Rob Prazmark is one of the most highly regarded executives in the Sports and Entertainment Business and is especially recognized within the Olympic Movement. In August 2004, Sports Business Journal named Rob the Olympic’s 8th most influential person in the world. He is one of the all-time leading sellers of Olympic-related programs. And more importantly, an expert at consulting and negotiating the rights and benefits offered by various Olympic entities. During a career in which he revolutionized sports and events marketing while pioneering the field of intellectual marketing, Rob has brokered more than $3.0 billion in sponsorship and media relationships to date. He is one of the original team members that created and sold The Olympic Program (TOP) for the International Olympic Committee when it was developed in 1985. Rob successfully sold TOP on behalf of the IOC through 1996 negotiating more than 40 different corporate deals worldwide.
He and his U.S. based company 21 Sports & Entertainment Marketing Group, Inc. have just completed a project for the International Olympic Committee and are currently working with the USOC, Dentsu (IAAF/FINA), Global Experience Specialists, and NBC. In addition to his dealings within the Olympic world, he has been involved with the World Cup, the Dallas Cowboys, the Miami Dolphins, the Smithsonian Institution, and NASA. 21 also works with the Mexican Government in developing the plan for their Bicentennial in 2010. All of these activities have earned him a worldwide reputation as an expert in event creation and complex deal making.
Prior to restarting 21 in 2007, Rob was President of Olympic Sales and Marketing for IMG from 1997 through 2006. The assignment included SpecialProjects. The original 21 Marketing activities began in 1991 and in 1997 Rob sold 21 to IMG. From 1982 to 1985, while at ABC News in New York, Rob was responsible for the sales and marketing of all network news properties, including World News Tonight, 20/20, Nightline, all prime-time News Briefs and the documentary series Close-Up. He also created ABC’s Business Briefs and Business World with Sandor Vanocur. Prior to ABC, Rob worked at NBC. Rob was raised in California and is a graduate of Canisius College in upstate New York.
Sarah Reinertsen stepped on the world stage after making sports history in one of the toughest endurance events in the world - the Hawaii Ironman. This legendary race includes a 2.4-mile swim (3.8km), 112-mile bike (180km), and a 26.2-mile run (42.2km). Sarah is the first woman on a prosthetic leg to finish the Ironman World Championships in Kona, in a very respectable finish time of 15 hours and 5 minutes. A year later she raced around the world on “The Amazing Race,” the Emmy award winning reality TV series on CBS. Sarah’s story has been covered in many national newspapers and she has graced the covers of Runner’s World, Triathlete, Competitor and ESPN magazine. In 2009, GPP Life published her book, entitled “In A Single Bound.” An honest, touching and funny memoir, how a feisty one-legged girl trying to fit in with her two legged friends, grows up to becomes a world-class athlete and TV personality.
Sarah Reinertsen continues to race in triathlons and road races around the world and is a current member USAT National Paratriathlon team. She is a 3-time world champion in ITU short course triathlon, and has won the Ironman 70.3 world championships. Before Sarah became a triathlete, she had prestigious career as a runner, on the track and on the road. Sarah raced on the US Disabled Track Team for 10 years, including the US team at the 1992 Paralympic Games. Several years later Sarah made the switch to road racing, and ran in dozens of 10k’s, half-marathons and 7 marathons before becoming a triathlete. Along the way she has broken world records, and won many awards including ESPN’s ESPY for best female athlete of the year.
Sarah spends much of her time giving back to the sport and serves as a spokesperson for the Challenged Athletes Foundation, a non-profit that supports athletes with disabilities. Sarah works with CAF on their mentorship & coaching program, a series of sports workshops around the country, teaching amputees how to run, spin, bike and swim.
Sarah also works as a motivational speaker, and has moved many audiences at multi-national companies like Merck, MetLife, Credit-Suisse, Barclay’s, etc. Through her multi-media presentation, Sarah shares her story and motivates others to realize their potential. Sarah speaks about goal setting, how to face fear, overcome set backs, live with hope, and dares us all to dream big.
