WISE/R Symposium 2024 Speakers

Jasmine Robinson
Managing Partner, Monarch Collective

Jasmine Robinson is Managing Partner at Monarch Collective, a fund investing in women's sports teams and leagues. Prior to Monarch, Robinson was a partner at Causeway, a growth stage fund investing in sports, media, gaming and fitness, where she led investments including Tracksmith, Niantic, Volley and Zigazoo. She has also held investing and strategy roles at the San Francisco 49ers, Bain & Company, and The Raine Group. Robinson received her BA from Harvard University, graduating Magna Cum Laude, and her MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business where she was an Arjay Miller Scholar.

Steph Marciano
Head of Sports and Entertainment Marketing, Ally Financial

Stephanie Marciano is responsible for the strategic direction and execution of Ally's portfolio of sports partnerships, which includes the United States Golf Association, National Women's Soccer League and the NWSL Players Association, Atlantic Coast Conference, NASCAR, Charlotte FC, Detroit Pistons and the Charlotte Hornets. She is instrumental in Ally's work aimed at elevating women's sports, specifically as it pertains to initiatives such as the 50/50 pledge, Ally's bold commitment to invest equally in women's and men's sports media.

Laura Jordan
Managing Director Sports + Media, Deloitte

Laura Jordan is a leader in Deloitte's sports practice. She understands how dynamic and fast paced the sports and media industries are, and how this puts pressure on the organization, culture and people. In her work, Jordan partners with leaders to drive their highest priority transformations, developing strategy and turning it into reality. Prior to Deloitte, Jordan spent time with the NFL in their media and HR organizations.

Kathleen Francis
National Board Chair and President, WISE

Kathleen Francis brings 25-plus years of experience leading the development and implementation of high-impact marketing programs. Over her career, she has created and executed multifaceted sports marketing strategies that work at the grassroots level for not-for-profits and major corporations, including Major League Baseball, Meadowlands Sports Complex and the United States Tennis Association. She is founder and president of Oasis Sports Ventures, a marketing and grassroots development agency. A 2001 WISE Women of the Year honoree and president of WISE since 2011, Francis launched the WISE Executive Leadership Institute, WISE Emerging Leaders Certificate Program and WISE/R Symposium. Sports Business Journal named her one of its Forty Under 40 sports executives and for two consecutive years honored her as one of its Top 25 Women Sports Executives.

Shelley Pisarra
EVP Global Insights, Wasserman

Drawing from more than 25 years' experience, Shelley Pisarra shapes the future of how Wasserman delivers unmatched value to partners across sports, media and entertainment through data and technology. She leads a team of data scientists, marketing planners, creative thinkers and others, guiding the development of best-in-class tools and methodologies that reveal untapped revenue opportunities for some of the world's most iconic brands and properties. Since joining Wasserman in 2016, Pisarra has revolutionized the company's audience intelligence and performance analytics capabilities, which include strategy-informing services such as consumer profile development, fan segmentation, partner and talent identification, social tracking and analysis, partnership valuation, brand health studies, comprehensive cross-channel measurement and more.

Christopher Benyarko
EVP Consumer Products, Technology and Operations, NBA

Christopher Benyarko is responsible for the group at the forefront of the NBA's digital transformation. He leads the team that developed and launched the new, re-designed NBA App, along with the new NBA membership program (NBA ID), the league's premium direct-to-consumer subscription product NBA League Pass, and other NBA digital products including NBA.com. Benyarko also oversees the operations and media technology that powers the NBA's media business, the digital content delivery to the NBA's global audience, and the tracking of statistics across NBA digital platforms.

Kirsten Corio
Chief Commercial Officer, USTA

Kirsten Corio is responsible for revenue generation for the US Open, including ticket sales, hospitality, global media rights, and sponsorship as well as digital strategy, business intelligence, analytics and CRM. Prior to the USTA, Corio spent 15 years at the National Basketball Association in its team marketing and business operations division, working alongside the league's 30 teams to optimize team business results.

