Chairs

Samuel leads the Carbon Trust work in the Infrastructure and Sport sectors. In his role, Sam looks to support clients on their journey to Net Zero, creating bespoke projects to turn climate ambition into action. He has experience in delivering corporate sustainability projects such as organisational and product footprinting, target-setting, decarbonisation roadmapping, supply-chain engagement, assurance services and large programme delivery.

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.

Lauren Teague knows the secret to building a great business is cultivating fandom rather than followers. She is a sought-after business strategist, an acclaimed speaker, and the founder of the re-commerce startup FanWagn.

As an original sports social media lead, Lauren spent seven seasons as the voice of @PGATOUR and transformed how professional golf connects with fans online.

Lauren’s entrepreneurial endeavors are powered by collaboration. She is Past President of the National Speakers Association Oregon chapter and active in Women in Sports & Entertainment (WISE). Previously, she was a Marketing Strategist with Convince & Convert, co-produced Sports PR Summit, and was the President of her children’s co-op preschool.

Lauren used to be a single-digit handicap golfer but now gets in 9 at a time — usually on the local par-3 course — with at least one of her three #TinyTeagues. You can find and follow her on social media as @LaurenTTeague.

Julie is an experienced sustainability professional with a particular focus on challenging strategies, management and strategic social, environmental, economic and ethical advice for a wide variety of international projects. She has led teams in several offices and oversees initiatives in other areas where innovative solutions are provided to resolve particularly challenging strategies and projects. She has worked on numerous projects abroad including in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Algeria, Equatorial Guinea, Oceania, North America, South America and the Bahamas.

Julie has worked, and continues to work, on a series of high-profile and complex bespoke corporate strategies, as well as more specialised research-focused projects, where her ability to protect and enhance a strategy or policy as well as co-ordinate and review a wide range of technical inputs linked to an aptitude to both lead and manage multi-disciplinary teams, has promoted and then successfully delivered such projects.

Julie has facilitated workshops and been invited as a guest speaker at international conferences and has facilitated strategic meetings with government officials, NGOs and opinion formers. She works as an existing relationship manager with UN Agencies and has a thorough understanding of how societies and their institutions, economies and environments interact to influence sustainable development and the adaptability of livelihoods and communities to both environmental and political change.

Julie has a particular focus on leading the delivery of net zero strategies within highly complex environments and organisations.

Lucy is the Head of Marketing at Travel Places – leading travel management specialists to the sports, media and entertainment industries.

The team work with some of the world’s leading athletes, teams and brands, managing travel plans for organisations such as The Football Association, the England and Wales Cricket Board and Sail GP. With a long heritage managing group travel for professional sports teams, Travel Places remains family-owned and run to this day.

Sitting on Travel Places’ sustainability management team, Lucy helps identify ways for the business to increase its positive impact on the world, its community of staff, local suppliers, and charities.

She has helped to support the business through certifications for ISO 20121:2012 standard for Sustainable Event Management as well as B Corp, with Travel Places remaining one of the only business travel companies in the UK to have successfully gained B Corp certification.

Double Paralympic medallist Alexandra Rickham has been working in sustainability in the sport sector since retiring from full time competition in 2017. She combines her academic knowledge and insight with her practical experience in competitive sport and environmental operations to focus both on changing the sports industry and its practices, and on utilising sport’s platform to inspire change. Alexandra is very passionate about diversity and inclusion and ensuring the athlete’s voice is heard on sustainability and regularly participates on panels, podcasts and other speaking opportunities on these subjects.

After retiring as a professional athlete in 2021, Melissa co-founded non-profit Athletes of the World with Double Olympic Champion Hannah Mills.

Athletes of the World aims to harness the power of athletes to inspire climate action. The non-profit works with athletes and sports organisations to provide climate and media training, mentoring and campaign delivery, equipping athletes to use their platforms for change. Recent projects have included supporting 135 professional footballers in urging FIFA to drop fossil fuel sponsorship and bringing together 450 Olympians in a letter calling on the IOC’s incoming President to make caring for our planet their top priority.

Strategist, communicator and content creator specialising in sustainability and sport. Touchline Earth Founder and Managing Director.