Revenue Above Replacement

Carmen Vitali

A native of Chicago, Carmen Vitali is a Staff Writer and Sr. Coordinator of Digital Content for the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Carmen attended Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication for her undergraduate studies where she interned for Sun Devil Athletics in their sports information department.
Carmen holds a master’s degree from Northwestern University in Sports Administration where she graduated in 2016, right before taking her first job with the Buccaneers as the team’s copywriter.

Slade Larscheid

Slade Larscheid is the Deputy Athletic Director at South Dakota State University and has over a decade of experience in athletic administration, fundraising and marketing. In his role Slade supports the day to day operations of the athletics department with oversight of all revenue generation, marketing and communications.
Prior to his current role, Slade served as director of athletics at Augustana University from 2014 to 2018. Under his leadership, the university had unprecedented success in the classroom, competition and revenue generation. It was capped off when Augustana won the NCAA Division II men’s basketball national championship in 2016.
A native of Spearfish South Dakota, Slade attended Northwestern University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in communications and master’s in sports administration. He was also a three-year letter-winner for the Wildcat football team, and earned academic All-Big Ten honors in 2006.

Adrian Madero

Adrian Madero is a co-founder and partner of 2M Boxing Promotions. In that role he is responsible for all aspects of boxing promotion including sourcing new talent, organizing prize fights, negotiating media coverage and right, venue logistics along with marketing of the event and fighters.
Adrian is a native of Chihuahua Mexico and did his undergraduate studies at Universidad de Monterrey is San Pedro Garza García, Mexico and holds a masters in Sports Administration from Northwestern university.

Adam Sperling

Adam Sperling is an Executive Director with the PGA Tour and is responsible for the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow.
Adam has over 15 years of experience in the professional golf space with previous work as the Executive Director for the Shriners Hospital for Children Open, the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and Wal-Mat First Tee Open.
Adam is a graduate of Ithaca College in upstate New York and holds a degree in Sports Management and Media Studies and has been an instrumental advisor to the Northwestern MSA program.

The Future Of Blockchain In Sports

Adam and Brice participated in the Northwestern University School of Professional Studies (SPS) lunchtime panel discussion on the potential for blockchain in sports media and sponsorship.
The lecture was the first event in SPS's new Lunchtime Table Talk series, a monthly lecture and Q&A series over lunch that highlights the interdisciplinary research and conversation occurring at the School of Professional Studies. The lectures are free and open to Northwestern University staff, students, and faculty, as well as the general public.

Ryan Djabbarah

Ryan Djabbarah is the Vice President of Corporate Sponsorships and Marketing at Citi. As part of the Global Brand Team, Ryan works with partners and colleagues across the enterprise ensuring efficient and effective management of Citi’s sponsorship investments, focused on purposeful partnerships that engage clients, consumers and colleagues at their passion points. In addition to leading major sports sponsorships like Citi Field, the PGA TOUR, Paralympics and Manchester City, Ryan also oversees Citi’s non-sports sponsorship verticals like Global Citizen Festival (music), Harlem EatUp! (culinary) and Perez Art Museum Miami.
Before joining Citi seven years ago, Ryan was the Vice President of Strategic Consulting for Genesco Sports Enterprises. In this role, Ryan lead teams focused on saving clients’ money in sports sponsorship acquisition while effectively leveraging those sponsorships to drive brand and business objectives. Ryan led the account teams that worked on some of the largest brands in sports including Pepsi, MillerCoors and Sirius Satellite Radio. Ryan has worked extensively with North American sports properties like the NFL, NBA, NCAA, NHL, PGA TOUR and NASCAR but continues to work on more global properties as Citi’s portfolio diversifies in sponsorship.

Marc Bluestein

Marc “Blue” Bluestein is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Aquarius Sports and Entertainment, an award-winning sponsorship consulting, activation, and experiential marketing agency based in the Washington, D.C. market. A self-described sports aficionado, Blue has spent the last 20+ years developing and negotiating integrated sponsorships spanning the Super Bowl, Olympics, NCAA Men’s Final Four, PGA Tour, NASCAR, and multiple NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA local franchises, their venues, and major events.
Aquarius, most recently, was named to the 2019 Chief Marketer 200 List as a Top Marketing Agency and recognized as a 2019 Best Employer in Sports by Front Office Sports; previously the agency was recognized in 2018 as a Chief Marketer 200 agency, 2017 and 2015 as an Event Marketer Top 100 Agency, 2016 Promo Magazine Top Shop, 2014 Sports Business Award Finalist for Best Sports and Experiential Marketing Agency and was named to Inc. Magazine’s 2014 and 2013 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in the U.S.
Before launching Aquarius in 2007, Blue served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Sportsworx where he oversaw corporate marketing and sales for Major League Baseball’s Washington Nationals, the Nationals’ Radio Network, and the National Hockey League’s Washington Capitals. He previously served as Senior Director of Sponsorship Sales for Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, the regional sports network (RSN) serving the Washington area. Prior to that, Mr. Bluestein managed integrated sponsorship sales for the nation’s recognized leader in sports journalism, Sports Illustrated. Blue began his career in the sports marketing arena by handling sports media planning and buying for the prominent agency Mediavest Worldwide where he negotiated sports marketing sponsorships for top consumer brands including Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, and Philips Norelco, among several others.
Creating Aquarius combined his passion for sports and brand management. He leads business development and supervises the day-to-day operations for the agency, having worked directly with the agency’s clients including AAA, Advent Health, Baptist Health, Target Corporation, Hershey’s, Kraft Foods, M&T Bank, MedStar Health, Emory Healthcare, Virtua Health, and others. A strong believer in community service, Blue is a past member of the U.S.A. National Board of Trustees for the United Way, the world’s largest nonprofit organization, where he acts as the Board Liaison for the nonprofit organization in its long-standing relationship with the NFL. Blue is also active in the sports marketing industry currently serving as a Board Member of Most Valuable Kids, the University of Central Florida’s DeVos Sport Business Management and University of South Florida’s Sports and Entertainment Management Master Programs, a past Board of Director member of the National Sports Forum, the largest annual gathering of team sports marketing, sales, promotions and current member of the National Sports Marketing Network.
Blue attended the University of South Florida, majoring in Business Administration and Marketing. He loves to travel, coach youth baseball, and spend time with his wife Randi and two sets of twins (15-year-old Allie and Bryce and 13-year-old Colby and Delaney) at their home in Sandy Spring, MD.

