NFL CMO & Jacksonville Jaguars Owner Join Leaders Lineup

September 20, 2012

Shahid Khan, owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and Mark Waller, the NFL’s Chief Marketing Officer, are the latest speakers to be announced for The Leaders Sport Summit being held at Chelsea FC, on 10th and 11th October 2012. 

With NFL teams dominating the list of most valuable sports teams in the world, and with the organisation keen to expand American football internationally, the session which is scheduled to open day two, will be a unique insight into the vision and strategy of the NFL and one of its newest franchise owners.

Pakistan-born Shahid Khan became the owner of the Jaguars in January 2012, becoming the first ethnic minority owner in NFL history.

Having arrived in the USA at the age of 16, his ambition of one day owning an NFL team began while falling in love with the league while watching games at the University of Illinois, where he was studying for an engineering degree and working for $1.20 per hour washing dishes. Forty years later, after building Flex-N-Gate from scratch into a multi-billion dollar company servicing the car manufacturing industry with 13,442 employees and 52 manufacturing plants in the United States and worldwide, his dream came true.

His purchase of the Jacksonville Jaguars and the team’s commitment to play one home game in London each NFL season from 2013 through 2016 is an indication of how sport in the USA is changing, targeting international growth and opening up to a new breed of entrepreneurs and business people. 

Waller is the first ever Chief Marketing Officer in NFL history, having joined in 2006 as the International Senior Vice President where his role included overseeing the growth of the NFL’s International Series. As CMO, Waller is responsible for the marketing function operating across all NFL platforms and properties, including NFL Ventures, NFL Network and NFL.com, and he continues to oversee the NFL’s International business.

The Leaders Sports Summit is the world’s most prestigious gathering of leaders in sport over 2 days in London.  Held annually it hosts 5 conferences and 100 world class speakers with 1500 senior level executives from over 50 countries and 40 sports in the audience