, music and film. As Deputy Director of Development at the National Theatre I quadrupled sponsorship income, and led the team to develop sponsorships with Aviva, AmEx, Bank of America, Coutts, Cisco, KPMG and ITV, amongst many others. My consultancy clients include RADA, LSO, Birmingham Hippodrome, Wilton’s Music Hall, Fane, and Lightroom, recently creating partnerships with The Guardian for Artichoke’s ‘The Gallery’, and between Sotheby’s and RADA.

I am a senior leader in ED&I and I played a leading role in RADA’s anti-racism strategy. I am a LGBTI+ campaigner, a Speaker for Schools, and a Creative UK Council member.

I am looking forward to helping ESA realise the untapped potential of arts sponsorship, and to help inspire, unite and grow a welcoming and diverse sponsorship industry.

Sam Purkiss

Harbottle & Lewis LLP
(Professional Advisor – Legal representative)

Sam is a sports and entertainment industry lawyer at Harbottle & Lewis, advising on commercial and regulatory matters. He has particular expertise advising on complex and high value sponsorship and endorsement contracts, acting regularly for both rights holders and sponsors.

He also advises clients within other creative industries in relation to the exploitation of intellectual property, including authors, publishers, media and technology platforms, brand owners and licensees.

Sam is Co-Lead of the Sex & Gender Equality Network at Harbottle & Lewis.

In addition to the day job, Sam has been a football referee operating within the professional game in the EFL for the last 10 years, and is a father to 3 young boys.

Matt Stevenson

1986
(Agency representative)

Matt was Head of Sponsorship, Hospitality and Ticketing, and Talent at BT (covering both BT and EE), prior to co-founding 1986. He has over 20 years of brand and comms experience including 14 years dedicated to sponsorship and partnership activations, which has seen him work across brands such as Nike, O2, Orange and now BT and EE.

Before joining EE, Matt played a pivotal part in the launch of NikeTown London during his four years at the iconic brand. He then moved to O2, where he spent eight years leading the brand’s music sponsorship programme, which included the successful launch of the O2 Wireless Festival (now in its 15^th year).

At BT, Matt led a team of 14 responsible for the company’s sponsorship portfolio – the 4 x football Home Nations, Wembley Stadium, FA Cup, Glastonbury, BAFTA and Apprentice Nation – and its Hospitality and Ticketing offering, and sourcing Talent across the business for filming and various events.

Tanya Townsend

Three
(Brand representative)

Over the past 17 years, Tanya has built a career connecting brands with audiences through music, live experiences, and sponsorship. From telco to utilities and back again, she has led some of Ireland’s most high-profile and awarded campaigns – always with a focus on creative impact and cultural relevance.

Tanya’s journey began at O2, where she helped position the brand as a music leader, working on campaigns with global artists like Justin Bieber and Beyoncé, and launching The O2 venue’s first live-streaming platform. She then spent a decade at Bord Gáis Energy, where she developed the BGE Theatre sponsorship and created the Student Theatre Awards initiatives that supported creativity and education in the arts.

Now at Three, Tanya leads sponsorships across 3Arena, 3Olympia, Electric Picnic, Longitude, and Chelsea Football. She specialises in venue naming rights deals and end-to-end campaign delivery from building business cases with finance and tech teams, to developing standout customer experiences on the ground. Recent projects include the relaunch of 3 All For Music and the award-winning City Stages campaign, both designed to support Irish talent and new voices.

In the past year alone, her work has been recognised with five major industry wins, including Best Arts and Culture Sponsorship at the ESA Awards, and Best Grassroots and Team of the Year at the ISAs. She has also represented Three as a keynote speaker and mentor, and led the PR strategy for music-related campaigns.

At the heart of everything Tanya does is a simple goal: to create real moments of connection between people, music, and brands.

Stuart Wareman

Accor
(Brand representative)

Stuart is SVP Global Sponsorship, Events & Experiences at Accor.

Based in Paris, Stuart leads the team coordinating and managing the hotel group’s global sponsorships, member experiences and corporate hospitality. The portfolio includes Paris Saint-Germain, Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Rugby World Cup France 2023, Roland-Garros, the Accor Arena, AEG, the Accor Stadium, SailGP & the Americas Cup, as well as multiple entertainment venues and food festivals around the world.

Before Accor, Stuart led the Partnerships team for Marriott in Europe, Middle East and Africa for nine years, including its credit card businesses and relationships with airlines, car rental and payment services in addition to major sponsorships such as Manchester United, Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, NFL and AEG. Prior to this he worked for ten years at WPP sponsorship agency MEC Access (now Wavemaker) leading the event sponsorships team in London where he created, negotiated, activated and evaluated award winning sponsorships for brands such as Visa, Aviva, Danone, Wrigley’s, BT, Vodafone, Specsavers, Lloyds and Bacardi across sport and entertainment platforms.

Michael Hope-Milne

Pearl & Dean
(Media/ Rights Holder representative)

Mike has worked in the media industry for +25 years, 23 of which have had a core focus on sponsorship, promotions and creative commercial partnerships. He has worked on both the agency and media owner side in that time and developed a deep and well-rounded knowledge of media sponsorship.

He has been an active member of ESA’s Media Working Committee for the last 13 years and took on the role of Chair seven years ago.

Mike currently works at Pearl & Dean as Enterprise Director – ultimately responsible for all revenue generation for the company, but with a specific focus on developing their commercial partnerships and new revenue streams.

Matthew Leopold

LexisNexis
(Brand representative)

Filip Waegemans

SKAUT BV
(Agency representative)

Filip Waegemans is an experienced sponsorship specialist with a strong background in telecom, events, and cultural partnerships in the Benelux.

As co-owner of SKAUT, he focuses on inspiring and connecting brands and event organisers, and is dedicated to making sponsorships and partnerships more effective.

Filip currently serves as Chair of the Jury at SponsorLive in Belgium.

Karen Fan

General Manager

Karen joined ESA in 2016.

Karen’s role is to lead the day‑to‑day operation and strategic development of the organisation. This involves overseeing ESA’s events, qualifications, membership, resources, governance and operational delivery, working closely with a member‑elected Board of Directors. She is also involved in all the Board workstreams.

With more than 20 years’ experience in sports and sponsorship research, Karen previously worked at Repucom as a Research Director, leading large-scale multinational projects and championing the use of online research technologies. During her tenure, she worked with major global brands and rights holders including City Football Group, Nissan, The Ocean Race, Standard Chartered Bank and Bank of Ireland. She also played a key role in compliance monitoring for the IOC and FIFA across multiple Olympic Games and one FIFA World Cup.

Jonathan Coates

Marketing, Communications and Events Manager

Jonathan joined ESA in 2021 having worked for five years at sportscotland, alongside a consultancy role with the International Modern Pentathlon Union. Prior to pivoting into marketing, communications and events, he had a 17-year career in sports journalism in the UK, Australia and Ireland.

Anna Jordan

Membership Manager

Anna joined ESA in 2022 with 15 years’ experience in sponsorship from agencies including brandRapport, CAA and Fuse. She has worked across sport and music sponsorships for brands including Vodafone, Samsung, Santander, Jaguar, E.ON and Prudential.

Ruth Luke

ESA Office & Admin

Ruth joined ESA in 2012 following 25 years in IT.