Diane Gotua
Global Head of Strategy, Fanatics Holdings

Diane Gotua has nearly two decades of experience in strategy, operations and corporate development within sports and finance. Gotua leads Fanatics' enterprise data strategy and shared infrastructure build-out. In partnership with cross-vertical technology and product teams, she spearheads the development of tools to capture a unified view of the fan across Fanatics offerings to enable effective cross-sell strategies. Gotua also led the initial development of Fanatics' enterprise loyalty strategy, and in partnership with Fanatics Collectibles leadership, played a pivotal role in the creation of the Fanatics Live app, a live commerce platform.

Shelley Pisarra
EVP Global Insights, Wasserman

Drawing from more than 25 years' experience, Shelley Pisarra shapes the future of how Wasserman delivers unmatched value to partners across sports, media and entertainment through data and technology. She leads a team of data scientists, marketing planners, creative thinkers and others, guiding the development of best-in-class tools and methodologies that reveal untapped revenue opportunities for some of the world's most iconic brands and properties. Since joining Wasserman in 2016, Pisarra has revolutionized the company's audience intelligence and performance analytics capabilities, which include strategy-informing services such as consumer profile development, fan segmentation, partner and talent identification, social tracking and analysis, partnership valuation, brand health studies, comprehensive cross-channel measurement and more.

Sharon Malone MD
Author of Grown Women Talk

Sharon Malone is a board-certified OB/GYN and a Certified Menopause Practitioner on a mission to empower women to take charge of their health. She is the Chief Medical Advisor at Alloy Women's Health, a telehealth company that focuses on women over 40. Before joining Alloy, Dr. Malone was a partner at one of the oldest and most successful OB/GYN medical practices in Washington, D.C. Throughout her professional career, she has been active in advocating for reproductive rights, reducing teen pregnancy, and eliminating health care disparities.

Caroline Clarke
Chief Brand Officer, Black Enterprises Women of Power

Award-winning journalist and author Caroline Clarke’s media experience spans print, digital and television outlets. At the media company Black Enterprise, she has served in a number of key roles — including senior editor, editor at large, editorial director and general manager — across the various assets of the franchise. In 2006, she launched Women of Power, a professional development and executive leadership brand that has become Black Enterprise’s leading asset. A graduate of Smith College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, Clarke hosts the Women of Power television show and is the author of Take a Lesson: Today’s Black Achievers on How They Made It & What They Learned Along the Way and Postcards from Cookie: A Memoir of Motherhood, Miracles, and a Whole Lot of Mail.

Anh Tran
Consultant, Triad Consulting Group

Anh Tran has a joint degree in Cognitive Neuroscience and Religion from the University of Southern California, and an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School. She is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at Harvard University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences where her project explores the interactions of moral psychology and power within the context of religion and politics. Before joining Triad, she taught and served as a teaching fellow for programs on negotiation and conflict resolution at Harvard Law School, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard Divinity School and Harvard College.

Michael Chad Hoeppner
Founder and CEO, GK Training

Michael Chad Hoeppner is a teacher and communicator who has worked with some of the world's most influential companies and leaders, across a wide range of industries, universities, and professional sectors. His proprietary approach to communications, which utilizes kinesthetic learning to unlock rapid and lasting behavioral change, is the foundation of his global communications consulting practice and his teaching at the Columbia Business School MBA and PhD programs.

Ayala Deutsch
Executive Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, NBA

Ayala Deutsch is responsible for managing commercial legal affairs and intellectual property matters for the NBA and its affiliated leagues, including the global acquisition, protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights. She joined the NBA in 1998 and was named to her current position in January 2016, after serving as senior vice president and deputy general counsel and senior vice president and chief intellectual property counsel. A former associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York, Deutsch previously served on the Trademark Public Advisory Committee of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, was an adjunct professor of sports law at Cardozo School of Law and president of the International Trademark Association. She is a member of the advisory board of the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law and Policy at New York University School of Law where she received her J.D. in 1989.

