MEET THE TEAM

Tom is a final-year Geography undergraduate at Durham University and Law In Sport mentee. Fresh from a Munich placement year with Allianz Global Olympic and Paralympic Partnership. This exposed him to international business and global sports partnerships, collaborating with athlete ambassadors and the International Olympic Committee. In 2020, during his first university year, Tom founded a sports nutrition business, expanding across UK universities with sports team sponsorships. In Munich, he also initiated the 'Sport Business and Law Review,' garnering 13k LinkedIn impressions and 3k article reads. Actively delving into athlete representation, his keen interest lies in athlete welfare, rights, commercial law, and media rights in sports business.

Faithfulness bagged an LLB in 2018 from the University of Calabar, Nigeria and subsequently a B.L in 2019, making him a qualified Nigerian legal practitioner. He did a Masters in sports law and got an LLM from the Escuela Universitaria Real Madrid as the best student in his class. He is currently a legal intern with Ruiz Huerta y Crespo Sports Lawyers in Valencia, Spain, where he handles various cases ranging from traditional CAS and FIFA DRC disputes to more topical matters like the metaverse and NFTs. Faithfulness is also a big fan of the NBA and frequently writes about the American sports system. 

Sigurður Ólafur Kjartansson graduated from Reykjavk University in 2022 with a Master of Law with a focus on International Law; he is currently pursuing a second Master's degree in International Sports Law at ISDE.

Sigurður is the Head of Legal at EZ Verk ehf, an Icelandic construction company, as a result of his studies. Sigurður has published a few articles on Visir.is, the largest news outlet in Iceland, and also holds a certificate from Leiden university in arbitration of international disputes.

Sigurður’s main sports include; Football, NFL, CrossFit, Handball, Padel and Icelandic Basketball.

Ella is currently a Commercial and Brand Strategy Executive at Oak View Group, which involves providing clients with data led solutions to maximise the revenue and value they receive through sports and entertainment partnerships. She is also a founding member of Young African Leaders in Sport, an organisation that advocates for the inclusion of young people in African sport leadership and governance positions. 

In addition, Ella is an avid sports fan who frequently writes articles on brand partnerships, women’s football, and the landscape of football in Africa. 

Jabu Mtwa is a sports entrepreneur, podcaster and speaker from South Africa. Jabu co-hosts Africa Business of Sport Podcast – Africa’s leading sport business podcast. He holds a B.A. International Relations & Law from University of Witwatersrand and a certificate in sports law from University of Pretoria.

Deeply passionate about sport as a tool for social development, Jabu is the Secretary General of Young African Leaders in Sport and an IOC Young Leader 2023-2026.

Aditya Shankar is an advocate, licensed to practice law in India. After his graduation from School of Law, Christ University, Aditya was part of the dispute resolution team at Samvad Partners, Bengaluru. As an associate, he handled a variety of disputes ranging from civil, commercial and employment law disputes. 

Aditya is currently pursuing a LLM in International Sports Law at ISDE Law & Business School. He aims to bridge his legal knowledge and experience to ensure that sportspersons are not deprived of their goals due to non-sporting reasons. 

Prerna Dadu is currently pursuing her Masters in International Sports law at ISDE, Madrid. She has experience working for Fintech companies and Law firms in India.

While at Fox Mandal & Associates, she worked with capacity building for esports in India, as well as other areas of Intellectual Property rights. Further, she works with Webnyay to provide legal assistance for AI developed online dispute resolution mechanism to various sporting organisations, specifically cricket and boxing. She is also an enthusiastic Formula 1 fanatic and writes on legal intersections of the future of sport, cricket, esports and Formula 1.  

Wiktoria is a final-year law and politics student at the Queen Mary University of London (2020-23). Over the last two years, Wiktoria has been publishing sports law articles with a particular focus on media rights, broadcasting, and brand management. Whilst sports law constitutes Wiktoria’s main interest, she also works as an intern in a legal-tech start-up Della AI and as an editor of articles regarding legal technologies.