John Shea

John Shea is Chief Executive Officer of the Octagon Sports & Entertainment Network, a role he assumed on April 5, 2021. Prior to being named CEO, Shea served as Global President, Marketing and Events, Octagon.
As CEO, Shea is charged with leading the day-to-day responsibilities and strategic management for OSEN’s collection of industry-leading sports and entertainment marketing, talent management, communications, influencer, and creative firms including Octagon, R&CPMK, ITB, Futures Sports + Entertainment, FRUKT, and Milkmoney.
An industry veteran with more than two decades of experience in sports marketing, sponsorship, and advertising, Shea manages a team of 1,200+ employees across the globe working to help the agency network clients find the next right move in the sports and entertainment landscape.
Since joining Octagon in 1994, Shea has been responsible for oversight of Octagon’s U.S. and international marketing practices and global marketing offices, including all partnerships, events, experiential marketing, strategy, content, technology, and creative offerings. In addition, he has led the agency’s marketing relationships with sports leagues, teams, and properties worldwide, including the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, PGA, LPGA, Premier League, UEFA, MLS, NWSL, FIFA, USOPC, and IOC.
Shea’s management of Octagon’s marketing team has resulted in client partnerships that span decades, including AB InBev, Allstate, Bank of America, BMW, Cisco, Coca-Cola, Delta, PlayStation, Taco Bell, Mastercard and many others. In addition, under Shea’s guidance, Octagon’s award-winning client programs have been recognized by Cannes, Clio Sports, Sports Business Journal, and many others.
A graduate of St. John’s University, Shea was named one of Sports Business Journal’s “Forty Under 40” - as one of the best and the brightest of the rising generation in sports business - in 2008 and 2009. Shea also serves on the Clio Sports Awards jury.

Keith Bank

Keith Bank is the Founder and Managing Partner of KB Partners and has a diverse background in start ups, real estate and other entrepreneurial ventures. He founded and serves on the Board of Directors of Club Champion Golf and was the past Chairman of SteadyMed Ltd. (NASDAQ:STDY). He also serves on the boards of Full Swing Golf, Phenix Real-Time Solutions, ANGLR, Hammerhead and Workforce Athletics and oversees the firm’s investments in MVPIndex, FanCompass and Shape Matrix.
Keith has been a very "hands-on" venture capital and angel investor in a wide variety of industries, including the medical, semiconductor, internet, telecom, software, cable TV, sports and golf, consumer and retail, and social media arenas. Prior to forming the KB Partners venture funds, Mr. Bank cofounded and served on the Board and as President of MST Analytics, Inc., a semiconductor product and services business, which was successfully sold to ATMI, Inc., a public company, in 1999.
Keith was a founding board member of the Illinois Venture Capital Association, and served as its Chairman in 2005-2006. He was the recipient of the IVCA’s prestigious Fellows Medal in 2006. Keith founded and, for 16 years, served as the Chairman of the Chicago Select Golf Invitational, one of the largest American Cancer Society golf fundraising events in the country, having raised approximately $8 million under his guidance. He has been honored by Crain’s Chicago Business as a “40 Under 40”, a Who’s Who of Chicago Executives, and as one of the 100 most prominent members of Chicago’s technology community. Keith is active in CEO’s against Cancer and NU Wave, an athletic fundraising vehicle for Northwestern University.
Prior to forming KB Partners in 1996, Keith was a Principal at HSA, a Chicago- based national real estate development, investment, management and brokerage firm. There, he was instrumental in the development, acquisition, financing, sale, and leasing of over three million square feet of property with a value in excess of $650 million. Other career highlights include cofounding a deep discount retailer, acquiring and completing a successful turnaround of a women’s apparel manufacturing and sales company, and procuring the equity and debt financing for, and serving as the Producer and Executive Producer of feature films entitled “Heaven is a Playground” (1991) and the BAFTA award winning "Tommy's Honour" (2017).
Keith graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. degree in Economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and holds an MBA in Finance with honors from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. He is 99% of the way towards achieving his goal of playing the Top 100 golf courses in the United States.

Lindsay Barenz

Lindsay Barenz is the President of Business Operations for the Washington Spirit. She joined the Spirit after serving as the Vice President of Business Development for the National Women’s Soccer League. At the NSWSL Lindsay led the sale of the league’s broadcast rights to CBS and Twitch. Lindsay also helped secure several league-wide partnership deals with companies including Google, Verizon, Secret Deodorant and Barkbox.
Prior to joining the NWSL’s front office, Lindsay served as the Vice President of Strategic Business Development and General Counsel for the Utah Royals FC, Real Salt Lake, and Real Monarchs. Additionally, Lindsay was Real Salt Lake’s Alternate Governor on Major League Soccer’s Board of Governors.
Coming to the Spirit is a return to the nations capital for Lindsay who previously lived in the Washington, D.C. area where she spent time as a union activist and later as a member of the Obama Administration in the White House Office of Management and Budget. Lindsay is a native of Centerville, Utah and a graduate of the University of Utah and Yale Law School.