Leaders Worth Knowing Podcast

Zaileen Janmohamed was only a few weeks in the job when she found herself in a windowless room, standing in front of 32 of the most powerful people in America. With just ten minutes on the clock, it was her first to task as CEO of the Bay Area Host Committee to pitch for the hosting rights for the 2026 Super Bowl. She decided to throw the templated stump speech in the trash and go with something bold. In this episode of Leaders Worth Knowing, Janmohamed unpacks the high pressure, high impact presentation she gave to the NFL Owners meeting that resulted in Levi's Stadium winning the right to host the most recent Super Bowl Janmohamed became CEO of the Bay Area Host Committee in 2023. It's essentially the sports commission for the Bay Area, and bids for and then operates major, top-tier sports events. Janmohamed runs a team responsible for raising revenues for those events, telling coherent stories about the impact they'll have across the region, then making sure that comes true, while ensuring a legacy too. She looks ahead to the upcoming Fifa World Cup, which will play six games in the Bay Area; and attempts to unpick and explain a lattice-work stakeholder environment that is creating tension in various host regions just a few weeks out from the biggest World Cup in history. Janmohamed is a member of the Leaders Under 40 class of 2017, and she also reflects on a career that has seen her play leadership roles at rights holder, brand, and agency organisations; the sport industry full house!

As the Dana White-fronted Zuffa Boxing, backed by TKO and Saudi's Sela, makes its move to dethrone promotional giants Matchroom Boxing and Queensberry Promotions, James Emmett and David Cushnan consider the latest disruption in the fight game and Turki Alalshikh's role as chief string-puller. They also reflect on their conversation with Uefa Marketing Director Guy-Laurent Epstein and European Football Clubs CEO Charlie Marshall, to unpack the new commercial programme being developed by the UC3 entity, a joint venture between Uefa and EFC - and the flexibility that is being built into the media rights and sponsorship sales packages being taken to market by agency partners Relevent and Two Circles. And there's reaction to the Premier League confirmation it will launch a direct-to-consumer service in Singapore.

Over 40,000 people volunteer at Parkrun events worldwide each week, with around 20,000 in the UK alone, which prompts James Emmett and David Cushnan to discuss sport’s reliance on volunteers to help run - and effectively help market - big events.They reflect on this week’s podcast interview with Elizabeth Duggan, Parkrun’s CEO, and on the word of mouth-driven success story it’s become in the UK and further afield.Elsewhere, as Gianni Infantino celebrates his 10th anniversary as Fifa President in Instagram style, it’s a timely moment to assess his front-foot approach to communications, in a week when IOC President Kirsty Coventry miscued during a press conference and a leading voice in women’s football, Victoire Cogevina Reynal, stepped away from her Mercury13 multi-club investment firm.

The proposed merger between the ATP and WTA remains on the table, but as James Emmett and David Cushnan discuss, the time it's taking to finalise tells its own story. On this week's show, there's reflections on conversations with Marina Storti, CEO of WTA Ventures, the commercial arm of the WTA, and Eno Polo, the new CEO at the ATP - and the challenges tennis faces with calendar congestion, balancing the demands of tournaments of various sizes, and player influence. There's also time to discuss Casey Wasserman's decision to sell his stake in his agency, and the possible forms the sale could take, and as the NFL hires TMRW Sports to operate its planned new flag football league, how and where rights holders can create new IP, to make a greater footprint, expand geographically or fuel player development. ---- Leaders Week London is moving to Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea FC. We’ll see you on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th October. For more details visit leadersinsport.com/leadersweek.

ATP CEO Eno Polo joins the podcast to reflect on his first 100 days in charge of the men's tennis tour. The Kenyan sets out his strategic priorities in what could end up being a transformative year for tennis, with a merger between the ATP and the WTA firmly on Polo's agenda. He also outlines the support that the PIF brings to the tour's work with its players, particularly through its sponsorship of the ATP Rankings and through its investment in the Tennis IQ analytics platform. This episode is part of a series exploring PIF’s growing sports sponsorship portfolio, detailing how it is striving to help solve societal and sporting challenges across its portfolio. Listen to episode 1, with PIF Director and Head of Events and Sponsorship Alanoud Althonayan, here. ------ Leaders Week London is moving to Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea FC. We’ll see you on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th October. For more details visit leadersinsport.com/leadersweek

As F1 pre-season testing gets underway in Bahrain, Jeff Slack, Aston Martin F1's Managing Director of Commercial and Marketing, lifts the lid on how the team intends to reach the front of the grid. He reflects on the way the team has grown to over 1,100 people since it was rebranded as Aston Martin in 2021, its move into a new purpose-built facility at Silverstone and, after a 7th place finish in 2025, how owner Lawrence Stroll has set the course towards competing for world championships in the next few years, with the help of Honda and Aramco. Slack also draws on his wider sports industry experience, including stints in leadership roles at Inter Milan and IMG, to assess the overall health of F1 and the way it's evolving for brand partners as the 2026 season dawns - and reveals what the sport must be wary of as it enjoys its current fan and corporate boom.--- Leaders Week London is moving to Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea FC. We’ll see you on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th October. For more details visit leadersinsport.com/leadersweek