From First Employee to Managing Director: 17 Sport's Andrew Wisniewski Steps Up

Seven years ago, Andrew Wisniewski walked into 17 Sport as its very first hire.

No playbook, no established client roster just a founding belief, shared with Neill Duffy and Fabien Paget, that sport could do more than entertain. It could change communities. This month, that bet on Andrew came full circle: he's been promoted to Managing Director, taking the reins of 17 Sport's global team and day-to-day operations.

It's the kind of promotion that makes sense the moment you hear it, because if you've spent any time around 17 Sport's work over the past few years, there's a good chance Andrew's fingerprints are on it.

For those newer to the name, 17 Sport is a purpose-led sports marketing, advisory and investment firm one that has quietly become one of the more interesting players in the space by insisting that commercial success and social impact aren't competing priorities. Their historical client list reads like a who's who of global sports and business: adidas, Nike, the International Olympic Committee, UEFA, Deloitte, Ocean Conservancy, and more, working across marquee moments such as the Women's World Cup, the UEFA Euros, and the Paris Olympics and Paralympics.

What sets them apart isn't the size of the names on the roster, though it's what they do with them. Take the last few weeks alone. During WNBA All-Star Weekend in Chicago, 17 Sport built and delivered a three-day activation for Deloitte called The Huddle, bringing together WNBA athletes, league sponsors, local nonprofits and community leaders to dig into how sport can strengthen the neighbourhoods around it: impact labs, panels on youth mentorship and sustainable infrastructure, a Laureus Sport for Good USA documentary screening, and live conversations with Voice in Sport. It was the kind of event that reminds you sport's biggest wins often happen far from the scoreboard.

Around the same time, the team helped bring Sanofi's Special Olympics Unified Football World Cup activation to life a campaign film paired with an experiential Health Village designed to do more than raise awareness. It was built to move people to action around a sobering statistic: people with intellectual disabilities are 11 times more likely to die from respiratory disease than the general population. In cycling, 17 Sport recently joined Demi Vollering's team as a strategic partner and commercial partner, just as the Dutch star claimed her second consecutive Tour de France Femmes title.

That range global brand, grassroots nonprofit, individual athlete is essentially Andrew's career in miniature. As Partner and Head of Activation, he's led delivery, creative strategy and partner relationships across nearly every corner of 17 Sport's business: adidas Breaking Barriers, which helps more women and girls access and stay in sport; Sanofi's Paris 2024 campaign, which rallied the company's global workforce around inclusion; and Ocean Conservancy's Protect Where We Play, mobilizing athletes and fans to protect the ocean.

Now, as Duffy and Paget turn their attention to growing the wider 17 Sport Group, including its M&A advisory practice, the Women's Sports Alliance, and the Purpose League joint venture with SponsorshipX, Andrew inherits the core advisory business, with a mandate to keep it running at the level clients have come to expect.

"Andrew has been the engine behind our work since day one," Duffy said. "There's no one we trust more to lead our global team and operations."

For his part, Andrew is framing the new role the way he's framed everything else at 17 Sport: as a means to an end. "Sport is changing, and so is what people expect from it," he said. "My focus as Managing Director is to give our global team the clarity and support to do its best work for clients, while helping to build a future where sport works better for fans, athletes, brands and the world around it."

The timing tracks. 17 Sport was just named to Fast Company's 2026 Most Innovative Companies list and shortlisted for Agency of the Year by the European Sponsorship Association. Laurent Igolen, the firm's Head of Finance and Administration, also joins the Executive Leadership Team alongside Duffy, Paget and Wisniewski, rounding out a leadership bench built for the next phase of growth.

For the SPX Purpose League and everyone working alongside 17 Sport, it's a promotion worth celebrating, not because titles change, but because the person now steering the ship helped build it.