Speaker Biographies

Speaker biographies for the Soccerex European Forum 2013 will be added closer to the event, in the meantime you can browse some of our 2012 speakers below:

Guillem Balagué, Sky Sports
Guillem is a key fixture in Sky Sports’ coverage of Spanish football. He is also the UK Correspondent for AS and El Larguero. His work appears regularly in The Times and in Champions magazine and has a weekly column in the Daily Mirror. He also wrote the bestselling “A Season on the Brink”, an insider’s account of Liverpool’s 2004-05 Champions League winning campaign. He has written or worked for The Observer, Talk Sport, BBC, Onda Cero radio, 442, World Soccer, Talk Sport, RTE.

Patrick Barclay, Football Writer
A former Sports Journalist of the Year, he is the first to have completed the grand slam of London-based quality newspapers, having previously worked for the Guardian/Observer, Independent and Telegraph groups, as well as a former Chief Football Commentator for The Times. He regularly appears on radio and television, notably Sky Sports. He is proud to be a member of Dees Down South, the London-based organisation for the supporters of Dundee FC.

John Barnes, Former Liverpool and England player
His early seasons in the English First Division, with Watford, John finished runner-up to Liverpool, played one FA Cup final and one FA Cup semi-final. He then joined arguably the most exciting Liverpool side fielded, counting the likes of Ian Rush, Peter Beardsley and Kenny Dalglish. He went on to two League championships, two FA Cups and a League Cup, before joining Newcastle United in 1997. He also played 79 times for England, scoring 11 goals and playing in 3 World Cups. After retiring he took to coaching, notably Jamaica and Tranmere.

Brian Barwick, Barwick Media and Sport
A former BBC sports editor, Brian Barwick left in 1998 to join rival ITV, where he helped secure coverage of the Champions League and 2003 Rugby World Cup. In 2005 he was appointed Chief Executive of The FA, overseeing a number of significant TV rights deals, the opening of the new Wembley and recruitment of Fabio Capello. He left The FA in 2009 and became Chairman of Kickworldwide, before founding Barwick Media and Sport, also acting as Visiting Professor at Liverpool University.

Philip Beard, Queens Park Rangers
After playing a key part in London’s successful Olympic bid team in 2005, Philip joined AEG as Chief Executive of the O2 in 2006, with the task of overseeing the commercial strategy and performance as well as being responsible for all the sporting activity of the venue. He played an integral role in the redevelopment of the former Millennium Dome that saw the O2 secure major events such as the ATP World Tour Finals. In August 2011 Philip was appointed CEO of Queens Park Rangers FC, with the aim of consolidating the club’s position in the Barclays Premier League and building a new stadium for the club.

Rafael Benitez, Former Valencia and Liverpool Manager
Rafael joined Real Madrid’s coaching staff in 1986 and had successes at youth level. He then coached a few Spanish clubs at senior level but without success, until he took up the role at Valencia in 2001. He led Valencia to two La Liga titles and a UEFA Cup. In 2004, he took up the mantle at Liverpool and in his first season won the UEFA Champions League for the club. Under his management the club’s form in the Premier League improved significantly and won an FA Cup, and in 2008 reached the UEFA Champions League final for the second time in four years. In 2010, ‘Rafa’ joined Inter Milan.

Sir Howard Bernstein, Manchester City Council
Sir Howard joined the Manchester City Council as Junior Clerk, rising to become the Council’s Chief Executive in 1998. He is known for his business acumen, for forging partnerships with the city’s key players, successfully attracting millions of pounds. He played key roles in regeneration initiatives, in major infrastructure projects including sports centres, airports, transport links, convention centres and art galleries. He was instrumental in securing Manchester as Host City for the XVII Commonwealth Games in 2002, which was the largest multi-sport event ever hosted by the UK and the most successful Games ever. Sir Howard was knighted for his services to Manchester in the New Year’s Honours 2003.

Trevor Birch, PKF International
Specialising in insolvency, Trevor was appointed chief executive of Chelsea FC in February 2002, in a bid to tackle the club’s debt burden of around £80m and restructure the finances. He helped Roman Abramovich’s takeover of the club in 2003, which wiped out most of the club’s debts, making his own role no longer necessary. Later that year, he was appointed chief executive of Leeds United, another club with high debts. He helped the club avoid administration, and oversaw its takeover by Gerald Krasner’s consortium. He left to join Everton in 2004, then became Chief Executive Officer of Derby County in 2007 and later landed at Sheffield United (in 2009). On the 17th February 2012, Birch was appointed as administrator at financially-troubled Portsmouth FC.

