featured speakers
Dana O’Donovan is the Purpose Leader at Deloitte, responsible for managing the organization's purpose ambitions and actions. This includes Deloitte’s investments, commitments, and social impact across areas aimed at driving positive outcomes for our people and communities. Dana oversees a portfolio that encompasses advancing Deloitte’s $1.5 billion social impact investment, driving Deloitte’s own sustainability commitments and actions, fostering collaborations with Deloitte clients, embedding trust throughout Deloitte’s operations through its shared values, and providing innovative opportunities for Deloitte’s people to embed purpose into their careers. Dana draws on more than 25 years of experience as a strategist focused on social impact. She has been an advisor in conjunction with Deloitte Consulting LLP to many nonprofit, corporate, and philanthropic leaders on shaping and strengthening their approaches. Dana shaped Deloitte’s purpose strategy while also leading Monitor Institute by Deloitte. She has also been a nonprofit executive, having led human assets strategy at Teach for America. Dana writes about purpose and social impact topics and has been published in several academic journals and major publications. Dana also serves on multiple nonprofit and philanthropic boards. Dana graduated from The University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill where she was a Morehead-Cain Scholar.
Filippo Veglio is Chief of Social & Environmental Sustainability at UEFA, European football’s governing body. He works in partnership with Europe’s national associations, leagues, and clubs to roll out the targeted measures and investments set out in UEFA’s Football Sustainability Strategy 2030. Prior to joining UEFA, Filippo spent 16 years at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), where he was a member of the Senior Management Team. A Swiss national, Filippo was formerly a professional tennis player.
Jordan Guard is the Founder and Managing Director of the Women's Sports Alliance (WSA), powered by 17 Sport. The WSA is the world's first creative lab designed by female athletes, for female athletes. We are on a mission to advance 10,000+ female athletes every year in discovering their authentic brand positioning that redefines the commercial value of women’s sport. A former international footballer, Jordan represented Wales and made her UEFA Women's Champions League debut for Cardiff City in 2013. She retired from the game in 2020 and founded the WSA the same year to close the commercial gap she had seen from the inside. She has worked with organisations including FIFA, Aston Martin F1, WSL Football & Commonwealth Games, and in 2025 was named in the RAISE Power 100 of women's sport and awarded Managing Director of the Year.
Katee Hui is the Founder of Hackney Laces, one of the UK's largest football communities for girls and women. Built on a model of community-led sport for development, Laces reduces barriers and creates pathways for women and girls in football and in life. A UEFA-C licensed coach, Katee grew it from a single team in 2011 into a social franchise network supporting thousands of girls, women and non-binary players, on and off the pitch. Katee was named a BBC Sports Personality of the Year Unsung Hero for London, a Top 100 Changemaker by the Big Issue, and awarded an MBE in the King's Birthday Honours List 2023 for her service to young women and grassroots football. A regular speaker on platforms including ESPN, The Independent, BBC London, and the BBC World Service, she champions equity in sport and community-led change. In addition to Laces, Katee supports purpose-led brands on strategy, impact and communications.
Kathryn is a Sales Director at Two Circles, an international sports and entertainment marketing business that leverages data and knowing fans best to help organisations grow audiences and revenues. Working with some of the biggest names in sport and entertainment, Two Circles grows the volume and value of fan relationships across all channels, driving revenue across sponsorship, media rights, retail and licensing, and ticketing. Since 2023, Kathryn has led the commercial programme for UEFA Women’s Football, overseeing the development of brand partnerships across UEFA’s portfolio of women’s competitions and connecting leading global businesses with one of the fastest-growing areas of sport. This work forms part of Two Circles’ exclusive mandate to commercialise UEFA Women’s Football rights, which the agency has held since 2018.
Mark Harrison is the host and ringleader of The Convenor, a platform that provides inspiration and information to help individuals embark on significant professional transformation. Entrepreneurially, he founded the MH3 Collective, a group that matches ideas with people to drive commercial and societal impact. The Collective includes Humanity, T1, Sidekick, SponsorshipX, the Black Talent Initiative, and Park Street Education. His approach to life, work, and community is grounded in passion, people, profit and purpose. This approach manifests itself in volunteerism, entrepreneurship, travel, public speaking, event attendance, podcasting, squash, sports, reading and connecting. Often, this approach appears vividly in the way Mark fights for the underestimated. MH3's past community involvement included serving as the Board Chair of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Toronto and as a Board Member of the CAMH Foundation and the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences/The JUNO Awards. He also received the Black Business and Professional Association's Harry Jerome Award, the Association of Canadian Advertisers’ 2022 Gold Medal Award, induction into the 2025 American Marketing Association Marketing Hall of Legends, and the 2025 Sponsorship Marketing Council of Canada Hall of Fame. MH3 is CBC Toronto Metro Morning’s business columnist, regularly discussing marketing, the workplace, and entrepreneurship.
With 30+ years of experience helping brands and sports properties maximize their return on investment, Neill embraces purpose as a key strategic business driver to deliver positive social, environmental, and business outcomes.
Paula Kowalska is a marketing and partnerships professional with nearly a decade of experience designing and managing commercial partnerships across sport, esports and the charity sector. Currently, she serves as the Head of Marketing and Partnerships at the Kinetic Foundation, a London-based football and education charity which uses sport to empower young people to reach their potential on and off the pitch.
