Amine is the co-founder and warchief of science at Mobalytics, a performance assessment and optimization platform for gamers. He has spent his life playing video games obsessively and even competed professionally under Fnatic for a couple of years. He spent the other half of his life getting a PhD studying the extremes of human performance at the Mayo Clinic.

He was finally able to channel both passions to perform innovative research with eSports pros, ultimately leading to the founding of Mobalytics. Amine is focused on changing the way competitive gamers use data to step up their game and achieve greatness.

Candace Brenner has been in the video game industry for the better part of a decade. She is currently the VP of marketing for J!NX, an authentic video game lifestyle apparel and accessories company. Candace is a passionate and enthusiastic marketing executive with experience ranging from top-tier Fortune 100 to family-owned companies with deep roots in the video game industry, spending nearly a decade at Sony Online Entertainment/Daybreak Game Company.

Casey Chafkin is the co-founder and chief marketing officer at Skillz, the worldwide leader in mobile eSports. As a stats geek turned marketer and the fourth employee at AisleBuyer (now Intuit GoPayment), Casey is an expert in mobile payments and performance marketing. Prior to AisleBuyer, Casey worked at CarMax where he re-launched the company’s consumer offering and led loyalty research. Casey received his B.S. in economics from Duke University and his MBA from Harvard Business School. Outside of the office, Casey has continued to pursue his love of statistics as an avid poker player and a co-author of a paper covering programmatic trading strategies within sports handicapping markets.

As a Principal of a.network, Chris’ oversees account management, strategic planning and business development groups in bringing to bear the agency’s Frontline philosophy. Creative, driven by data, shared with vision.

Dean Takahashi is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist for more than 25 years, and he has covered games for 18 years. He has been at VentureBeat since 2008. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, The Red Herring, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and The Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, “Opening the Xbox” and “The Xbox 360 Uncloaked.” He organizes the annual GamesBeat and GamesBeat Summit conferences. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Jeremy is a marketing professional with over 15 years of experience. He leads the strategy team at a.network, turning insight into action across the client roster. Previous experience includes senior strategy roles in both Los Angeles and his hometown of London, developing thinking for major global brands including Pepsi and Visa.

Robert Bowling is a 15-year veteran of the game development industry as well as an eSports Team Owner, Investor, and advisor/executive producer of an innovative slate of original programming for NRG eSports. His previous game credits include Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 along with 10 other indie titles.

Steve Fowler is a 20-year veteran of the interactive entertainment industry. He is responsible for the brand identity and launch of the Halo franchise at Microsoft Corporation, Inc., and has held marketing and business development roles at Interplay, Sega Sammy Holdings, Inc., Square Enix, Inc., ArenaNet and Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. According to Eric Ayzenberg, he is the architect of the [a]list summit and [a]listdaily, which he helped conceive during his seven years at Ayzenberg. Steve is currently head of marketing at Amazon Game Studios in Seattle working on several core PC competitive games.

As vice president of entertainment, ventures & strategic alliances for The Coca-Cola Company, Matt Wolf is responsible for the company’s entertainment marketing strategy, venture initiatives and related partnership alliances across the brand portfolio. In this role, he identifies opportunities to authentically integrate the Company’s brands and products into music, gaming, film, fashion and influencer culture to generate meaningful consumer value and business growth.

Walter Wang is the director of eSports at HTC, leading HTC’s entry into eSports, as HTC was one of the first non-endemic sponsors in America and Europe. Walter manages all eSports initiatives and digital influencers at HTC.

Michael Tubman is responsible for driving the strategic direction of sports and competition for Buffalo Wild Wings. He leads all aspects of fantasy sports, gaming, and eSports, including sponsorships, partnerships and program development. Prior to joining the company best known for wings, beer and sports in 2015, Tubman spent significant time leading a variety of strategic programs at Best Buy and developing fantasy sports programs and products for Fanball.

Christina Alejandre joined Turner Sports in March 2016 as General Manager of ELEAGUE and vice president of eSports. In her newly created role, she leads the development and strategy for ELEAGUE, the transformative eSports competitive gaming organization that launched in May.

Alejandre is responsible for business operations, content and program strategy for ELEAGUE, as well as the pursuit of new opportunities. She has more than 15 years of experience in video games and new media, driving business development for global companies.

Matthew Patrick, aka MatPat, operates the YouTube channels The Game Theorists, Film Theorists and livestreaming channel, GT Live. Currently at 12 million subscribers and 50 million monthly views across these properties, they also consistently rank among the platform’s 100 fastest-growing channels. MatPat is also the creator, host, and executive producer of Game Lab, a YouTube Red Original series.

Ujesh Desai is the head of Logitech’s gaming business, Logitech G. His responsibilities include portfolio management, strategic marketing and brand direction of Logitech’s gaming business. Prior to his current role, Ujesh spent 13 years at NVIDIA, a leading manufacturer of graphics processing units that are used to power mobile phones, personal computers and gaming consoles.