Mario De Vivo, Inter Milan
As Chief Commercial Officer of F.C. Internazionale Milano, Mario is responsible for the Italian Serie A giant’s domestic and global commercial development, including all aspects related to sponsorship, merchandising, retail and marketing activities. Prior to joining Inter, Mario was worldwide marketing director of Geox, where he was responsible for product development, fashion intelligence and innovation for the shoe brand. He held this position for two years following spells as marketing director of fashion retailers Coin and OVS, during which time he oversaw a strategic repositioning of the two brands. In his career spanning over 20 years, Mario has also worked for a number of other global brands, including Gatorade (in Chicago and Milan), Häagen Dazs and Fini.

Chris Eaton, FIFA
Chris has had over 40 years in professional police service, much of it in the field of international law enforcement. In 1999, following almost 30 years’ service with both state and federal policing in Australia, Chris left his native country to work with INTERPOL at its headquarters in Lyon, France. Chris has extensive experience in international corruption investigations and in coordinating and managing international operations. Chris left INTERPOL in early 2010 to join FIFA as its Security Adviser, and was appointed Head of Security at FIFA in January 2011. Recently he announced that he will be leaving FIFA in April this year to take up a position as Director of Sports Integrity at the International Centre for Sports Security (ICSS).

Guy-Laurent Epstein, UEFA
After four years working as a consultant for Arthur Andersen, Guy-Laurent decided to shift his career towards sports marketing and worked for the 1998 FIFA World CupTM in France. He joined ISL Marketing (and then FIFA Marketing) where he was in charge of the licensing programme for the 2002 FIFA World CupTM. He joined UEFA in October 2002 and became Head of Marketing Activities in December 2004. In 2005, he created the Media Rights unit, responsible for the overall selling of the UEFA competitions TV rights; he managed it until March 2010, when UEFA decided to set up a new company, UEFA Events SA, to handle all UEFA commercial and event operations in order to deliver a better and more streamlined service. Consequently, Guy-Laurent was appointed Director of Marketing of UEFA Events SA and as such, he is responsible for the ongoing development of the marketing and commercial activities across all competitions of the UEFA.

Marco Fassone, SSC Napoli
Marco began his career in the sports divisions of Ferrero, where he served as Group Product Marketing Manager, and Galbani, where he served as Director of New Product Development. In 2003 he joined Juventus, where he held several functions such as Sales and Marketing Director, Head of Sales, Executive Officer to work with the Football League, Project Coordinator and Global Manager of the Olympic stadium. Since August 2010, Marco has taken over the role of Managing Director at Calcio Napoli where he is in charge of the commercial operations of the club.

Paul Hayward, The Daily Telegraph
A multi award-winning journalist, he left the Daily Telegraph in 2005 to join the Daily Mail and in 2008 moved to the Observer as Chief Sports Writer. Hayward won sports writer of the year in 2002 and 2003 at the British Press Awards, and was named best football writer at the Sky Sports Awards in 1997, 1999 and 2001. In November 2011 he left the Observer to come back to The Telegraph, still in the position of Chief Sports Writer.

Gerard Houllier, Former Liverpool, Lyon and Aston Villa Manager
Previously Technical Director of the French Football Federation, Gerard was also National Technical Director of the French World Cup-winning team of 1998 and the architect of the reknowned Clairefontaine youth academy. At club level, he coached Liverpool FC from 1998 to 2004, leading them to an unprecedented cup treble in 2001. He won two French championships, with Paris St Germain in 1986 and Lyon in 2005. He is currently manager of Aston Villa.

Gianni Infantino, UEFA
Prior to joining UEFA in August 2000, lawyer Gianni Infantino worked as the secretary general of the International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) at the University of Neuchâtel, having previously been an adviser to a variety of football bodies, including the Italian, Spanish and Swiss football leagues. At UEFA, Gianni began working on a range of legal, commercial and professional football matters. He was appointed as Director of UEFA’s Legal Affairs and Club Licensing Division in January 2004, moving on to become Chief Executive ad interim, then Deputy General Secretary and finally General Secretary in October 2009.

Dan Jones, Deloitte
Partner in charge of the Sports Business Group, Dan has spent 15 years with Deloitte. He left for a spell working for a FTSE 100 company. Since returning to work in sports business consulting in 2001 he has advised a number of high-profile clients on a range of issues. Dan is the editor of Deloitte’s respected publications the Deloitte Annual Review of Football Finance and the Deloitte Football Money League.

