Topics included:
Sports Infrastructure Projects, Training the next generation, Events & Hospitality Management, Esports, Private and Public sector sports investment and how to access the Saudi Market.
The development of the Sports sector in Saudi Arabia, including the hosting of major tournaments, building of new stadiums, talent development and overseas acquisitions has created unprecedented opportunities for UK/Saudi partnerships and investment.The sector also represents a key pillar of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 transformation, and the opportunities for UK/KSA collaboration are significant.This workshop will address some of the questions and concerns you may have about entering the Saudi Market, while analysing the extensive number of opportunities available across the sports sector.You will hear first hand from companies who have successfully worked with the Kingdom and we aim to give you a clear and unbiased picture of the opportunities in Saudi Arabia, including potential challenges and how to overcome them.Following the workshop there will be an opportunity to network and put questions to panelists.
Sports Infrastructure Projects, Training the Next Generation, Private and Public Sector Sports Investment and How to access the Saudi Market.
Agenda
10:30 – 11:00 Registration
11:00 – 11:10 Welcome from SBJBC, AEI and WBD
11:10 – 11:20 Why the North East?
11:20 – 11:50 Sports Investment Landscape in Saudi Arabia
This panel will look at the emerging Sports Sector in Saudi Arabia, including esports, the progress it has made so far and the key opportunities for UK companies.
11:50 – 12:00 MISA presentation
Ministry of Investment Saudi Arabia (Sports investment and construction presentation 10 mins followed by panel)
12:00 – 12:30 Sports Infrastructure and Capacity Building
Behind the headline acquisitions sits a complex sector in need of support. From stadium construction, to staff training and tourism development, Saudi Arabia’s focus on capacity building in the Sports sector is providing UK companies with multiple areas of opportunity.
12:30 – 13:00 Doing Business in Saudi Arabia – How to access the Saudi Market
This panel will discuss recent reforms of the business environment including options for setting up locally and what help is available to companies. During this panel you will not only hear from institutions who can help you navigate the market successfully, but from companies that can talk candidly about their experience setting up in KSA and how they have worked through some of the key issues.
13:30 Networking and close
Date
Time
Location:
Womble Bond Dickinson, The Spark, Draymans Way, Newcastle Helix, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK NE4 5DE
SBJBC Member: Free to attend (please contact events@sbjbc.org for your code)
SBJBC Non-Member: £50 + VAT
Adam Paker is a seasoned professional with 25 years in the sports industry. He was previously a Director within FIFA’s Marketing department where he helped deliver 2 FIFA World Cups. He has run two British National Governing Bodies as CEO – Commonwealth Games England, where he restructured the organisation to bring a successful England team to Glasgow 2014, and Swim England, where he focused on developing aquatics from grassroots through to high performance. Adam has a long-standing interest in and passion for growing and promoting sport in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. From 2009-2011, he helped drive the Saudi Football Task Force, a major strategic overhaul of football in the Kingdom. In 2018 he assisted Portas Consulting in its mandate with the Saudi Sport for All Federation. Shortly after, he relocated to KSA to join the new NEOM Sport team, embedding sport and physical activity into the NEOM regional development. A Portas Partner since 2021, he has advised numerous entities in the Kingdom, including NEOM, the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee, the Royal Commission for Riyadh City and the Saudi Tennis Federation.
Chris is a Senior Advisor for Deloitte Sports Business Group Middle East. The Group is a market-leading team of specialist advisors working exclusively on sports assignments, providing clients with sports industry knowledge and insight that enables change, resolves significant challenges, and fuels opportunities for growth. Chris has 25+ years experience in sports consulting, commercial deal valuation, commercializing sports properties, strategy & business case / feasibilities for major events, venues & negotiating multi million-dollar contracts with global sports federations, rights holders, athletes, governments & brands. He has held board roles across a number of sports including Olympic sports, equestrian & karting..