Caryn Davies was part of the Olympic women’s eight that set a world record in the heat and won a silver medal in the final in Athens, Greece. She enjoys sailing, horseback riding, ballroom dancing and downhill skiing. As a senior at Harvard, she competed on the ballroom team. Caryn plans to attend graduate school in international relations at the University of Amsterdam next year and then go on to law school after her competitive career is over. She lists her most interesting job as her 2002 internship at an equine medical center in Ringoes, N.J. Caryn took up yoga as a freshman in college to help recover from a back injury. At first, she was more interested in the physical aspects of yoga, but she has gradually become more interested in the spiritual aspects the longer she has done it. She recently began teaching yoga classes to her teammates. Caryn lists her most memorable sporting achievement as beating all of the boys in her class to win the third-grade arm wrestling competition. She was part of the first U.S. junior women’s crew to win a gold medal at the Junior World Championships in 2000. Caryn lists C.R.A.S.H.-B’s as her favorite place to compete, saying that it always terrified her but that she felt a strong sense of accomplishment and relief when it was over. She lists Whitney Post, her coach and training partner in high school, as the most influential person in her sporting career. Caryn said she learned most what she knows from Post, especially in the mental aspects of sports and life. Post now runs a sports psychology consulting company in Boston.
Jason Rogers recently joined the advertising agency, JWT, as a part of the WPP Marketing Fellowship, a prestigious program which places talented new-comers to marketing into rotations with WPP operating companies worldwide. Among other projects, his current role involves working on America’s first ever unified, international tourism campaign.
Prior to beginning the WPP Marketing fellowship, Jason traveled globe representing the US as an athlete. Jason is an Olympic Silver Medalist and two-time Olympian in the sport of fencing. His other athletic accomplishments include titles such as, National Champion, Junior World Champion, and Pan American Champion.
After his success at the Beijing Olympic Games, Jason played a key strategic role in helping to elevate the perception of the sport of fencing. Initiatives he oversaw generated press in esteemed media outlets such as, The NY Times, Vanity Fair, and WSJ magazine as well as cultivated relationships with brands like Calvin Klein and Louis Vuitton.
Jason also currently serves an athlete ambassador for the “Right To Play” international humanitarian organization. Jason’s past activities have included organizing and co-chairing fund raising events, traveling to Jordan to educate local RTP staff members, and speaking on behalf of the organization’s key platform of using sport and play as a means for fostering peace and development
Marlon Shirley has endured many challenging situations over the last 28 years, including many which would have caused an average person to break down. But Marlon Shirley is no average person. In 2000, Marlon became the 100 meter Gold Medalist at the Sydney Paralympic Games. This kicked off an incredible journey that would result in Marlon not only being the fastest amputee in the world but also a world class athlete with three World Records…in the 100 meter, 200 meter and Long Jump. In fact, Marlon not only has become the first amputee to break the 11 second barrier but he has run it in an astounding 10.97 seconds.
At the age of five when kids should be playing and laughing with friends and family, Marlon Shirley was on the streets of Las Vegas finally being moved in and out of orphanages. While living in the Nevada Children’s home a tragic accident with a riding lawnmower resulted in the amputation of his left foot at the ankle. Despite this trauma in his life and so much working against him, Marlon felt blessed when to he was finally connected with a loving family through his adoption by the Shirley family in Northern Utah. From that time to the present Marlon persisted from one challenge to the next, and, with the support of his family, friends, coaches and fans, he has not only developed into a highly disciplined and successful athlete, but has raised the bar in the development of prosthetic technology while dedicating himself to helping others less fortunate than himself.
Marlon rounds out his success on the track with many other dreams and hobbies, including being an avid pilot with schooling in Aeronautical Engineering. His other interests include golfing, off-road racing, R.C. modeling, photography, snowboarding and anything that people tell him he can’t do.