As an eSports business operations manager at Blizzard Entertainment, Adam Rosen co-leads Blizzard’s collegiate eSports efforts. In this role, he focuses on developing cross-franchise and eSports-focused initiatives that support the company’s varied lineup of competitive games.

After Adam co-founded Tespa with his twin brother, Tyler, while studying aerospace engineering at UT Austin, they joined Blizzard to bring their eSports knowledge into play.

Tyler Rosen co-leads Blizzard’s collegiate eSports efforts as an eSports business operations manager at Blizzard Entertainment. His focus is on building the company’s community through broadcast strategies, global content distribution, and other eSports-focused business initiatives.

After Tyler co-founded Tespa with his twin brother, Adam, while studying aerospace engineering at UT Austin, they joined Blizzard to bring their eSports knowledge into play.

Mike leads the gaming vertical for Nielsen Entertainment. Mike has 12+ years of experience in leading client and product development for Nielsen’s video game clients. His areas of expertise include understanding gamer and consumer behavior across console, PC and mobile devices as well as adoption of new categories such as eSports and VR.

Bill Young is the head of strategic partnerships & sponsorships at Twitch where he is responsible for developing marketing and sales solutions for brands using Twitch to reach the eSports audience. Bill is a games industry veteran with deep experience in business development, marketing, and sales with a focus on brand partnership. Prior to Twitch, Bill led partnerships and advertising at MaxPlay and was Managing Director of EA Ready where he developed innovative programs to market EA’s products closely with brands.

Kelley currently serves as the director of HyperX corporate marketing, where he oversees the strategic marketing initiatives for the company’s high-performance gaming products, gaming and eSports activities for North America.

He received a BA degree in communications from California State University Bakersfield and resides in Aliso Viejo, Calif. with his wife and three children.

Matthew Pierce is founder and CEO of Versus Systems, a platform that allows video game publishers and developers, as well as brands, to provide prizing to players and spectators based on their in-game behaviors and achievements. Prior to Versus, Matthew served as CEO of O Labs, a Los Angeles-based technology incubator that was a joint venture between Originate and Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. Matthew has worked at the Boston Consulting Group and Warner Bros. He teaches entrepreneurship at UCLA and UCLA Anderson. He is a graduate of Stanford University and he earned his MBA at UCLA Anderson.

Dennis Fong is the founder and CEO of Plays.tv, the leading platform to watch and share gameplay videos. Known as “Thresh” in gaming circles, Dennis was named Guinness World Records’ first professional gamer in history and was called “the Michael Jordan of video games” by the Wall Street Journal before turning 23. Using the proceeds from his professional gaming dominance (including a Ferrari awarded to him by John Carmack), Dennis founded his first successful startup, gamers.com.

Stan Press is based in San Francisco, CA and recently joined the Magid team to further the game group’s industry consulting and eSports efforts. As a senior marketer in the video game and accessory space, Stan helped bring top-tier brands like ASTRO Gaming and Elgato Gaming to leadership positions in sales, social media numbers and product reviews.

Steven Roberts is Executive Chairman at ESL, the world’s largest eSports company. In this role, Roberts focuses on developing overall corporate growth strategies and partnerships in the areas of media, publishing, sponsorship and entertainment.

Prior to ESL, Roberts most recently was Senior Vice President for DIRECTV, Inc., where he was responsible for developing and executing strategies designed to integrate the traditional DIRECTV entertainment experience on the set-top-box with emerging digital technologies.

Jim Louderback is among the most respected figures in digital media with a 20-year history of leadership at the intersection of publishing and technology. Currently, Jim is a venture partner at seed investment firm Social Starts, global editorial director of Vidcon and consults with a variety of top tech and media companies on strategy, tactics and implementation. He is based in San Francisco, CA.

Bryan is an innovative senior marketer who has launched groundbreaking global campaigns that have firmly established successful brands and elevated them to even greater heights. He is a veteran of the gaming industry with extensive experience at such world-class companies as ArenaNet, CCP, Wizards of the Coast, LeapFrog Enterprises and THQ.  Bryan enjoys combining creative, original ideas with a disciplined, analytical approach to marketing strategy that forges the foundation for exceptional brands and creates repeatable, measurable success.

A career spanning 30 years majoring in technology start-up operating and board roles. Janszen is currently CEO and co-founder of VirZOOM Inc., a virtual reality exercise game platform start-up based in Cambridge, MA.

He is the author The Postcatastrophe Economy: Rebuilding America and Avoiding the Next Bubble, which was published by Penguin, and writes for numerous publications including Harvard Business Review and Harper’s Magazine.

Red Bull eSports athlete and Street Fighter champion, Darryl competes in tournaments worldwide as one of the premier Zangief players in the game.

With a deep rooted interest in gaming and having followed eSports for years, Matthew saw the industry’s potential early on and began to focus his attention towards the young industry with the creation of Leaguepedia, the go-to site for professional League of Legends info and statistics. Built for the community, by the community, Leaguepedia quickly grew to become one of the largest eSports websites in the world and within the first six months had surpassed 10 million monthly users.

Michael Blicharz is vice president pro gaming at ESL. In this role, Blicharz leads the operational, creative and production efforts of numerous ESL products, leagues and competitions.

