With the sporting world looking ahead to the return of fans to arenas and stadiums, Sportico and Arctos Sports Partners are proud to present, Fan Experience in a Post-COVID World. Join us for this exclusive event on Thursday January 28th at 1 PM ET as our expert panel explores the measures that leagues and teams will need to employ to ensure a safe and viable experience for fans, athletes, employees and partners.
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    Joe Lacob
    Co-Executive Chairman & CEO, Golden State Warriors
    In his role as co-executive chairman & CEO, Joe Lacob is the managing member of the Golden State Warriors’ ownership group. Currently in his 11th year in this capacity, he serves on the NBA Board of Governors and is a member of the league’s Planning Committee and Labor Committee.

    Under Lacob’s guidance, the Warriors won three NBA championships (2015, 2017, 2018) and made five consecutive appearances in the NBA Finals (2015-2019), becoming only the second team in NBA history to do so, joining the Boston Celtics of the 1950s and 1960s. Additional milestones during this journey include: an all-time NBA-best 24-0 start in 2015-16 and a 54-game winning streak at home, the longest in league history.

    In December of 2019, the Warriors were named professional sports’ “Franchise of the Decade” by the Sports Business Journal (SBJ). The award-winning sports business publication also bestowed “Sports Team of the Year” honors to the Warriors in 2014 and 2016. Lacob was named the 2016 recipient of the Sports Executive of the Year award by Sports Business Journal. He was also named one of the Bay Area’s Most Admired CEOs by the San Francisco Business Times in November of 2015.

    Lacob’s NBA and professional sports experience dates back over two decades, including a five-year tenure as minority investor of the Boston Celtics, where he served on the basketball committee.

    In 1987, Lacob began his career at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. In his role as a venture capitalist, he led investments in over 50 start-up companies across multiple fields in life sciences and medical technologies, the internet and energy.

    He earned a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from the University of California-Irvine, a master’s degree in Public Health (Epidemiology) from UCLA and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
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    Marc Lasry
    Chairman, CEO & Co-Founder, Avenue Capital Group and Co-Owner, Milwaukee Bucks
    Marc Lasry is the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Avenue Capital Group, a global alternative investment manager focused on distressed and undervalued debt and equity opportunities in the U.S., Europe and Asia. In 1995, Mr. Lasry formed Avenue with his sister, Sonia Gardner, with less than $10 million in capital from friends and family. Today, Avenue is one of the largest distressed debt investors globally, managing assets of approximately $10.6 billion, with headquarters in New York City, and offices in London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Silicon Valley and five offices throughout Asia.

    Mr. Lasry is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and he has served and will continue to serve on various other boards of advisors/directors of both for-profit and not-for-profit private and public companies. He is also co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks NBA team.
    Mr. Lasry received a B.A. in History from Clark University (1981) and a J.D. from New York Law School (1984).
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    Tim Leiweke
    Founder & CEO, Oak View Group
    Founder and CEO of the Oak View Group, an entertainment and sports facilities development and management company. Previously Tim was CEO of Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment (Toronto Raptors, Maple Leafs, Toronto FC & Bell Centre), CEO of Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG).
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    Ian Charles
    Founder and Managing Partner, Arctos Sports Partners
    Ian H. Charles is the Founder and Managing Partner at Arctos Sports Partners. In addition to his investment responsibilities, Mr. Charles directs the Firm’s investment strategy, firm governance and investor relations.

    Prior to the formation of Arctos Sports Partners, Mr. Charles served as a member of the private equity and infrastructure investment committees and Partner at Landmark Partners, a leader in the global private equity, real estate and infrastructure secondary markets. At Landmark, Mr. Charles helped design and execute the firm’s private equity strategy; helped build the firm’s quantitative research group; sourced and structured large, innovative liquidity transactions across the firm’s investment verticals; developed and presented the firm’s views on the macro environment and alternative asset classes at a wide range of industry conferences; and helped create the firm’s innovative preferred equity investment strategy. During his time at Landmark Partners, Mr. Charles was part of a team that sourced and oversaw transactions representing more than $10 billion in transaction value.

    Mr. Charles graduated with honors from Texas Christian University, where he received a BBA in Finance and a BBA in Accounting. He received his MBA from the Wharton School of Business and is a CFA Charterholder.
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    Jessica Gelman
    CEO, Kraft Analytics Group
    Jessica Gelman is the CEO of Kraft Analytics Group (KAGR), a technology and services company
    focused on data management, advanced analytics and strategic consulting in the sports and entertainment space. She originally joined the Kraft Family in 2002 working for the sports properties (New England Patriot, Gillette Stadium and New England Revolution). Prior to KAGR's creation in 2016, Gelman led business operations, customer marketing, and strategy for Kraft Sports & Entertainment.

    Gelman co-founded and continues to co-chair the highly regarded MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, the first and largest analytically focused sports conference. Previous speakers have included President Barack Obama, Adam Silver, Steve Ballmer, Nate Silver, and many other sports and analytics luminaries.
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    Dr. Celine Gounder
    CEO/Founder, JUST HUMAN PRODUCTIONS and Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine & Infectious Diseases, NYU School of Medicine
    Dr. Gounder is the CEO/President/Founder of Just Human Productions, a non-profit multimedia organization. She’s also the host and producer of American Diagnosis, a podcast on health and social justice, and Epidemic, a podcast about the SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 / coronavirus pandemic.

