The company boasts an experienced, entrepreneurial and trusted management team with complementary know-how and a combined international experience of more than 200 years in sports and entertainment marketing. We have profound marketing, commercial, consulting and operational skills and a comprehensive understanding of the industry and where it is headed.

Thomas Martens – Chief Executive Officer

A German national and founder, CEO and initial investor of Triumph Media Group. He has 20 years of experience in the sports marketing industry, having successfully built two international sports marketing agencies. In 1992 he established the international football department of Ufa Sports, today known as Sportfive, which he developed to become market leader in Europe. Thomas was responsible for signing exclusive and worldwide media and marketing rights contracts with some 100 European football clubs and 20 European football federations.

In 1996 he founded Global Sportnet, another leading agency in the industry. He sold 30% of the company to Apax Partners in 1999 and subsequently 100% to WPP Group plc in 2002. As CEO within WPP over the following seven years, he created several joint ventures with other leading WPP communications services agencies in Asia, the Middle East and London. The business subsequently diversified and expanded into other sports and the music-based entertainment sector.

In 2009 Thomas established Triumph Media Group as a leading sports and entertainment marketing and consultancy enterprise with a different, transparent, innovative and, most importantly, integrated approach to the market.

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Christian Weddigen – Chief Financial Officer

Christian, who is also German, joined Triumph Media Group from Sportfive, where he worked for more than 10 years in leading F&A positions, latterly as CFO. He has vast experience in financial structuring and modelling in the sports industry, having founded and managed as MD the subsidiary Sportfive Financial Services in 2006.

This entity was set up in response to the increasing demand of the sports industry for professional financial consultancy and mediation with the capital market. Sportfive Financial Services successfully raised funds for stadium constructions in Germany and had several consultancy mandates from football clubs.

Prior to Sportfive, Christian worked at Premiere (now Sky), the German pay TV operator, for three years. He holds a degree in business administration.

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Caroline Furness – Vice President, Entertainment

Caroline, who is English, has 12 years’ wide-ranging media, marketing and event experience focused within the TV, youth, music and theatrical sectors. This encompasses both the UK and the international arena, having worked in the television sector and then moved into the music industry. She has substantial knowledge of rights and their delivery on all platforms (TV, digital, mobile). Active in devising, negotiating and implementing large partnerships deals, Caroline has formed lucrative associations with brand directors from the telecoms sector, electronics through to FMCG brands, and is recognised for her innovative approach. She has worked with the likes of Anschutz Entertainment Group, Live Nation, BSkyB, Ministry of Sound and the strategic teams of Sony Music and Universal Music.

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Robin Taylor – Vice President, Sponsorship

British-born Robin joined Triumph Media Group in September 2010. He specialises in working with rights owners to develop sponsorship strategies and then execute them – and has more than 11 years experience in the industry. Previously founder and managing director of the consultancy Prestige Sponsorship, his clients included the two best teams in professional cycling, Team HTC Columbia and Team SaxoBank. Prior to establishing Prestige, Robin was Vice President of Octagon Worldwide’s rights representation business, setting up the unit from scratch and working with rights owners such as the NFL, A1GP and Marks Barfield Architects (designers of the London Eye). He holds a BSc Hons degree in sports science from Loughborough University and a PGCE from Christ Church College, Canterbury.

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Florian Riepe – Vice President, Brand Strategy

Florian, a German national, joined Triumph Media Group from Sportfive International, where he worked for 13 years. At Sportfive he was ultimately responsible as a Senior Director for all marketing-related sponsorship rights within the company’s Football Federation portfolio, creating individual Pan-European strategies for existing sponsorship packages. As Managing Director, Florian also established an office in Bulgaria, creating a comprehensive sponsoring platform for the Bulgarian Football Union and other sport properties in the country. In his role as Marketing Key Account and consultant he oversaw clients like Coca-Cola, Opel, VISA, Nike, Siemens and Heineken. Florian’s sports-marketing career began on the national side of Sportfive (formerly UFA Sports), where he worked for Bundesliga clubs like Hertha BSC, Hamburger SV, Eintracht Frankfurt and FC Augsburg, and also the for NFL Europe. Florian studied in Hamburg and holds a degree in Communication Design & Art Direction.

