Sport Positive Summit

Advancing sustainability, sustainable business and climate action in sport

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2022

Annie Horn

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Annie Horn is Associate Vice President, Social Impact & Inclusion and Sustainability at the NBA, where she leads the league’s environmental sustainability strategy across the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League and Basketball Africa League, working across league operations, events and partners to integrate sustainability into the business of basketball, in addition to NBA’s health and wellness platform, NBA Total Health. She has guided the NBA’s climate commitments, including becoming the first professional sports league in North America to sign the United Nations Sports for Climate Action Framework, and led the league’s first carbon footprint assessment and public greenhouse gas emissions disclosure.

Her work focuses on helping the league measure, reduce and report its environmental impact while advancing practical sustainability initiatives across marquee events and year-round operations. Through collaboration with teams, venues, corporate partners and industry stakeholders her work advances scalable solutions strengthening both sustainability and fan engagement. She is passionate about harnessing the power of sport to create positive social and environmental impact.

Julia Pallé

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Julia Pallé is a leading expert on sustainability in motorsport and the international elite sport industry.

In her role at the world’s first all-electric motor racing series, Julia certified the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship net zero carbon since inception – the first sport in the world to achieve the standard.

While developing and implementing the sustainability strategy at Formula E, Julia has overseen a range of significant achievements that establish Formula E’s credentials as a leader of sustainability in tier-one sport.

Julia is also Sustainability Advisor for Extreme E, the all-electric SUVs series, bringing electric racing to some of the most remote corners of the planet to highlight the climate change challenges faced by different ecosystems.

Before joining Formula E, Julia was the Sustainability Executive at Michelin Motorsport.

Bob Ramsak

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Bob Ramsak is the Head of Sustainability at World Athletics, the global governing body for track and field and long distance running, a journalist who has covered the sport globally for more than two decades and a long-time advocate for environmental, economic, and social justice.

Jamie Farndale

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Jamie’s thirteen-year rugby career saw him captain his country on the international stage. He has played fifty-nine international sevens tournaments for Scotland and is their second highest try scorer of all time. He won Twickenham Sevens back to back in 2016 and 2017, has been to two Commonwealth Games and two World Cups and is a European Games silver medalist with Team GB. He has also played for Cambridge University in the Varsity match.

Alongside playing, Jamie is a leading voice in the sport and sustainability space. He co-wrote a letter to World Rugby demanding environmental action signed by hundreds of professional players and gaining international media attention. He then worked with his own union to galvanise sustainability action and helped set up an ESG group which baselined current activity and workshopped sustainability aims from which to write a sustainability plan. Jamie’s research at Cambridge University has focussed upon sport’s role in influencing the uptake of sustainable technology amongst fans in the transition to a net zero economy, and he has used his platform to speak about sport’s responsibility in light of the climate crisis and the positive impact it can and should be having.

He has spoken at COP28, Global Sports Week, Sport Positive, COG-X, and at the Hong Kong sustainability summit. He has also spoken on podcasts such as High Impact Athletes, Emergency on Planet Sport, the ESG engagement podcast and has co-presented an hour-long BBC radio show on sustainability at the Rugby World Cup. Jamie has picked up awards as the International Olympic Committee Sustainability Ambassador award winner, Mastercard’s Future XV of those shaping the future of rugby, and is sustainability ambassador for Scottish Rugby and the Birmingham Commonwealth Games

Rafael Muela Pastor

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General Manager at Real Betis Balompié Foundation since 2018, with experience in policy design, institutional coordination and field interventions in Asia, Central America, Europe, and United Nations global events. Specialising in environmental issues, sports, youth employment, social inclusion of vulnerable groups of people, within the framework of Corporate Sustainability.

Jessica R. Murfree, PhD

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Dr. Jessica Murfree is an Assistant Professor of Sport Administration and the Hyde Family Foundation Fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she directs the Action on Climate Change and Environment in Sport Studies (ACCESS) Research Lab. She also serves on the Leadership Team of the Sport Ecology Group. Her research studies the effects of climate change on sport through societal implications of climate risks and environmental disparities. Among others, her work has been featured in Sports Illustrated, Scientific American, The Athletic, ABC, The Guardian, The Television Academy, and The Weather Channel.