Marlon lives in San Diego and trains at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA, currently training with the High Performance Paralympic Team under coach Juaquim Cruz and Troy Engle. His current focus is on the 2008 Beijing Paralympic games, where he plans on going for five medals, thus, “The Drive for Five”. This feat would be unprecedented in his sport given the level of excellence in competition that has developed in the Paralympic program.
Marlon has won several awards for his accomplishments including ‘The Role Model of the 21st Century” in 2003, the 2005 ESPY Award and the US Olympic Spirit award.
Jamie McEwan is best known in the obscure world of Whitewater Canoe Slalom, having competed internationally for over twenty years. He won a Bronze medal in the Munich Olympics in 1972, and returned twenty years later to compete in the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, where he placed fourth in the doubles event, racing with Lecky Haller. The team of Haller and McEwan also won a silver medal in the 1987 World Championships and were World Cup Champions in 1988. After retiring from international competition, McEwan went on to participate in whitewater expeditions on wilderness rivers, including an historic, though ill-fated, attempt on the Tsangpo River in Tibet.
During his competitive years McEwan began writing articles on canoe and kayak sport, and he has gone on to be write for a number of outdoor and general interest magazines, as well as to publish six books for young and middle-grade children.
In 2009 McEwan founded the nonprofit Whitewater Slalom Foundation, and he currently serves on its board.
Married since 1978 to cartoonist and children’s author Sandra Boynton, and the proud father of their four children, McEwan lives, writes, and paddles in Connecticut. Son Devin is on the current US Whitewater Canoe Slalom team.
Michael Sokolove is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, as well as the author of two previous books, The Ticket Out: Darryl Strawberry and The Boys of Crenshaw and Hustle: The Myth, Life, and Lies of Pete Rose. He has appeared on numerous national television and radio news shows, including ABC’s Good Morning America and Prime Time Thursday, ESPN’s Outside the Lines, and CNN’s Paula Zahn Now. He has been a guest on the National Public Radio shows Fresh Air, The Tavis Smiley Show, and Only a Game.
At the New York Times Magazine, and previously with the Sunday magazine of the Philadelphia Inquirer, he has written on wide range of topics -– from life in inner-city America, to eco-terrorism, to presidential politics, to the question of whether would-be assassin John Hinckley should go free. Sokolove’s specialty has been the sociology and culture of sports, and he has done some of the most important and provocative writing about sports today.
Tim Greene, MD is an orthopedic surgeon who is fellowship trained in sports medicineand hip arthroscopy, an innovative technique that has revolutionized the treatment of various hip problems. He graduated Princeton University and earned his medical degree at the Medical College of Georgia. He performed a residency in orthopedics at Emory University and served as associate team physician to the athletic teams at Georgia Tech. Dr. Tim Greene completed fellowship training at the Steadman Hawkins Clinic in Vail, Colorado under the direction of Dr. Marc Philippon. While there, he served as associate team physician for the U.S. Ski Team.
His interest in sports medicine derives from his ongoing personal interest in sports. In college, he played varsity football, served as team captain and earned numerous awards for outstanding athletic achievement.
Dekan Apajee is a Broadcast Journalist currently working for the BBC in the UK with an extensive background in multimedia broadcasting. Having graduated with a degree in Aerospace Engineering and after a short stint working within financial services he started working for BBC London nine years ago as researcher and producer for BBC London 94.9FM radio programs. Quickly progressing through the ranks Dekan made the leap to TV Broadcast journalist just two years after starting his career in the media. Since then he’s worked as a reporter for the BBC News Channel where he also presented a weekly consumer news program – Your News. His work at the regional offices of BBC London have seen him manage various projects focused on the impact of London 2012 including, producing bespoke online radio stations, facilitating user-generated content and working predominantly with young people helping them get their voices heard, and more recently it’s seen him don a pair of shorts and trainers as he hits the track learning about what it really takes to become an Olympic and Paralympic athlete for a series called ‘Dekan Does 2012′.