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Frederik Lütt – Director, Media Rights

Frederik joined Triumph Media Group from Sportfive where he managed media and marketing rights of various football associations and clubs for eight years. A German national, he was also involved in the rights distribution of UEFA Euro 2008, the Rugby Union Six-Nations, the FIA World Rally Championships, Handball Bundesliga, Handball World Championships and the coordination of acquisition and global sales for top boxers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko. Frederik holds a degree in banking, plus a Bachelor in Economics qualification from the University of Hamburg and a Masters in industrial economics from the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and University of Hamburg.

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Philipp Wessel – Director, Digital Media

Philipp is a senior sports marketing and digital media specialist with more than 12 years of experience in streaming media, digital marketing and strategic new media consulting. He is specialized on exploitation of sports content on all digital platforms. Before joining Triumph Media Group Philipp was heading SPORTFIVE’s New Media department where he developed and successfully implemented digital media strategies for many clubs and federations. As part of the SPORTFIVE Media Team Philipp was involved in marketing the new media rights for the EURO 2008 and developed the strategy for the sale of the European media rights of the Olympic Games 2014 and 2016. Working together with federations and associations Philipp managed the live streaming portals for UEFA EURO 2008 Qualification, the FIFA World Cup 2010 Qualification or the African Cup of Nations and brought these projects to big success. Philipp also consulted many German Bundesliga Clubs in developing their digital strategy and supported them during the implementation process. On this field he created several award winning websites, launched the first German Club web TV project and set up the first mobile sites for Football clubs. He recently also advised the clubs with their social media strategy and implemented YouTube channels or Facebook communities.

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Bruno Oppenheim – Executive, Media Rights

Frenchman Bruno has over 20 years of experience in TV sports markets, varying from sales and acquisitions processes to the coordination and programming/production of special events. During his nine years as international sports department manager at Canal+ France, Bruno acquired rights for international football leagues, all major boxing events from the USA, NBA, NFL, Formula 1 and World Cup skiing. He also coordinated production and programming for Canal+ during the Olympic Games and Rugby World Cup. Bruno joined Prime International (Denver-Co.) as VP Programming, in charge of acquiring non-US programming (EPL, Calcio, Liga, tennis etc) for prime networks in the US and abroad. He was also responsible for the worldwide deal with the PGA Tour. He eventually returned to France to join Groupe Darmon (which became Sportfive) as head of media rights. Later, at Octagon, he was head of sales for France, Spain, Portugal, Latin America and Africa with events like Euro 2004, international rugby and the Carling Cup. Bruno has also been programming consultant for broadcasters in France, Bosnia, Africa and Asia and sold rights to Copa America, Brazilian football, Copa Libertadores and the UEFA. He was part of the GlobalSportnet team for several territories.

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Dr. Michael Choi – Director Strategy & Senior Legal Counsel

Dr. Choi, a German national with Korean roots, joined Triumph Media Group from Sportfive where he worked as Senior Manager Legal Affairs for the Business Unit International. He had been responsible for legal matters concerning the marketing of media broadcasting and advertising rights to various sports events such as international football leagues and competitions [e.g. English Premier League, Bundesliga, Primera Division, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League], qualification matches to the 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cups as well as to the UEFA Euro 2008, the IHF Handball World Championships and the German Handball Bundesliga. Michael, whose professional career started at Sony Music Entertainment, holds a degree from the De Montfort University in Leicester, is a German graduate and was awarded a doctorate/PhD in 2005. He is contributing as part-time adjunct professor to De Montfort University’s ‘LLM Sport Law and Practice’ and has been lecturing at the University of Mainz on ‘Advertising, Trademark and Media Law’.