Kate Johnson
Director and Head of Global Sports & Entertainment Marketing, Google

Kate Johnson is responsible for developing and executing Google's strategic approach to sports and entertainment marketing partnerships across its many business verticals. Prior to joining Google, she served as vice president of global partnership marketing at Visa, where she oversaw the company's global partnership portfolio, including its partnerships with the IOC, FIFA, the NFL, and other verticals. Johnson began her career in sports marketing at IMG's Global Consulting Group, where she worked in New York, Vancouver and London, building and executing sponsorship marketing platforms for a variety of clients. Recognized as one of the Most Powerful Women in Sport by Adweek in both 2022 and 2017, Johnson is also a recipient of the 2017 Sports Business Journal 40 Under 40 Award and the 2017 Leaders Under 40 Award. She serves as an IOC Commission Member for Marketing and Digital Media and is a former professional rower and Olympic medalist. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Johnson is an advisor to the Women's Sports Foundation, Gatorade Women's Board, the University of Michigan Sports Management Program, and the Youth Sports Alliance.

Michele Kajiwara
SVP, Premium and Events Business, Crypto.com Arena & Peacock Theater

Michele Kajiwara oversees over 2,400 premier seats and more than 150 private and event suites at Peacock Theater and Crypto.com Arena — home of the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers, the NHL's Los Angeles Kings and the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks. Both venues are owned and operated by AEG, the largest sports and entertainment company in the world. She leads a team of premium executives in all areas of sales, service, analytics, database marketing, hospitality and event management, and serves as an executive leader of several AEG employee network groups including AEG's Women's Leadership Council, AEG Global Partnerships Inclusion Council, and AEG's Asian and Pacific Islander employee network group. Kajiwara joined AEG in 2003 and began her career in entertainment with New Regency Productions and then moved to New York to join Chelsea Piers. She holds a BA from the University of Southern California and has served on the board for the Association of Luxury Suite Directors for more than 10 years, including four as president. She is the recipient of numerous industry awards including being named to Sports Business Journal's Game Changers and Variety's Dealmakers Impact Report.

Renee Chube Washington
Chief Operating Officer, USA Track & Field

Renee Chube Washington joined USATF in June 2012 and as COO, manages the organization's record $40 million budget and 68-person national staff as well as working with the CEO to develop and implement corporate strategy and direction. Washington has broad cross-enterprise oversight of all departments. Since being appointed COO, USATF has awarded six U.S. Olympic Team Trials, secured the World Athletics Indoor and Outdoor Championships on U.S. soil for the first time, participated in three Olympic Games and ten World Championships. Prior to USATF, Washington's career spanned various corporate and government roles including time with Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation, CICOA (a private, nonprofit agency advocate for the aged), as a staff attorney in the State of Indiana office of the Attorney General, and in several roles in the U.S. Department of Labor. She was named a 2017 Sports Business Journal Game Changer and a Cynopsis Top Women in Sports in 2019. A graduate of Georgetown University Law and Spelman College, Washington and has dedicated time to various causes including the Junior League of Indianapolis, Wishard Memorial Hospital, the Girl Scouts, American Cancer Society Guild, and numerous educational, cultural and political causes.

Caroline Clarke
Chief Brand Officer, Black Enterprises Women of Power

Award-winning journalist and author Caroline Clarke’s media experience spans print, digital and television outlets. At the media company Black Enterprise, she has served in a number of key roles — including senior editor, editor at large, editorial director and general manager — across the various assets of the franchise. In 2006, she launched Women of Power, a professional development and executive leadership brand that has become Black Enterprise’s leading asset. A graduate of Smith College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, Clarke hosts the Women of Power television show and is the author of Take a Lesson: Today’s Black Achievers on How They Made It & What They Learned Along the Way and Postcards from Cookie: A Memoir of Motherhood, Miracles, and a Whole Lot of Mail.