Governance
Kenneth Hershman currently serves as Chief Executive Officer and a director of Champion Gaming. Previously he was a partner of Electronic Sports Group and Chief Executive Officer of World Esports Association. Mr. Hershman’s background includes significant tenure at leading media companies in a variety of senior management roles, including serving as President, HBO Sports and Executive Vice President, Sports and Event Programming at Showtime Networks, a division of Viacom. As part of these roles, he supervised award-winning shows such as Inside the NFL, Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Hard Knocks, 24/7 and both HBO’s and Showtime’s boxing and pay-per-view boxing platforms. Mr. Hershman also has extensive experience in the global esports industry, including through his past position as Chief Executive Officer and Commissioner of the global esports association the World Esports Association (WESA), and as a partner in the esports advisory firm Electronic Sports Group (ESG). He began his career as an attorney, with tenure as a corporate finance associate at Shearman & Sterling, as well as in-house counsel at Showtime Networks Inc. Mr. Hershman is a graduate of Fordham University School of Law, where he was a member of the International Law Journal. He received his Bachelor of Science degree, with distinction, from The George Washington University, where he was selected Phi Beta Kappa.
Sean O’Leary is a founder of multiple companies offering proprietary content to both business to business and consumer markets. Mr. O’Leary is currently the President of Champion Gaming.Previously he was the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of EdjSports and the CEO of EdjAnalytics. Sean was the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Genscape, Inc., now a Wood Mackenzie business, a Louisville headquartered organization that offers proprietary data to the global energy markets. Mr. O’Leary has been recognized as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year which honors entrepreneurial excellence in vision, innovation and leadership in building and growing successful businesses. He holds a BBA degree in Finance and Economics from the University of Michigan and is a graduate of the University of Louisville’s first MBA in Entrepreneurship class. In 2016, Mr. O’Leary was recognized as an Endeavor Entrepreneur.
David Lubotta has over 30 years of entrepreneurial, corporate finance, innovation and leadership experience. Mr. Lubotta is the Co-Founder and Director of Champion Gaming. He is also currently a principal and the Managing Partner of DML Ventures, a privately held firm that contributes value as an advisor, incubator and strategic partner to a number of private and public companies (since January 2019). From June 2010 to January 2019, he was a partner at Sygnus Ventures. Mr. Lubotta has been an advisor in the gaming sector to Score Media and Gaming Inc., a publicly listed digital media company that was one of the first online and mobile sports betting applications where he assisted in taking the company to a market capitalization of over $2B. He is an active participant in the legalized cannabis industry as a Partner at Merida Capital Partners, a leading cannabis private equity group that has over $550M of assets under management with over 50 portfolio companies. Mr. Lubotta has also been an advisor to the health and wellness sector to Delos Living/Delos Canada, the world’s first building standard and innovations lab that focuses exclusively on human health and wellness, Prepare Your Mind, an innovated consumer products company in the mental wellness industry, and Ritual Superfoods, a functional superfood company that creates planbased elixirs. Mr. Lubotta has also been active in several philanthropic initiatives throughout North America and holds an MBA from Kellogg, School of Management (Northwestern University).
Compared to Bill James by The New York Times Magazine, and attributed as a “founding father of football analytics” by The Ringer, Aaron Schatz is the creator and Editor-in-Chief of Football Outsiders. Aaron is also the creator of most of the original statistical methods (DVOA, DYAR) used in NFL analysis on this website, as well as Lead Writer, Editor, and Statistician on the book series Football Outsiders Almanac (published since 2009). He also writes for ESPN.com and ESPN+, and appears weekly during the NFL season on the Off The Charts podcast. During the 2011 season, he was a regular panelist on the ESPN2 show Numbers Never Lie. Before Football Outsiders, Aaron spent five years as a radio host at WBRU Providence and WKRO Daytona Beach, and three years as the writer and producer of the Lycos 50, the Internet's foremost authority on the people, places, and things that are searched online. He has written on sports, politics, and taxes for a number of publications including The New Republic, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Slate, The American Prospect, and the Boston Phoenix. Aaron resides in Worcester, Massachusetts and yes, is a New England Patriots fan.
Frank Frigo has a passion for games and markets. He is a former winner of the Backgammon World Championship in Monte Carlo and has held the number one international ranking for both on-line and live match play. Before co-founding EdjAnalytics, he had an active career in commodity markets with an emphasis on structuring wholesale energy transactions. He has more than 20 years of experience in the power and natural gas industries. Frank has consulted with several NFL and NCAA Division 1 football programs and his work in sports analytics has been prominently featured in Esquire, Fox Sports, ESPN, The New York Times and Showtime’s “Inside the NFL.