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Maxim Belitskiy – Director, Eastern Europe

Maxim has seven years experience in sports marketing and consultancy and worked for the top sports marketing agencies in his native Russia. He was director of sports/business development at Sportima & Brand Action Group, where he was involved in a series of consulting projects such as the Euro-Asian/Kontinental Hockey League, the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships (where he was also an LOC member), the Russian Handball Union (where Maxim was also an executive board member and responsible for marketing), the International Bandy Federation (FIB) and International Mind Sport Association (IMSA). Other projects included sponsorship activation consultancy for VTB Bank as official partner of the 2007 IAAF World Series and participation in the management team of Russia v USA athletics matches from 2004 to 2007. In 2009, Maxim was head of business development for Kontinental Hockey League Marketing LLC.

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Prashant Singh – Director, India

Prashant Singh has 10 years of experience in the sports industry in India alone and a combined experience of 14 years in sports, media and marketing. His main area of expertise lies in creating formats and new properties and negotiating deals with government and sponsors. He has worked with a wide variety of sports interests in India including the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003, ICC Champions Trophy 2004, International Cricket in India and Sri Lanka, the Indian Premier League (IPL), football (sponsorship and marketing) and sailing (marketing).

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Markus Stadler – Manager Marketing & Sales

Markus joined Triumph Media Group from Sportfive, where he worked in the Hospitality & Media Sales department. Markus, who is German, studied economics with a focus on sports management at the Reinhold-Würth-Hochschule Künzelsau. During this time he worked as an intern and student trainee at, among others, ROGON Sportmanagement GmbH, ROGON Brasil Ltda. and IFM Medienanalysen GmbH.

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Robert Zitzmann – Manager Brand Strategy

Robert, a German national, joined Triumph Media Group from Sportfive, where he worked in the departments of international marketing, acquisitions and portfolio management and also the German department Brand Conception. He holds a diploma in sports management from the University of Bayreuth and also studied in Madrid, where he worked for the ATP and WTA Masters Series and gained an additional European degree in sports management. Robert, who spent five years in Ireland and the USA, has also worked for the UEFA Champions League in Munich, the Bavarian Tennis Federation (BTV) and as academic assistant at the University of Bayreuth.

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Cathrin Pols – Manager Controlling

Cathrin joined Triumph Media Group from Sportfive, where she worked as financial controller for five years. Her main responsibilities were internal and external reporting as well as project controlling for top German football clubs FC Nürnberg and Borussia Dortmund. Cathrin, who is herself German, holds a degree in business administration from the Ostfalia University of Applied Science (formerly the University of Applied Science Braunschweig/Wolfenbuettel). Before her studies, she worked as a lighting operator in the Up With People musical show and toured around North America and Central Europe for two years.

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Martina Holst – Manager Accounting

German-born Martina joined Triumph Media Group from Untitled Verlag where she worked as head of accounting/controlling for eleven months. In the sports business she gained a lot of experience as head of accounting whilst working at Sportfive for 13 years.

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Yvonne Hußy – Assistant to CEO and CFO

Yvonne joined Triumph Media Group from MPC Portfolio Advisors GmbH, the private equity and asset management unit of the financial services company MPC Capital AG. A German national, she holds a diploma in international business management and administration and lived and worked in Manchester, England, for approximately three years and for a few months in Toulouse, France.

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Christina Newiger – Assistant, Entertainment and Digital Media

Christina joined Triumph Media Group from EMI Music Publishing Germany GmbH, where she worked as assistant to the two CEOs for five years. Also German, she has more than 18 years of international experience as executive assistant, mainly in the media and music industry (EMI Music Publishing, Warner Music Group, eastwest records) and holds a diploma in international business management and administration. She lived and worked for five years in Rome and Perugia, Italy.

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Andrea Richter – Office Management

German-born Andrea joined Triumph Media Group from Global Sportnet where she worked as office manager in an international environment. Prior to Global Sportnet, she was employed by Premiere (now Sky) in customer service for 12 years.

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