Nandan is currently pursuing his Masters in International Sports Law at ISDE, Madrid. He is a licensed legal practitioner in India having cleared the All-India Bar Exam (AIBE) in the year 2021.

His key interest lies in sports Law, Intellectual Property Rights and the intersection of the two. He has published various articles pertaining to sport and law. He also holds a Master’s degree in Intellectual Property Rights. 

Aakash is currently a legal masters student pursuing an LLM in International Sports Law at the ISDE law School in Madrid.

He has completed prior internships at various sports law firms and sports law research organisations in India and has a keen interest in the American sports business model.

Aakash hopes to have a career in the sports  law/management space.

Graduate of the 2022 cohort with a current role as a football agent and graduate with a 1st class degree in ‘sports management with a year in data analytics.

Rich experience in football from playing at the academy level, to roles as a performance analyst and data analysts and many high-level connections in the sport.

Max is a a former elite pathway cricketer for Sussex CCC, now studying Sport Business Management. He is currently working at a high achieving National League South football club, focusing on the commercial and operational side, aiding the Director of Football - the club is on the brink of promotion to the National League.

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Max has experience of operating in a high level environment, having also spent time at a football agency and working closely with a professional boxer.

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Max has a passion to learn, read and write, and enjoys meeting new people and building his knowledge. He has high aspirations of working within the industry.

Namit is a current intern at Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) working with the legal team and worked on WPL.

He is an India qualified lawyer, with a masters in international sports law from ISDE, Madrid. Prior to BCCI, he was working in Brazil at Cravo, Pastl, Balbuena handling disputes in front of various FIFA Disciplinary Bodies and CAS. 

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Apart from his experience in law, Namit is interested in design, and freelances on various graphic design projects. 

Edem plays the roles of co-founder, co-host and senior producer at the Africa Business of Sports Podcast and Director of Africa Sport Business Group, the parent company of the podcast.

He has a Master’s degree in International Sports Management from the University Campus Of Football Business | Global Institute of Sports. Edem has a passion for sport business, with a specific focus on creating innovative synergies and projects that seek to genuinely contribute to the development of sports in Africa. Edem is a writer and a research expert with 5+ years of experience, with a newsletter called “Wimbledon Stories by Edem Spio” on LinkedIn. 

Valeriy has 9 years of practice in Hogan Lovells, Moscow and later – its local successor in Russia. He is an experienced lawyer in IP&IT, handling copyright and trademarks related projects and court disputes. 

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He has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the HSE University (Tier-1 in Russia) in Moscow and will be pursuing the second Master's degree in International Sports Law at ISDE in 2024.

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Valeriy’s main focus is football, but he also has a particular interest in legal aspects of other sports in the European market, such as rugby, tennis, etc.

Charlie graduated from the University of Bristol in 2020 with a BA in History and the University of Law in 2021 with a Graduate Diploma in Law. He then worked as a Contributor and the Operations Manager for LittleLaw, a digital platform helping aspiring lawyers to improve their commercial awareness.

In 2022, Charlie joined Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett LLP as a Paralegal in the Private Funds department. He now works as a Paralegal in the Real Estate Funds practice in the London office of international law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP.

Charlie has hopes of qualifying as a solicitor with a particular interest in the Private Equity, Sport and Technology sectors.

Joseph is an incoming LLM Candidate for the Master’s in International Sports Law Program from ISDE, Madrid, and a licensed advocate under the Bar Council of India. He completed his B.A. LL.B (Hons.) from National Law University, Raipur, and is currently practicing law in the High Court of Kerala undertaking criminal and civil litigation. He has worked as a legal research intern for the development of the Esports Player Welfare Association in India, and has served as a contributing writer for the Online Sports Journal ‘Global Sports Policy Review’. His recent experience includes working with ‘Krida Legal’, a Sports & Gaming firm, dealing with anti-doping matters before CAS, and the online gaming and tech law regime in India. He aspires to be a sports lawyer, and in the long run, open a sports agency in India.