Co-founder of ENSO, a future design company. He's helped Google, SpaceX, Khan Academy and COP28 design what's next. Futures happen by default or by design.
Thomas Bulitta joined Lidl International (Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG) in 2022 and is currently Head of Partnerships Sport, leading the strategic direction and overall management of all international sports sponsorships with a strong focus on football, handball and active lifestyle. He is responsible for developing and executing the global sponsorship strategy to sustainably sharpen brand positioning and engage new target audiences. In his role, Thomas oversees the data-driven identification of relevant sports platforms, specifically focusing on finding partnerships that enable Lidl to make a genuine impact in their respective fields.
Tristan is Head of Fundraising at Kinetic Foundation, a London-based charity combining football and education to help young people achieve their potential. An experienced fundraising professional, Tristan has worked in the non-profit sector for more than 15 years with a number of roles in the sport for good space. He oversees all income generating activity at Kinetic, with a particular focus on building long-term strategic partnerships that achieve, evidence and celebrate social impact.
Key Details
Theme: The Business Case for Purpose
October 15-16, 2026
Gtech Community Stadium (London, UK)
Why Attend
This is not a traditional conference; it is a working summit for decision-makers interested in activating sport in a purpose-led way. Attendees will leave with an aligned peer network, data-backed insights, and the strategic commercial toolkits to transform sponsorship from an outsourced marketing expense into the single greatest driver of value.
Purchase Passes
CONFERENCE OVERVIEW
The Context
The sports and entertainment industry has reached an inflection point. The era of treating purpose as a localized CSR initiative or a superficial marketing badge is over. Today, global brands are under scrutiny from consumers, regulators, and shareholders alike to prove that their investments deliver tangible value. In a highly competitive sponsorship market, the ultimate differentiator is no longer just reach; it is authentic, measurable impact.
the challenge
For senior executives, the central challenge is no longer why purpose matters, but how to execute it profitably. Leaders are trapped between the commercial mandate to drive immediate business growth and the long-term strategic necessity to tackle systemic issues like climate action, gender equity, and inclusion.
To date, the industry has struggled to bridge this gap, often treating commercial returns and social impact as mutually exclusive goals.
The SPX Purpose League Summit
The SPX Purpose League Summit, powered by 17 Sport, is designed to solve this tension. This in-person summit gathers the architects of modern sponsorship to establish the business case for purpose.
Through case studies, collaborative workshops, and peer-to-peer sessions, the summit will move past theory to deliver actionable frameworks on:
Commercial Integration: How to structure sponsorships where purpose actively accelerates revenue, brand equity, and market share.
Rigorous Measurement: Moving beyond "awareness metrics" to define what true social, environmental, and financial impact looks like on a balance sheet.
Resilient Leadership: Unpacking the operational and cultural leadership required to execute authentic, long-term purpose strategies in a fragmented market.
who should attend
The SPX Purpose League Summit will bring together senior decision-makers from global markets who define the strategies, activate sponsorships, and hold the budgets.
We invite executive leaders, including:
Brands & Corporates: those working across marketing, sponsorship, and sustainability looking to prove commercial value and authentic impact;
Rights Holders & Governing Bodies: commercial leads, board members, and community and impact executives, driving the next era of partnership revenue;
Investors & Agencies: founders, partners, and investment officers looking to future-proof their portfolios and client strategies.
The Summit serves as a practical forum for those looking to turn purpose into a core driver of business value.
our partners
Founded in 2005, Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities is a national charity that enables lifelong success through affordable sport and works to remove barriers to make life better for kids across Canada. Jumpstart joins the Purpose League with a shared commitment to advancing sponsorship models that deliver commercial growth alongside meaningful societal contribution.
Global Sustainable Sport is an independent sustainability rating and media intelligence company for the global sports sector. Its SPI Assessment Programme gives sports organisations an independent rating of how Sustainable, Purposeful and Impactful they are, measured against the 7 Sustainable Pillars of Sport. GSS has assessed over 3,000 organisations worldwide, building the sector's most comprehensive sustainability dataset. The full SPI Index and Purpose Podiums publishes at the end of 2026. The GSS Network connects federations, clubs, brands, host cities and service providers through the GSS DataHub, weekly news service, education programme, workshops and in-person events.
Kinetic Foundation is a London-based football and education charity which uses sport to empower young people to reach their potential on and off the pitch.
Hackney Laces is one of the UK's largest football communities for girls and women. Built on a model of community-led sport for development, Laces reduces barriers and creates pathways for women and girls in football and in life.
| Early Bird | Early Bird | |
|---|---|---|
Summit Pass |
Non-Profit Summit Pass |
|
|
£695
Save £300 vs Full Price £995
|
£495
Save £200 vs Full Price £695
|
|
Full summit access |
Full summit access |
|
|
|
|
|
| Content Sessions | ✓ | ✓ |
| Breakfast (Oct 15) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Lunch (Oct 15 & 16) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dinner (Oct 15) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Networking & Hospitality | ✓ | ✓ |
| Event App | ✓ | ✓ |
| Attendee List | ✓ | ✓ |
| App Messaging | ✓ | ✓ |
| Schedule Builder | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content E-Book | ✓ | ✓ |
JOIN NOW
BE THE FIRST TO JOIN THE MOVEMENT AND ACCESS EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
explore our latest insights
Perspectives shaping the future of sport, purpose and commercial impact.