John Barkeley is a dynamic finance professional with a decade of experience supporting SaaS and tech-enabled services businesses in various corporate finance, investment banking, and advisory roles. Most recently, prior to Champion, John served as the Head of Finance at EdjAnalytics and EdjSports since April 2018. Prior to joining Edj, John was a Vice President at DH Capital, a leading technology focused merchant bank in New York City, specializing in the Internet infrastructure, communications, and SaaS sectors. Throughout his tenure there, John supported the completion of more than $2.5B in various M&A, capital raising, and principal investment transactions. John began his career in the Audit practice at Deloitte and is a Certified Public Account (Registered, Inactive). He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business (Major in Accounting, Minor in Chinese)
Daniel Giordan currently serves as the Vice President of Product for Champion Gaming, where he oversees the development and implementation of products across the Champion Gaming portfolio. He provides direction and oversight for product design and strategy, as well as Data Science, Software Engineering, and UX/UI.
Mr. Giordan has a strong user-centered design and product background with proven experience at the enterprise level, spending over twenty years connecting with audiences and elevating fan-brands through his passion for user research, design, and user experience.
Prior to Champion he was the VP of User Experience at Nielsen, Inc. where he created The Design Collective for NielsenIQ, unifying the product, brand and marketing teams. In 2020, he led the product rebrand of the $3B, 100-year-old company across web, marketing and over 100 disparate digital products.
Dan’s career also includes leadership roles for leading enterprise brands, digital agencies, and international consultancies. He has worked with some of the world’s top brands, providing a holistic, design thinking approach for companies such as Foot Locker, Microsoft, The Hartford, Sears Holdings, Nielsen, and AOL Time Warner.
He’s authored and designed 15 books on digital design and photography and received the Publishers Marketing Association’s Benjamin Franklin aware for “Best Computer Book.” for The Art of Photoshop, published by Pearson Publishing.
Mr. Giordan is the recipient of the Ellen Stoeckel Battel Fellowship from Yale University, holds a Master of Fine Arts from Bard College and a Bachelor of Fine Art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston.
Chris Spagnuolo is the VP of Content at Champion Gaming where he oversees the Football Outsiders and EdjSports editorial teams in addition to hosting and creating video and written content around sports betting and fantasy sports.
Chris graduated with a degree in Public Relations and Journalism from the University of Southern California and worked in PR for companies such as WWE, Men’s Health, and Bankrate.com before founding a men’s lifestyle content company, Guyism, that was acquired by Uproxx Media Group in 2013. Chris then went on to work as a Director (and later Senior Director) of Editorial Strategy at Barstool Sports, where he oversaw their social media, editorial, and podcast strategies and served as a lead writer and video and podcast personality as the company grew from a localized powerhouse to a national brand.
After playing a key part in Barstool’s acquisition by the Chernin Group, Chris began work in 2018 with a trio of top daily fantasy sports players and bettors as they founded Awesemo.com, a company where he served as a Senior Director or Editorial Strategy. While at Awesemo, Chris learned the principles and data approach needed to become a profitable sports bettor and fantasy player based on teachings from the founding team’s millions in winnings as he brought his expertise to their editorial roadmap and audience acquisition strategies. As a lead host for the company, Chris would go on to create thousands of hours of content focused on educating and entertaining viewers, podcast listeners, and website visitors on sports betting and daily fantasy sports until he joined Champion Gaming to head its Content division in September 2021.
Kenneth Hershman currently serves as Chief Executive Officer and a director of Champion Gaming. Previously he was a partner of Electronic Sports Group and Chief Executive Officer of World Esports Association. Mr. Hershman’s background includes significant tenure at leading media companies in a variety of senior management roles, including serving as President, HBO Sports and Executive Vice President, Sports and Event Programming at Showtime Networks, a division of Viacom. As part of these roles, he supervised award-winning shows such as Inside the NFL, Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Hard Knocks, 24/7 and both HBO’s and Showtime’s boxing and pay-per-view boxing platforms. Mr. Hershman also has extensive experience in the global esports industry, including through his past position as Chief Executive Officer and Commissioner of the global esports association the World Esports Association (WESA), and as a partner in the esports advisory firm Electronic Sports Group (ESG). He began his career as an attorney, with tenure as a corporate finance associate at Shearman & Sterling, as well as in-house counsel at Showtime Networks Inc. Mr. Hershman is a graduate of Fordham University School of Law, where he was a member of the International Law Journal. He received his Bachelor of Science degree, with distinction, from The George Washington University, where he was selected Phi Beta Kappa.