Adam moved to Saudi Arabia from the UK in 2008 and quickly realised the need for an independent and effective platform to support foreign companies do business in the opaque yet rewarding Kingdom; this was the genesis of AEI Saudi. He co-founded AEI in 2012 following a career in the IT Security industry. With over 20 years’ experience from engineering and production through to international business, Adam has a broad professional background. However his core expertise is Saudi business winning, gained from his time as Regional BD Director for a leading multinational as well as leading the Business Development teams at multiple Saudi companies. Outside of work Adam is still a keen (if now, somewhat slower) footballer and father to two boys who will hopefully also one day be Spurs fans.
Peter is a partner in the WBD commercial team and head of the UK manufacturing sector group. He has over 25 years' experience of the sector. Before joining the firm, he worked as an in-house lawyer supporting ICI’s international speciality chemicals businesses. He was subsequently Global Legal Manager for ICI’s Acrylics business following its sale to Ineos. Since his return to private practice, he has maintained a focus on working with multi-national chemicals and chemistry-using companies and with manufacturing companies in general. Coupled with that Peter has a wealth of experience in advising ports and also suppliers and users of transport and logistics services in relation to their strategic projects and operational activities. He works with stakeholders and intermediaries to reduce the friction and cost of doing business across borders. As a member of the WBD Global Board, Peter works closely with colleagues in the firm's US offices and also with partner firms across the Lex Mundi global network to support inward investors to the UK and also to assist UK companies wishing to expand in new markets. Peter has a particular focus on the KSA and developing links between Newcastle and the wider North East of England.
Chris has practiced law in New York, Saudi Arabia and Washington since 1978, including 20 years in Riyadh. He currently manages a team of 20 attorneys in Riyadh active in a wide range of corporate, commercial, finance and other regulatory specialties. Clients include the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Standard Chartered Bank, Bank of New York Mellon, Uber, Amazon, U.S. Department of Justice, Chevron, American Express, KKR Ltd., Johnson & Johnson, Dell, Air Products, Amgen, Engie, Egis, Henning Larsen Architects, FAST Consortium (Riyadh Metro), Enel, Sumitomo and Facebook. Chris currently serves as Chairman of the Boards of Directors of the American Business Group of Riyadh, the Middle East Council of American Chambers of Commerce and KKR Saudi Ltd., and the Western Lawyers Group of Riyadh. He has participated in U.S. Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) negotiations with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council, and has served as an expert witness on Saudi law before various courts and arbitral tribunals and as an advocate and arbitrator in ICC Arbitration. He served as Director, Chairman and President of the humanitarian air service provider AirServ, and as Commissioner and Chairman of Vint Hill Economic Development Authority charged by the Virginia Commonwealth to develop the decommissioned U.S. Army base. He was a Partner at Arter & Hadden, Williams Mullen and Graham & James, and an Associate at Burlingham Underwood & Lord. In earlier years he accompanied dozens of French-speaking guests on official visits as an Escort / Interpreter for the U.S. Department of State.
Basim K. Ibrahim is passionate about the opportunities for sport development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He is a seasoned Investment Attraction & Development Director with 20 years of diverse professional experience in Investment, IT, Education/Training, Project Management, and Research. A former Global Shaper at the World Economic Forum, Basim is a member of various professional organizations. He founded BMA Engineering in 2011 and co-founded BoardMaps in 2015, showcasing his entrepreneurial spirit. His extensive international experience includes roles with Tencent/INSPUR in China and CONCO in South Africa. Basim was a pivotal member of the joint technical team between SAP and Saudi Aramco from 2000 to 2005. Passionate about volunteering and dedicated to serving his country, Basim is a dynamic leader in the field of Business and Investment Development.
Paul is the Chair and Co-founder of Trivandi, with more than 30 years’ of experience in the planning, delivery and operation of complex projects in the mega-events and venues sectors. Paul’s experience includes numerous sporting projects including the four Olympic & Paralympic Games in London 2012, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 as well as various sports venue developments. Since 2013 Paul has been focussed on building and growing Trivandi’s global business in the mega events and venues sectors – this has included providing strategic advice to a wide array of UK and international clients. Trivandi is well established within Saudi Arabia where its project portfolio includes giga projects such as Qiddiya, Neom, Sports Boulevard and Diriyah Gate as well as events in the sports, cultural, entertainment and business sectors. Trivandi is also proud to be an advisor to the Saudi Surfing Federation.
