Heidi Pellerano, Concacaf, Chief Commercial Officer

Heidi Pellerano joined Concacaf in February 2019 and is responsible for leading the Commercial division. In this capacity, Pellerano is responsible for developing and managing strategic partnerships to maximize the commercial opportunities of the organization. She has direct oversight of the departments of Business Development, Partnership Marketing, Digital and Emerging Technologies, Media Distribution, and Broadcast Productions. She is also a member of the executive leadership of the Confederation.

Prior to Concacaf, Pellerano was an executive vice president at Wasserman where she was responsible for leading Wasserman’s brands division and multicultural practice. During her tenure at Wasserman, Pellerano consulted for leading brand retainer and projects clients on a wide range of business challenges including sponsorship strategies, negotiations, digital amplification, and measurement across sports, entertainment, and lifestyle verticals. Additionally, she led Wasserman’s multicultural team in Miami with a focus on developing partnership and activation strategies for clients targeting the Hispanic segment.

Previously, Pellerano served as a director with Raleigh, North Carolina-based sports and entertainment consulting firm OnSport, which was acquired in 2007 by Wasserman. In that role, Pellerano was responsible for strategy and client management for Nokia’s sports and music properties including the development of a comprehensive music strategy that resulted in the successful launch of two venue partnerships including the Nokia Theatre LA LIVE and Club Nokia. Pellerano joined OnSport in 2004 as a member of the American Express team, where she was involved with the analysis of American Express’ portfolio of sports, venue, entertainment, and ticketing partnerships.

Pellerano began her career in sports marketing as a coordinator of player programs with the WNBA, where she developed promotional initiatives to raise the national profile of the WNBA. She also created the player development program to help prepare WNBA players for their post-WNBA careers.

Pellerano holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Duke University, a Master of Science in sports management from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and an M.B.A. from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. She is a native of Puerto Rico and currently resides in Miami.

Brad Baker, United Soccer Leagues, VP, Broadcast

After graduating from the North Carolina School of the Arts School of Filmmaking, Brad Baker spent several years in Los Angeles working for the producer of the Rush Hour franchise before finding a marriage of passions while working for the NFL Network: sports and filmmaking. After two seasons in the NFL as production manager for the Washington Redskins, he spent the following four years developing and building the video production department with IMG and the University of Georgia. Baker then invested the next five years taking a small, second-division soccer club, Minnesota United, to Major League Soccer, overseeing all video production, in-stadium entertainment, and broadcasting for one of the league’s biggest brands. Currently, Baker is the vice president of broadcast for USL, managing broadcast operations for 46 teams across two leagues and managing the league’s relationship with their current broadcast partner, ESPN.

Kevin Bovet, Vizrt, VP, Head of Sports

As vice president, head of sports, Kevin Bovet leads the sports unit in the Americas region at Vizrt, a global company that has been at the top of visual storytelling technology for over two decades. Notably, he engages with rights holders to foster business development, while advising the evolution of current value propositions to meet future industry trends.

Bovet, a Swiss native, holds a master’s degree in sports management and marketing from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Rafael Castillo, TVU Networks, VP and GM of Latin America

Rafael Castillo leads TVU Networks in Latin America and the Caribbean. He brings over 20 years of executive experience in media and digital content acquisition, management, production, and distribution. Castillo has led the Latin American region for some of the most successful technology companies for the media and entertainment industry. Most recently, he served as the vice president of Latin America and Caribbean for Snell Advanced Media, as well as vice president of Latin America for SeaChange International. Previously, Castillo worked for Grass Valley for 18 years, including seven years in the role of SVP, Latin America. He is entrepreneurial and passionate about driving dynamic teams on a sustainable path of success.

Michael Cohen, Bizzy Signals Entertainment, President

Multiple Emmy award-winning television executive and producer Michael Cohen’s career has ranged from successful start ups to major events, show creation, and talent development. His credits include some of the biggest events in television for all major networks including NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, and ESPN. He has been a part of the production team for the World Series, Super Bowl, Indy 500, Kentucky Derby, Wide World of Sports, 9 Olympics Games, 14 NFL Drafts, and the inaugural X Games.