Sean O’Leary is a founder of multiple companies offering proprietary content to both business to business and consumer markets. Mr. O’Leary is currently the President of Champion Gaming.Previously he was the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of EdjSports and the CEO of EdjAnalytics. Sean was the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Genscape, Inc., now a Wood Mackenzie business, a Louisville headquartered organization that offers proprietary data to the global energy markets. Mr. O’Leary has been recognized as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year which honors entrepreneurial excellence in vision, innovation and leadership in building and growing successful businesses. He holds a BBA degree in Finance and Economics from the University of Michigan and is a graduate of the University of Louisville’s first MBA in Entrepreneurship class. In 2016, Mr. O’Leary was recognized as an Endeavor Entrepreneur.
David Lubotta has over 30 years of entrepreneurial, corporate finance, innovation and leadership experience. Mr. Lubotta is the Co-Founder and Director of Champion Gaming. He is also currently a principal and the Managing Partner of DML Ventures, a privately held firm that contributes value as an advisor, incubator and strategic partner to a number of private and public companies (since January 2019). From June 2010 to January 2019, he was a partner at Sygnus Ventures. Mr. Lubotta has been an advisor in the gaming sector to Score Media and Gaming Inc., a publicly listed digital media company that was one of the first online and mobile sports betting applications where he assisted in taking the company to a market capitalization of over $2B. He is an active participant in the legalized cannabis industry as a Partner at Merida Capital Partners, a leading cannabis private equity group that has over $550M of assets under management with over 50 portfolio companies. Mr. Lubotta has also been an advisor to the health and wellness sector to Delos Living/Delos Canada, the world’s first building standard and innovations lab that focuses exclusively on human health and wellness, Prepare Your Mind, an innovated consumer products company in the mental wellness industry, and Ritual Superfoods, a functional superfood company that creates planbased elixirs. Mr. Lubotta has also been active in several philanthropic initiatives throughout North America and holds an MBA from Kellogg, School of Management (Northwestern University).
Paxton Baker is an American businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist, who has served in the entertainment, music, sports and production industries for over 30 years. Mr. Baker is the President of PKB Enterprises. He is a minority owner of the Washington Nationals Baseball club and currently serves as chairman of the Washington Nationals Founding Partners Group. Mr. Baker is also a partner in the ownership group of the Washington Kastles World Team Tennis League and a governing Board Member of the Global Sports Summit. In 2018, Mr. Baker launched the Washington, D.C., office of Liquid Soul, the agency behind the marketing and promotion of such blockbuster films as Black Panther and Fast & Furious 6. As Managing Partner, he is leading the expansion of the 17-year old company into the political, sports and entertainment arenas. For 16 years, Mr. Baker served as the Executive Vice President and General Manager of CENTRIC (formerly BETJ), BET’s complementary network targeting the African American and multicultural adult. Mr. Baker was also President of BET Event Productions, which produced music festivals, award shows, TV specials and concerts throughout the world. Paxton has produced numerous television shows and home videos, and released over 40 DVD and CD titles. In 2006, Mr. Baker was appointed by the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives to serve as a member of The Congressional Award Foundation National Board of Directors, the only official charity of the United States Congress. Shortly thereafter he was elected to serve as Vice Chairman and then Chairman of the Board in 2007 to present. Mr. Baker currently invests in a variety of industries that enable him to expand his reach and bring together business, civic and community leaders from both the private and public sectors to help celebrate and preserve the arts, health and wellness, and critical American values.
Ishwara Glassman Chrein is a highly accomplished business executive with nearly 20 years of experience in sports and media, who is currently serving as the President of Business Operations for Chicago Fire FC. Prior to joining the Fire, she served as the Head of Sports Partnerships and Business Development at Yahoo Sports / Verizon Media, where she led relationships and negotiations with several sports leagues, broadcasters, streamers, data companies and technology companies. In addition, she oversaw gaming strategy, evaluated sports rights acquisition deals across the globe, and worked with sports technology start-ups. She began her career at McKinsey & Company and Lehman Brothers, before spending nine years at WME IMG Sports, Entertainment and Media, most recently as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Sales Operations and Strategic Planning.
Glassman Chrein graduated magna cum laude from Columbia University with a degree in economics and political science and received her Master's in International Affairs (International Finance) from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. She received the 2020 Sports Business Journal's Forty Under 40 award and is a board member of the Business of Sports School, a New York City public school with an underserved student body.