    On November 9, 2020, Dr. Gounder was appointed to the Biden-Harris Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board.

    She was previously a CNN Medical Analyst, and prior to that, was a frequent expert guest on CNN, MSNBC, HLN, Al Jazeera America, CBS, BBC, MTV, Dr. Oz, and Oprah Prime. She's written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Guardian US, The Washington Post, Reuters, Quartz, Sports Illustrated, and Bloomberg View. She’s best known for her coverage of the Ebola, Zika, COVID-19, opioid overdose, and gun violence epidemics.
    Dr. Gounder is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine. She cares for patients on the wards at Bellevue Hospital Center.

    In early 2015, Dr. Gounder spent two months volunteering as an Ebola aid worker in Guinea. In her free time, she interviewed locals to understand how the crisis was affecting them. She is currently making Dying to Talk, a feature-length documentary about the Ebola epidemic in Guinea.
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    Jaime Faulkner
    President, Business Operations, Chicago Blackhawks
    Jaime Faulkner was named President of Business Operations for the Chicago Blackhawks on December 16, 2020. Faulkner brings a unique blend of professional experience in sports and entertainment with a focus on analytics and emerging technology to the Blackhawks. In her role, she will focus on advancing the fan experience and business model while generating new revenue through her oversight of strategy and operations across corporate partnerships, ticketing and customer relations, and integrated marketing communications. A value creator for the business, Faulkner will work with a mindset to drive financial performance and drive big picture projects for the Blackhawks. Along with CEO Danny Wirtz, Faulkner will represent the Blackhawks as an Alternate Governor for National Hockey League matters.

    Faulkner helped found E15 in 2013, an industry-leading consulting strategy and analytics company for Compass Group, and served as CEO for seven years. At E15, she worked with over 200 clients including Fortune 500 companies, pro sports teams, resorts and entertainment entities to develop systems that predicted fan behavior, automated concessions and increased revenues of team venues. Faulkner was named one of Sports Business Journal’s Women Game Changers in Sports in 2015 and named to SBJ’s 40 Under 40 list in 2016. Prior to founding E15, Faulkner spent time at KPMG, LLC and Arthur Andersen. She is a graduate of Baylor University.

    Her husband, Colin is the Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Chief Commercial Officer for the Chicago Cubs and the couple has five children: Avery, Blake, Drew, Maddie and Nolan. Their family doesn't end there, the Faulkners have served as a Billet family for several young hockey players including housing current Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin from 2011-13 and former defenseman at the University of Wisconsin Jake Bunz from 2013-15.
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    Jerome Pickett
    Senior Vice President, General Manager, Sports & Entertainment, CLEAR
    As SVP/GM, Sports & Entertainment of CLEAR, a secure identity company operating in 55+ airports, stadiums and venues in the US, Pickett leads the adoption of CLEAR’s innovative technology designed to unlock the experiences offered to guests in a secure and meaningful way. With CLEAR you are you, you are your ticket, your credit card, your identification for age validation, and you are your loyalty membership.

    Prior to joining CLEAR, Pickett served for 6 years as Executive Vice President & Chief Security Officer at the National Basketball Association where he led all aspects of the league’s global security operations. Pickett was responsible for the NBA’s security planning and coronavirus compliance protocol management in Orlando. Pickett also previously served 16 years with the United States Secret Service (USSS) in a variety of positions and responsibilities within the USSS, from leading investigations into electronic crimes and abuses of technology, to managing protective services for the President, Vice President and visiting Heads of State, to participating in search and rescue operations at Ground Zero and working with a team of USSS agents that investigated the terrorists involved in the September 11 attacks.

    Pickett has received numerous awards, including the U.S. Secret Service Medal of Valor for his heroic actions during 9/11. He serves as a member of the Marist College Board of Trustees.
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    Jordan Solomon
    Co-Founder and Partner, Arctos Sports Partners
    Jordan Solomon is a Co-Founder and Partner at Arctos Sports Partners. He is on the Investment Committee and directs the Firm’s investment strategy, sourcing, executing and managing investments for the Firm.

    Prior to the formation of Arctos Sports Partners, Mr. Solomon served as Executive Vice President of MSG Sports at the Madison Square Garden Company, where he was responsible for MSG’s sports business operations, including the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, and esports team Counter Logic Gaming. He joined MSG from the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he was Vice President of Team Marketing and Business Operations (“TMBO”), the internal consulting group of the NBA. In this role, he advised team owners and executives on strategies and tactics to increase team revenues and profitability. Mr. Solomon also led TMBO’s strategy and analytics group, which provided analytical insights on ticket pricing, retention modeling, and customer segmentation to all NBA teams.

    Prior to the NBA, Solomon was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company. He earned his MBA from Dartmouth College, an MPA from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a BA from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
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    Scott Soshnick
    Editor-in-Chief, Sportico
    Scott Soshnick joined Sportico in April of 2020 as its Editor-In-Chief and head of content, bringing decades of editorial experience to Penske Media’s sports business platform.

    Prior to joining Sportico, Scott spent 27 years at Bloomberg News, spearheading the global news service’s sports business coverage across a variety of platforms. Scott also founded and co-hosted Bloomberg’s Business of Sports podcast, while creating and hosting a variety of live events with leading industry executives.

    Scott graduated from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications with a degree in broadcast journalism. He resides in Glen Ridge, NJ, with his wife and son, who aspires to be an NHL goaltender. As such, Scott spends an inordinate amount of time in hockey rinks.