For over 30 years, Cohen has dedicated himself to enhancing the production and business of soccer in the media and has played a significant role in the growth of the game in America.

Cohen produced the inaugural game for Major League Soccer and was a founding executive of Soccer United Marketing. He was executive producer for 2 FIFA World Cups, a FIFA Women’s World Cup, 15 MLS Cups, and All Star Games. While at MLS, Cohen worked on the creation of the League’s broadcast division and production plan to have every game broadcast on TV. In 2012, he was hired by Fox to build their World Cup division which included the 2015 coverage of the Women’s World Cup final match which remains the highest rated show in soccer history in the USA. Cohen also created the USL digital media platform in 2016 and then worked with league executives to negotiate the current deal with ESPN for linear broadcasts and digital shows on the ESPN+ platform.

In 2017, Cohen joined A+E Networks to create a live production division and currently serves as executive producer for the networks broadcast and digital coverage of the National Women’s Soccer League.

Some of the properties Cohen has developed include the Nickelodeon Soccer Superstar series; the Nickelodeon Games and Sports Play of the Week; MLS Cup/ABC Sports musical halftime performances highlighted by Grammy award winner Christina Aguilera; the MTV Tres Rock N Gol event; and Univision’s MLS Sueno, which airs on the Republica Deportiva series. He was the consultant for three soccer themed films, Once in a Lifetime (story of the NY Cosmos) for academy award winning director John Battsek, Game of their Lives (the 1950 USA Soccer team who defeated England in the World Cup), and HBO’s highly acclaimed Dare to Dream (the story of the USA Women’s Soccer team).

Cohen created the sports broadcasting curriculum at Queens College in NYC and is a frequently a guest lecturer at Universities that include NYC School of Business, Columbia, and Fordham. He has been a member of the Sports Video advisory board since SVG was founded.

Mike Flathers, Aspera, an IBM Company, CTO

Currently CTO of Aspera, an IBM Company, Mike Flathers has more than 20 years of software development experience. He has a passion for pushing the technology envelope and has been a primary contributor and visionary for Aspera FASPStream.

Throughout his career, Flathers has focused on enabling third-party technology integrations by creating software solutions and APIs. He has deep video experience having been CTO at Sorenson Media prior to joining Aspera. At Sorenson Media, Flathers led the development of Sorenson VCast, one of the industry’s first online video delivery platforms, and Sorenson VRS, a video relay service empowering communication for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.

Flathers also spent 14 years at Novell after the company acquired Excelan. He was a lead developer for the LANWorkplace product, the first suite of TCP/IP utilities for DOS and Windows.

Irantzu Díez Gamboa, Mediapro, U.S. CEO/Country Manager

In 2005, Irantzu Díez Gamboa joined Mediapro as corporate director of Grupo Globomedia. Prior to this, she was senior manager in the M&A department of PricewaterhouseCoopers in London and Madrid. She holds a degree in business administration from the Universidad de Deusto, a general management program from IESE Business School, and was selected to participate in the third edition of the Promociona Project in ESADE.

Boris Gartner, LaLiga North America, CEO

Boris Gartner is a sports and media executive currently serving as CEO of LaLiga North America, a joint venture between Relevent Sports, a multinational media, sports, and entertainment group, and LaLiga, Spain’s top-flight soccer competition and professional association.

Previously, Boris served as COO for Grupo Televisa’s Content Division – the largest Spanish-language content producer in the world. In this position, he was responsible for corporate strategy, business management, and company operations for the group’s Content unit.

Prior to joining Televisa, he was part of the founding team that launched Fusion Media, a joint venture between Univision Communications and the Disney/ABC Television Group, and most recently served as its chief operating officer.

During his time at Univision Communications, Gartner served in different positions including VP and GM of its in-house digital studio and VP of strategy and new initiatives for Univision News.

Boris has been recognized as a NAMIC Luminary by the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications –NAMIC (2016), part of Cynopsis Digital’s 2016 “IT List” (2016), and Variety’s “Hollywood’s New Leaders: TV Executives” (2013).

