MEET OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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Beyond Sport’s Board of Directors are committed to dedicating their time, experience, voices and networks to support our goal to use sport to bring communities together and reduce the inequalities that are so prevalent around the world. It is our absolute honor to have these leaders - spanning business and sport for social change - as part of the Beyond Sport family.
Learn more about them below and view their full bios here.
“Intentionally using sport to drive positive impact ensures that sport really delivers on its promise to improve lives, uplift communities and shape society.”
Nick is the Founder and President of Beyond Sport and the CEO of Benchmark. Over his 26-year career, he has spearheaded multiple brands that have changed the face of how sport interacts with business and social change.
Nick established Beyond Sport based on the belief that sport is a universal language that pulls people together; connecting them on a local community level, while also holding the power to drive substantial change globally. He believes that the organization has pushed past the notion of sports’ potential and put a network in place that evidences the extraordinary social impact benefits that sport can deliver when used with intention to do so.
Currently, he is extremely passionate about creating a sustainable planet, addressing the physical and mental health crisis and the gross inequality around the world. He firmly believes that sport has a role to play in all of them, starting with our youth.
“My personal desire is to see sport help young people to understand the world around them and help build trusting relationships. Fragmentation, disruption and mistrust are fuelling a generation of young people that are bewildered and disorientated. Sport can bring a community, clarity, objective setting and help build trust.”
“Sport with intention to me is about understanding the emotional and transformative power of sports beyond the pitch.”
Kely is an accomplished documentary filmmaker, activist and multimedia artist. She is also CEO of The Impact Game and the co-Founder of the Nascimento Foundation, which supports and creates programs to achieve a global understanding of peace through sports, storytelling and the arts as tools that facilitate diplomacy and development.
Whether an individual, brand, team, federation or nation, Kely believes that your story is your most powerful asset – engaging others in your passion and purpose. Having worked alongside Beyond Sport for several years, she wants to use her gifts to ensure that Beyond Sport’s story is vividly and effectively conveyed to the larger world.
Because the way society is structured, for Kely, everything is always about gender and race first. And, right now, she believes that athlete activists are getting social change right.
“Athletes are the rock stars of this generation which gives them a phenomenal platform, and they are not wasting that space! They are more informed and purposeful in their activism than they ever have been before. From mental health to poverty to gender and racial equity, they are educated and committed to try and make change and this is really exciting.”
“For me, sport with intention means curating connectivity through measurable impact, cross-cultural exposure and physical and mental health and wellness.”
Melissa is the Executive Director of Content for Change and Vice President of Strategy and Impact at leading media and entertainment company, Paramount, where she uses television, film and music to shift hearts and minds. An expert on issues of race, identity, culture, equity and social justice, she has spearheaded social impact strategies and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives with national non-profits and some of the world’s largest and most influential brands.
Melissa is excited to join Beyond Sport in leveraging sport as equalizer to spur meaningful social change in collaboration with other global forces of social good and social justice. As a content creator, she is especially inspired by the growing number of athletes who have created their own platforms for storytelling where sports-based conversations evolve into topics that span every aspect of the human experience.
Stemming back to her experience of being the only girl on her elementary school’s basketball team because there wasn’t a team for girls, Melissa is devoted to gender parity in opportunity, resources and exposure. She has made it her mission to champion women in spaces where they are underrepresented and to create pipelines for future opportunities. Melissa is particularly passionate about increasing the number of women and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) talent in leadership roles within sports leagues and media.
“With diverse voices at the table, inclusive and intentional acts can be taken to elevate conversations and support talented athletes in ways in which they’ve often been underserved.”
“At a time that feels most divisive - whether that division is political, economic or cultural - sport is one of the few common languages; a tool to convene, motivate and drive progress. Sport with intention is personal agency and collective progress.”
Cameron, a chartered financial analyst (CFA), is a Private Wealth Advisor for Ellevest where she focuses on Sustainable and Impact Investing. Ellevest was founded to help close the gender wealth gap, and seeks to change the way that people and community organizations engage with financial institutions.
Though she is passionate about many causes, including promoting financial literacy and climate action, she hopes to use her expertise in helping women build wealth to further Beyond Sport’s investment in women athletes around the world.
“Communities of women are reimagining the sports industry in big ways. And athletes like Naomi Osaka, Simone Biles, and Aly Raisman are using their platform to change the conversation around expectations for athletes and how sports organizations view mental health.
When women invest in women’s sports, it changes the game.”