Conquering Geek Culture Leaders to Go

Marisa Reich is the Chair of She Sports Switzerland and ex Head of Events & Culture at Infront. Marisa joins Chris Hana to talk about her career, from being an athlete agent to working for the Berlin Marathon and working for Red Bull to her most recent positions. Both discuss the need for diversity and inclusion and talk about why women are needed in the sports and esports industry, current challenges, and how to build an inclusive culture.

Nicole Pike spent 13 years at Nielsen building and moving its games and esports divisions forward. Nicole recently joined YouGov as their sector head for esports and gaming. In this weeks episode, Nicole talks about her career, the importance of data and research in a young industry like esports, and about her future plans. Both also talk about how brands can authentically work with the industry and what people should know before engaging with the space.

Johnathan Wendel, better known by his nickname Fatal1ty, started his professional gaming career in the 90s. Johnathan walks Chris through his time as a player, the impact it has on his life, and how he was able to become an entrepreneur by turning his name into a successful brand. Today, Johnathan is also co-founder of Ready Up, a California-based startup that wants to make esports and gaming accessible for everyone.

Ralf Reichert is Co-Founder of the Electronic Sports League (ES), the world’s largest independent esports company with offices around the globe. ESL creates esports leagues, tournaments, and runs production studios. In this episode, Ralf shares the ups and downs of his almost 20 years with ESL, why open ecosystem are important for the esports industry, and why ESL focuses on building a place where “everybody can be somebody.”

Jason Masherah is President at Upper Deck and has been with the company for over 14 years. In this episode of Conquering Geek Culture, Jason walks Chris through the Upper Deck verticals Sports Cards, Entertainment and Upper Deck Authenticated Memorabilia & Collectibles and discusses “Upper Deck e-Pack," which moves the traditional trading card experiences into the digital world.

Gary Vaynerchuk is Chairman of VaynerX, CEO of VaynerMedia, and 5x New York Times Best-Selling Author. He began working at his family wine store, where he grew the business from $3M to $65M in just five years. In an interview with Chris Hana, Gary explains how he uses his skills to identify trends and why he is bullish on esports. Among other things, both dive into Gary’s investment in the Minnesota Røkkr Call of Duty League team and Gary’s experience with Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf, who is currently represented by the newly created VaynerGaming agency arm.