Matt Lorenzo, Soccerex
Matthew Lorenzo has hosted Soccerex since its inception in 1996 and is now the company’s Head of Media. He has worked in newspapers, radio and for numerous TV stations, most notably Sky, the BBC and GMTV. Currently he is working with Google on the launch of their YouTube TV channels later this year. He remains the youngest ever host of a networked World Cup having launched ITV’s Champions League coverage. He runs his own production company which launched Sky Sport’s first prime time ad-funded programming and is an established event host, retained by both the LMA and the PFA. He has also hosted the UEFA Champions League draw. Matt spends his spare time waiting for West Ham to win the Premier League.

Gaizka Mendieta, Former Valencia and Spain Player
Gaizka broke through in the 1996/97 La Liga season, playing for Valencia under Claudio Ranieri, scoring 10 goals. He was soon called by the national team. In June 1999, he won his first trophy with Valencia, beating Atlético Madrid in the Copa del Rey. In the 1999/00 season, he helped his team beat FC Barcelona to win the Spanish Supercup and scored a career-best 13 goals. However, the biggest triumph of the season was helping Valencia reach the final of the season’s UEFA Champions League, against Real Madrid. In 2001 he helped Valencia reach the UEFA Champions League final for the second consecutive year; he was awarded the “European Midfielder of the Season” award by UEFA twice in two years. He played 40 times with the Spanish national team, appearing with it in one World Cup and one European Championship.

Gary Neville, Former Manchester United and England Player
Gary joined Manchester United as an apprentice in 1991 and in his first season won the FA Youth Cup. A year later he debuted in the senior team in the UEFA Cup. In 1995, following Roy Keane’s departure, he became club captain. On 2 February 2011, he announced his retirement from football after almost 20 years playing at Manchester United, during which he won eight Premier League titles, three FA Cups, a Champions League, an Intercontinental Cup, a FIFA Club World Cup, and two League Cups. Gary earned 85 England caps, playing in 3 World Cups and 4 Euro championships, setting a record for most England caps in European championships with 11.

Stuart Pearce, England Under-21
Stuart was brought to Nottingham Forest from Coventry by manager Brian Clough, and spent the next twelve years there. During his tenure there he won two Leagues Cups and played in an FA Cup final. After leaving the club in 1997 he joined Newcastle United, West Ham and Manchester City before retiring in 2002, leaving behind him 78 international caps for England, 2 World Cup and 2 European championship participations. Since then he has managed Manchester City, England under-21, which he led to a semi-final and final of the UEFA Under-21 Championships, and will manage the Great Britain Olympic football team during the 2012 London Olympic Games. In February 2012 he was also appointed caretaker of the England national team.

Peter Reid, Former Everton Player and Manchester City Manager
One of the brightest midfield talents in England in his day, Peter joined Everton FC from Bolton Wanderers in 1982 and his career took off from there; in 1984 he won the FA Cup, in 1985 and 1987 the Football League championship and in 1985 the European Cup Winners’ Cup. In 1985, along with winning a Football League title and the European Cup Winner’s Cup, he was voted PFA Football Player of the Year. His efforts earned him 13 caps for England and a place at the World Cup 1986 and the Euro 1988. Peter moved on to a managerial role in several English clubs including Manchester City, Sunderland and Leeds Utd.

Kevin Roberts, SportBusiness Group
Kevin Roberts was the launch editor of SportBusiness International in 1996. Since then he has overseen the development of the monthly magazine and Sportbusiness.com, the world’s leading on-line source of information about the business of sport. Kevin was previously a director of Plus Public Relations Ltd and cut his teeth in the business of sport in the early 1990s. As deputy director for communications at CPMA group, he was responsible for media management at the 1991 Rugby World Cup, and the World Student Games among other projects. He has chaired and spoken at numerous international conferences including the International Olympic Committee’s Conference on Sport and New Media, SportAccord, the FT Sports Marketing Conference and Sportel.

Bryan Robson, Former Manchester United and England Player
Former England captain and club manager, he is one of the most respected players of his generation and is best known for playing in midfield for Manchester United, where he was the longest-serving captain in club history. In 2008, he became a Global Ambassador for Manchester United. He later started a management career where he led Middlesbrough into the Premier League in the 1990s. In 2009 he was appointed manager of the Thailand national team.