Boris holds an Advanced Management degree in media and entertainment from IESE Business School and an Advanced Project Management degree from Stanford University. He earned a Masters degree in international business from Florida International University and a Bachelors degree in business administration from Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia.

He is part of the 2017 Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, the 2013 Georgetown Leadership Seminar, a member of the Milken Institute Associates, the Paley Center Media Council, and Pacific Council on International Policy.

Ken Kerschbaumer, SVG, Co-Executive Director, Editorial Services

Ken Kerschbaumer is co-executive director of editorial services for the Sports Video Group and SVG Europe. He was a co-founder of SVG along with Paul Gallo and Marty Porter in 2005 and has been writing about how sports networks and leagues use video and audio technology to deliver a quality TV experience since 1991. Kerschbaumer began his career in 1991 at Television Broadcast magazine before joining Cahners where he was founding editor of Digital Broadcasting magazine. In 2000, he joined Broadcasting & Cable magazine as senior editor of technology where he covered all aspects of broadcasting, cable, and internet content creation and distribution.

Emili Planas Quintana, Mediapro, CTO and Operations Manager

Emili Planas Quintana is the CTO and operations manager at Mediapro. He has been a member of the Mediapro Consultant team for operations and technical resources optimization since 2000. He acts as a consultant for the ESPN Production Center in Buenos Aires, Imagina US in Miami, and SLA & HR (operations) implementation in control. He is also an operations optimization adviser for international projects.

In 2004, Quintana launched laSexta, a playout center in Barcelona for live channels, among others: GolT, Fox Sports EU, LaLigaTV, Marca TV, F1 LatinAmerica, BeIn ESP, Eleven Sports Poland and Belgium, and 8TV. Quintana started as the operations manager of LaLiga TV productions in 2008. Since 2015, Quintana has worked in operations and engineering of UHD-HDR LaLiga productions, which produce about 76 productions per season.

Since 2007, Quintana has worked in new projects and applied technologies, remote production, and R&D implementation in daily operations. He designs, implements, and manages video over IP networks connecting all Mediapro production centers and field production venues (up to 63 sites worldwide).

Quintana has been an advisory board member of SVG Europe since 2016.

Orlando Silver, Fox Deportes, VP, Production

Fox Deportes, the first and longest-running Spanish-language sports network in the United States, appointed Orlando Silver as VP of production. Silver leads production and operations for the network, reporting to Carlos Sanchez, Fox Deportes EVP and GM, and Michael Davies, SVP of field and technical operations for Fox Sports.

Silver joins Fox Deportes from Univision Deportes Network, where he served in a variety of roles since the network launched in 2012. During his time at Univision Deportes Network, Silver was an integral member of the network’s flagship programs.

Prior to Univision Deportes, Silver was president of Silvertouch Productions, where he developed projects for a wide range of domestic and international sports broadcasters including ABC, ESPN, Univision, Swiss TV, NHK, and many others. Silver has covered three FIFA World Cups (1998, 2006, and 2010) and the UEFA Euro 2008 Final.

Silver began his career with Prime Deportiva-Fox Sports Americas, which was later rebranded as Fox Deportes in 2011.

A native of Mexico City, Mexico, Silver lives in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, with his wife and two daughters.

Larry Tiscornia, MLS, VP, Broadcasting

Currently in his 20^th season at Major League Soccer, Larry Tiscornia has been an integral part in the rapid growth of MLS, focusing primarily on the presentation of the league to a domestic and international audience. He manages the production and broadcast operations for over 1,000 productions annually league-wide, overseeing the local productions with its current 24+ clubs; managing its relationships with MLS’s national broadcast partners: ESPN, FOX Sports, Univision, TSN, and TVA Sports; as well as handling all international broadcasts distributed globally to over 170 countries.  Tiscornia has also been intimately involved on the broadcast side for the construction of over 17 soccer specific venues since 2000, with 5+ more currently in the process of being built over the next few years. In addition to his duties with MLS, as part of Soccer United Marketing, Tiscornia is overseeing the production of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, which will air in its entirety (83 matches) for the first time ever on ESPN Plus in 2019.