For the past six years, Blicharz has lead the Intel Extreme Masters program and has grown the IEM brand into the world’s most prestigious competition and the longest standing partnership between two brands in the history of eSports. Blicharz relocated to Los Angeles from ESL’s Germany office to join the ESL North America executive team.

Todd Harris is chief operating officer of Hi-Rez Studios. Todd began his career as a software engineer before taking on product development leadership roles at business software companies Radiant Systems and BlueCube Software.  In 2005, he co-founded Hi-Rez Studios, a developer-publisher of online action multiplayer games.  Hi-Rez released the first free-to-play game on Steam in 2010, followed by the critically acclaimed shooter, Tribes: Ascend, in 2012.  In 2014, Hi-Rez released the mythology themed, action multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), SMITE, which now has over 20 million players in western markets.

Working closely with student leaders, staff, faculty, and industry partners, Mark is thrilled to lead the way for the first official eSports program at a public university.  Mark has a BS in psychobiology from UCLA and a MBA at Cal State Fullerton. 

As the co-founder of FACEIT, Michele has been a competitive gamer for over 15 years. His passion for gaming is complemented by a career working in a top investment & consulting firm that’s worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies, and he has personally been involved in several technology start-ups.

As business development manager of competitive gaming for Wargaming America, Miranda drives the competitive World of Tanks business, a scene that boasts several divisions of professional play, including the Wargaming.net League. Before spearheading Wargaming’s charge into eSports, Miranda himself competed as a player in both Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and Tekken Tag Tournament, the former of which he says inspired his career.

As one of the first academics to study video games, Joost also has over 15 years of commercial research experience in interactive entertainment and technology industries. Before receiving a doctorate from Columbia University on the topic, Joost worked as an analyst on both the financial and consumer-side of the games industry for a variety of research outfits. Anticipating the shift to digital games early on, he founded SuperData in 2009.

Jan Goetgeluk is the founder and CEO of Virtuix and the developer of the Virtuix Omni, the first virtual reality motion platform for moving freely and naturally in video games and virtual worlds.

For the past 20 years, Ann Hand has served as a market-facing executive across several industries, including live event gaming, green building and design, and oil and gas. In her current role as CEO and chairman of Super League Gaming, Ann drives the vision and implementation of giving gamers entirely new ways to enjoy the games they love through online and live event competitive leagues. In partnership with the nation’s largest cinema chains, the Santa Monica-based company produces hyper-competitive Minecraft events nationwide.

With nearly 15 years under his belt in media and sponsorship sales, Dan’s expertise comes from his experience in working with Fortune 500 clients at NBC Sports, MTV’s Gaming & Entertainment unit, IGN’s Pro League (IPL), Major League Gaming and his own eSports agency, NEXTGEN+MVPs. He is passionate about collaborating with eSports professionals, sponsors and publishers and is responsible for coordinating digital operations and brand sponsorships for rEvXP.

Ed Chang is currently the entrepreneur in residence at The Chernin Group for eSports/gaming. Prior to this he sold his talent agency to Flood Interactive and ran business and corporate development for Vulcun (now Streamlabs).

Uyen Uyen Ton Nu is the director of marketing for Super Evil Megacorp, the developers of the world’s leading mobile eSport, Vainglory. Uyen is responsible for developing and leading marketing strategies for Vainglory, which now boasts more than 12 million registered accounts and 1 billion matches played. Vainglory experienced a monumental first year in eSports in 2016, awarding the largest prize pool ever for a mobile eSport at $120,000, generating 25,000+ concurrent views for its inaugural World Championship, and welcoming some of the largest eSports franchises in the world to the Vainglory lineup.

Before joining Yahoo, Hunter worked for Riot Games as product lead on the North American League Championship Series (NA LCS), the flagship League of Legends ESports league and the largest ESports league in North America. Prior to that he was in tech and start-up space in San Francisco, most recently working in product for CBSi on GameSpot and their gaming sites.  At Yahoo, he is overseeing partnerships, strategy and business development for Yahoo ESports.

Manny Anekal is currently running several companies within the eSports ecosystem: Versus Sports (future sports marketing and strategy, eSports team) The Next Level (the business of eSports) and Loot Ventures (investment fund).

Manny has over a decade of experience in the gaming space starting with Massive Inc. in NYC and further with executive roles at Microsoft, Xbox, EA, Zynga and Kiip. He previously was the SVP of marketing for Major League Gaming.

As co-CEO of Team Liquid, Steven Arhancet oversees the strategic direction of the premier eSports franchise. He identifies growth opportunities within the rapidly growing eSports industry and pushes developments and innovation for each of the teams within the franchise, as well as for Team Liquid as a whole. This includes leading and growing partnership and sponsorship opportunities for the eSports team, the growth of their in-house production studio, 1UpStudios and the growth of their gaming relationships, with their in-house agency, Liquid Media.

Alongside Co-CEO Victor Goossens, Steven built Team Liquid from a community site into one of the largest eSports teams in the world.