Webinar: Business Beyond the Game by Sportico

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About This Webinar

Recognizing their cultural value, players are increasingly leaning into entrepreneurial endeavors, shifting their on-field personas to become media moguls, fashion icons, investors, tastemakers, business leaders and cornerstones of their communities.

SporticoLive is bringing together the athletes, the visionaries and business leaders who are paving the way for future generations of multi-hyphenates.

Presenters

Kyle Lowry

Professional Athlete, Investor, Philanthropist

Kyle Lowry has made his mark as one of the NBA’s premier players and recently made news by officially signing with the Miami Heat during the 2021 free agency period after spending nine seasons with the Toronto Raptors. With the Raptors, Lowry won an NBA championship (2019), the first title in Toronto's franchise history. Kyle is the first player to have a jersey retired by the Raptors where he was a six-time NBA All-Star and was named to the All-NBA Third Team in 2016. Early in his career, Lowry also played 3 seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies and 4 seasons with the Houston Rockets. He was a member of the U.S. national team that won a gold medal in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Lowry played two seasons of college basketball with the Villanova Wildcats before he was selected by the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the 2006 NBA draft with the 24th overall pick. Lowry has made significant financial contributions to Villanova over the years, including a $1M commitment in 2018. In 2020, Lowry's jersey was retired by the Villanova Wildcats.

Off the court, Kyle has made a name for himself in venture capital and real estate. He has made numerous investments through his firm North 20 Ventures, including Harvard’s Enterprise Research Campus, Robinhood, Coinbase, Klarna, Grab, and Dapper Labs. In 2013, Kyle and his wife, Ayahna Cornish-Lowry, founded The Lowry Love Foundation, which is committed to improving the lives of the underprivileged and disadvantaged of Philadelphia and Toronto in order to help them attain a better quality of life.

Greg Norman

Chairman & CEO, Greg Norman Company

Arguably the most successful athlete-turned-businessman in the world, Greg Norman is known as much for his entrepreneurial spirit in the boardroom as his dominance on the golf course. The internationally renowned “Great White Shark” won more than 90 tournaments worldwide, including two Open Championships, and holds the distinction of defending his No. 1 position in the world golf rankings for 331 weeks. As one of the most prolific players in the game’s history, his astounding career culminated in 2001 when he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame with a higher percentage of votes than any other inductee in history.

Greg Norman now transcends the game of golf, with over a dozen companies around the world bearing his name and the iconic shark logo as part of the Greg Norman Company, which he leads at Chairman & CEO. His internationally recognized brand boasts more than 100 golf course designs across six continents, a global real estate collection, award-winning wine, golf-inspired lifestyle apparel and a diverse investment division. Across all facets of business, the Greg Norman brand consistently delivers the quality that his name is synonymous with and continues to inspire people to attack life.

Roman Reigns

WWE Superstar

A Georgia Tech defensive lineman, NFL player, actor and second-generation WWE Superstar, “The Big Dog” seemed invincible, until Roman shared with the world that he had leukemia. He was in for the fight of his life and relied on the outpouring of support from friends and strangers who let him know he was not alone. Roman came back, stronger than ever, and proudly announced his cancer was in remission. He was already a champion...now, he wants to be a beacon of hope.

Rudy Cline-Thomas

Founder & Managing Partner, Mastry Inc

Rudy Cline-Thomas is the founder and managing partner of Mastry, Inc. (www.mastryinc.com), which brings together world-class athletes, leading technology, media and consumer products companies as well as entrepreneurs and investors to create top-tier platform-building opportunities. Mastry has invested in more than 60 companies including Lime, Allbirds, Uber, PagerDuty, Zoom, Cloudflare, Jumia, Qualtrics, Zuora, MyHippo, Carta, HIMS, DataDog, GOAT, Thrive Global, Lambda School and Casper.

Most recently Rudy was an executive producer of “The Scheme,” HBO’s riveting look at the underbelly of college basketball. The revealing and no-holds-barred documentary, which focused on the federal government’s three-year investigation into college basketball corruption, premiered on March 31, 2020.

In 2017 Rudy founded the The Annual Players Technology Summit, with Bloomberg as a presenting partner, which brings together leaders in the technology, venture capital and sports communities to discuss tech investing, trends, partnerships and future sports/tech initiatives.

Jacob Feldman

Sports Business Reporter, Sportico

Jacob Feldman is a sports business reporter with a focus on technology, media and fan experience. He was previously a staff writer at Sports Illustrated, where he wrote multiple cover stories while reporting on the NFL and the media industry. His work has also appeared in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and Popular Science. Jacob is a graduate of Harvard University and a co-founder of The Sunday Long Read. He currently lives in Boston.

Eben Novy-Williams

Sports Business Reporter, Sportico

Eben Novy-Williams is a sports business reporter and podcast host at Sportico, a news venture launched earlier this year by Penske Media.

Prior to joining Sportico, Novy-Williams spent nine years covering the intersection of money and sports at Bloomberg News. His writing has appeared online, in Businessweek magazine and in newspapers across the country. He was also co-host of the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast.

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.