Nikolai is the NECC’s International Trade Specialist. He has over a decade and half in international trade and over two decades in business overall. Before joining the NECC, Nikolai had worked as a consultant on the Scottish Government’s internationalisation drive, where he functioned to not only provide upskilling and internationalisation strategy planning and growth support to companies ranging from start-ups to medium sized companies. He also consulted for private agencies and companies within the UK and some international markets. He also worked on the Northern Ireland protocol to ensure continued trading of UK businesses post Brexit. He is part of an international consortium of international trade experts covering 35 countries across Asia, the Americas and MENA. Nikolai equally enjoys working with companies in their early-stage technology innovation and adoption projects, as well as mergers and acquisition projects. He has set up special purpose vehicles to facilitate trade across a number of countries in Africa and the UK. His new found love is the promotion of international trade with in the North East.
Garry is a senior director of J. Stern & Co, a boutique investment management partnership based in London with offices in Zurich, New York and Malta. Alongside the firm’s principal long only global equity strategy the firm has an established reputation and track record investing in sports assets. Garry spent 14 years at Goldman Sachs within the Investment Management Division and prior to that was a founding member of a leading London barrister’s chambers with a primary focus on sport, media, and entertainment, acting for several leading sportsmen and governing bodies. Garry represented Great Britain at the 1992 Olympic Games, winning gold in the Men’s Coxed Pair and in 1993 was awarded an MBE for services to sport. From 1997 to 2021 Garry was the BBC’s lead international rowing commentator and Tokyo 2020 was his 6th Olympic Games in the seat. Along side his role at J. Stern & Co, Garry also acts as an independent advisor to a number of sportsmen and musicians.
Gary is a globally renowned figure of the video games and social networking industries. As CEO of REALM, the community engagement pioneers, Gary is a creative visionary who brings teams together that lead the world in consumer gamification and monetisation. Gary ran EA Games and SEGA’s global marketing divisions – launching many of the world’s best-loved gaming brands – delivered successful exits for tech startup businesses, and went on to blaze a trail in digital user experience and behavioural psychology. Gary fused gaming, social media and user journey innovation into founding REALM, which today creates and runs digital communities that drive iconic cities and cultural and sporting hubs.
Sandy heads up the Global Sports practice for Creative Technology which is part of the NEP Group. CT provide the technical infrastructure to major sporting events such as Summer and Winter Olympics, LIV golf, Wimbledon, US Open, Ryder Cup, Nascar, DP World Tour as well as major music festivals such as Glastonbury. Sandy has enjoyed a multi sector career starting at Morgan Stanley running their London Fixed Income Trading desk before going on to build his own retail business and a sports marketing agency. Within sport, he helped build up a mass participation business before selling out to the Tour de France Group (ASO) for whom he also worked. Prior to joining CT, Sandy was CEO of iSportConnect, the largest private network of sports executives.
Richard is the Department for Business and Trade’s lead advisor on Saudi Arabia in Northern England, helping companies to understand the Kingdom and to access myriad opportunities. He accompanied Newcastle’s business delegation to Saudi Arabia at GREAT Futures in May 2024 and sits on DBT’s KSA Taskforce. Before joining DBT in 2022 and following various commercial roles, Richard ran a business consultancy for six years, introducing British companies to the GCC and delivering bespoke projects for Middle Eastern clients. His fascination with Arabic culture began with a three-year stint living in Marrakech and the High Atlas Mountains. On his return to the UK in 2004, he got to know many Saudis and quickly learned that Moroccan dialect is vastly different from Gulf Arabic! Since then, he has developed deep friendships across the Middle East, giving him insight into Arabian business and culture, underpinning his support to northern companies. Outside of work he enjoys family, outdoor sports, adventure travel and geopolitics.
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