At UNC, Dr. Murfree developed and teaches the university’s first course on Sport Ecology, advises the university through the Carolina Sustainability Council, and is an affiliated researcher with the Institute for the Environment. She is a Forbes 30 Under 30 Honoree in Sports, and she earned Yale University’s School of Public Health Certificate in Climate Change and Health

Lindita Xhaferi Salihu

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Lindita Xhaferi-Salihu leads business engagement in climate action at UN Climate Change, mobilizing companies and industry leaders to deliver ambitious climate action. She has developed landmark initiatives such as the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action and Sports for Climate Action, and brings extensive experience in international diplomacy, stakeholder engagement, and climate policy. Lindita’s academic background combines electrical engineering, international relations, and energy and climate policy.

Dr. Maddy Orr

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Dr. Maddy Orr is an Assistant Professor of Sport Ecology at the University of Toronto. She is best known for her work on climate adaptation in the sport sector, and as founder of The Sport Ecology Group. She’s been named a Future of Canada Fellow, a Top 30 Under 30 Environmental Educator, and a Forbes 30 Under 30 awardee. In 2022, she was the lead author on UNEP’s Sports for Nature report and her 2024 book Warming Up: How Climate Change is Changing Sports was named a Top 5 Sports Book of the Year by The Guardian. 

Dale Vince OBE

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Green industrialist Dale Vince OBE has gone from ‘enemy of the state’ to ‘green energy tycoon’ but he doesn’t much care what you call him. He has dedicated his life to challenging conventional wisdom in pursuit of a better way of life, using business as a tool for environmentalism.

Dale kickstarted the now global green energy movement using the goals and values he developed on the road to help bring environmentalism into the mainstream.

He started the world’s first green energy company, Ecotricity, in 1996, leads Forest Green Rovers FC, dubbed the world’s greenest football team by FIFA; creates diamonds out of atmospheric carbon – Skydiamonds; builds windmills for export around the world – Britwind; has launched a range of plant-based school dinners and last year launched the world’s first electric airline Ecojet.

In 2004, he was awarded an OBE for services to the environment and was appointed the UN Ambassador for Climate Change in 2019.

He also made the world’s first electric supercar and built the Electric Car Super Charging Highway, the World’s first national network of EV charging stations.

His first book, Manifesto, a Sunday Times Best Seller, is a manifesto of hope, backed up by solutions, from someone with real life experience of disrupting the energy industry and paving the way for a greener planet.

Nicknamed Labour’s Green Knight by The Sunday Times, Dale is a self-professed eco-naut, does not take ‘no’ for an answer and is leading the charge for a greener Britain.

Aileen McManamon

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Aileen McManamon, is the Founder and Managing Partner of 5 Tool Sports Group, a certified B Corp. She also currently serves as the Board Chair of the Green Sports Alliance, a member-driven coalition of over 300 major leagues, teams, event organizers and their solutions partners, leveraging the cultural and market influence of sports to promote healthier communities where we live, work and play.

As the Chair of the Alliance, she has overseen its strategy evolution and the development of cross-sector and international alliances to accelerate industry and societal climate adaptation.

As a global thought leader in future-proofing the sports industry, Aileen works with major leagues, teams, and brands to align their revenue and partnerships with the environmental and social realities of today. 5 Tool also works with global brands to drive values-aligned, data-driven partnerships. The firm’s Sports Partner Score Card™ is an industry first due-diligence tool for assessing commercial partnership fit.

Aileen brings over 3 decades of expertise in global brand strategy and market intelligence and began her career in Europe, with FIAT and Alfa Romeo, leading their Tour de France and motorsports partnerships. After a 10-year stint in the technology sector, she returned to sport, as a General Manager in Minor League Baseball with the Oakland A’s. In 2008 she founded 5 Tool, working with the Olympic Games, FIFA Women’s World Cup, MLB, NHL, FIA, Indycar and the NFL.

She has been recognized by the UN Global Compact for her work in championing economic diversity and inclusion in sport, and named a Sports Business Journal Gamechanger for her pioneering work in socially and environmentally responsible sports management in the U.S. and abroad.