Theo van Seggelen, FIFPRO
Theo is the secretary general of FIFPro, the worldwide professional footballers’ association. He is also a member of the FIFA Strategic Commission and the UEFA Professional Football Strategy Council; he acts as a single judge at the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber; he is a judge for the FIFA Transfer Matching System. Theo studied law at the University of Leiden, in the Netherlands. He played football for Dutch club Telstar; he joined the Dutch professional footballers’ association VVCS in 1980 and was union president from 1991 until 2005. He started working for FIFPro in 1992.

David Sheepshanks, National Football Centre
An avid supporter of the club, David joined the Ipswich Town Board in 1987 and was appointed as club chairman from 1995 until May 2009. In January 1997 he was elected Chairman of the Football League with a mandate to drive a reorganisation and modernising process for the League, which he undertook in two years. Between 1997 and 2000 and again since 2003 he has represented the League on the main Football Association Board and the FA International Committee. David is now Chairman of two subsidiaries of the FA, the National Football Centre and FA Learning, the latter being the educational arm of the FA concerned with Coach Education.

Denni Strich, DFB
After becoming European champion with the German U-16 national team and gaining 18 caps for the U-18 international team in 1984, Denni started his top-flight club career at FC Kaiserslautern. He later joined several clubs including Union Solingen, Rot-Weiß Oberhausen and FC Homburg Saar, meanwhile taking part in the World Military Cup in Italy in 1987, where he ended being runner-up with the German team. Denni went on to study business administration at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz after studying business administration at the University of Mainz. He subsequently joined Henkel’s marketing department in Dusseldorf, before moving to SportA in Munich, as Head of Marketing, and eventually the German Football Federation (DFB), where he is now officiating as Marketing Director.

Phil Thompson, Former Liverpool and England Player
A lifelong Reds fan, he completed a meteoric rise through the ranks to the summit of continental football. A hard-working professional, he initially joined his idols as a midfielder in the youth team before catching the eye of manager Bill Shankly. He joined the dominant Liverpool team of the 1970s and 1980s and lifted the trophy after their European Cup victory in Paris in 1981. He also represented the England national football team on 42 occasions. After retiring as a player, he later served Liverpool as reserves manager under Kenny Dalglish and assistant to Gerard Houllier. He is currently a pundit on Sky Sports.

Andrew Trollope, 187 Fleet Street
Andrew is a highly experienced practising barrister specialising in business crime, regulatory, tax, money-laundering and asset recovery cases. He has represented clients in a number of high-profile cases, most recently Peter Storrie’s, former CEO of Portsmouth City FC, who was cleared of all charges. Andrew is a member of a number of committees concerned with major changes in international legal relations which impact the football world.

Terry Venables, Former England Manager
During the 1960s and 70s, Terry played for various clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers, and gained two caps for England. Latter he went into a managerial career, beginning with Crystal Palace and Queens Park Rangers, earning a reputation that would see him coach Barcelona in 1984. There he led his side to a Liga title and a Liga de la Copa victory. He went back to England to manage Tottenham Hotspur and eventually the national team , from 1994 to 1996, leading the team to the semi-finals of the 1996 European Championships, recording only one loss in 23 games.

Dan Walker, BBC
Danny started his television career at Granada Television in Manchester, appearing as a commentator on the Football League Review, before joining BBC regional news programme North West Tonight. During this time, he was nominated for a number of awards and won the Royal Television Society Sports Award in 2005 for Regional Sports Presenter of the Year. In 2006, based in London, Walker started reporting at Wimbledon, The Open, Aintree, Ascot and The Derby at Epsom as well as the 6 Nations. In August 2009 Walker took over from Manish Bhasin as the presenter of Football Focus. He also presents the web-based Friday preview Friday Focus and writes a blog on the BBC website. Walker was part of the BBC Sport team covering the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In addition to his TV work, Walker has returned to radio and can often be heard presenting the midweek 5 Live Sport show for BBC Radio 5 Live.

Mark Warburton, Cycad Sports Management
A former city trader, Mark has also played a significant part in UK football, having been the Academy Manager of Watford FC. He set up the Harefield Academy, a renowned dedicated football school and the first of its kind in the UK. In 2011, he co-founded Cycad Sports Management, the driving force behind the NextGen Series, a tournament for the “best of the best” to provide players with vital experience travelling abroad to play matches, being challenged by new styles of play and even dealing with the media.

Speaker Biographies

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