About Us

Russell Paul is a seasoned sports executive having lead bids and major events and held senior management and leadership roles, both in his home country of South Africa and internationally. His notable list of offices includes: CEO South Africa bid to host the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup; COO FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, and South African Football Association (SAFA) Acting CEO. Other positions held include: Divisional Manager Competitions 2010 FIFA World Cup LOC South Africa, Tournament Director: Nike Premier Cup, South Africa (International u14 Boys Tournament), Meridian Cup South Africa (U19 Boys Youth Tournament UEFA/CAF), 7th CAF African Women’s Championship South Africa 2010, 17th CAF African Youth Championship South Africa 2011, 29th Orange Africa Cup of Nations South Africa 2013, 3rd African Nations Championship South Africa 2014, Africa Futsal Cup of Nations South Africa 2016,  and COSAFA CUP (Senior Men’s Tournament) for COSAFA 2017.

Ricardo Trade is graduated in business administrator and Physical Education teacher.

Executive with over 30 years of experience in sport, he has extensive experience in team leadership, having successfully managed international events and national and international sport administration entities.

Currently Conmebol Copa America CEO 2024 USA

Until May, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar

He is also President of the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee, elected in 2018 by the Brazilian Olympic Federations, and working with the International Olympic Committee to carry out the entity's dissolution process.

He was director of operations for the Organizing Committee of the U-17 World Cup, FIFA Brazil 2019, held from October to November 2019 in Brasília, Goiânia and Vitória, as well as senior director of operations and CEO of the Brazilian Basketball Confederation from 2017 to 2021 , and, from 2015 to 2017, he was CEO of the Brazilian Volleyball Confederation (CBV), winning the 3 Olympic medals for Brazil.

In 2021, he was Country Manager of Copa America Conmebol, held in Brazil from June to July 2021.

In addition, he led the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, when he served as CEO of the Local Organizing Committee. The absolute success competition had a budget of more than one billion reais and a team of more than 1,200 commanded.

He was also a consultant for the World Cups in Qatar and Russia in 2015, national secretary of high performance at the Ministry of Sport, operational director of the Pan-American and Para-American Games Rio 2017 and director of services for the Candidacy Committee for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

He has also served as marketing director for the Brazilian Futsal Confederation (CBFS – from 2001 to 2004), as competition director for the Brazilian Beach Soccer Confederation (CBBS – from 1996 to 2000), marketing director for the Brazilian Handball Confederation (CBHb). – from 1996 to 2000) and supervisor of the Brazilian men's and women's volleyball teams (from 1985 to 1991). As physical trainer of the Brazilian Men’s Volleyball team, he participated in the Seoul Olympic Games, in 1988, and the Pan American Games in Cuba, in 1991, as well as in several volleyball international competitions.

He has also worked in several companies in the sports sector, notably as sports director at Octagon Koch Tavares, with the organization of several national and international events in beach soccer, beach volley, futsal, athlete’s career experiences, extreme sports and tennis.

As a volunteer, he has been a member of the Arena Hub Board of Directors since 2020, as well as a member of the Sports Council of the Commercial Association of Rio de Janeiro since 2017, as well as a Local Representative of CIES (International Center for Sports Studies) in Brazil, acting in this role. since 2012.

Pedro Correia is the founder and CEO of Beyond Sport Events. He is graduated in Management and Business Administration and holds a Master of Science in Marketing and Strategic Management. He has been working in the sport and event industry for over 20 years. Since 2018 he has been working as a sport and events consultant for organizations like FIFA, UEFA, AFC, CAF, FIBA, different federations, leagues and other entities like academic institutions. As CEO of BSE he coordinates the different projects and engages the international consultants in order to provide the best possible service to the clients.

He has taken wide top managerial responsibilities on planning and implementation of Mega Sport Events namely in the European Football Championships and other UEFA competitions. In addition, he has worked in a range of other sport events, notably on a Rugby World Cup, 4 FIFA World Cups and the IOC Summer Olympics. He was appointed Tournament Director for the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar with a large focus on early stages planning and budgeting to prepare and deliver an integrated Tournament Operational Master Plan. In Portugal, he became the Secretary General of the Football League with a mandate to modernise and professionalise the organisation.

Pedro has spent 23 years working internationally, managing and motivating large multi-cultural teams towards successful deliveries being responsible for budgets over USD150 million. He has built a wide professional network and has participated in a variety of consultancy projects, they range from strategic management to governance and operations, financial management, project and risk management, competition management and club licensing programmes, mega sport events planning and delivery, setting up of local organising committees and operational readiness programmes amongst other projects. He combines a strong set of planning and implementation skills. Pedro has introduced an Operational Readiness and Event Training Programme in UEFA back in 2006. Since then, these exercises have been implemented in different football mega sport events, in the Portuguese Football League and delivered in a series of different academic institutional programmes.

Lori Foster, Ph.D. is a Professor of industrial-organizational psychology at North Carolina State University (USA) and the University of Cape Town (South Africa) who has completed posts as a Fellow with the White House Social and Behavioral Sciences Team, and as a Behavioral Sciences Advisor to the United Nations. In her academic role, she oversees the 4D Lab, which focuses on research at the intersection of work, psychology, technology, and development. Lori is President-Elect of the International Association of Applied Psychology and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), the Association for Psychological Science (APS), and the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology (SIOP). As a scientist-practitioner, she has more than 20 years of experience as a consultant. She has served as a behavioral sciences advisor to a range of public and private sector entities around the world.