After retiring as a professional athlete in 2021, Melissa founded non-profit Athletes of the World with Double Olympic Champion Hannah Mills. Athletes of the World builds athlete-led campaigns for climate action, and works with elite sports teams and federations to deliver climate education and climate-focussed media training for athletes.
2024
Qasa Alom
Qasa Alom is a presenter, investigative journalist & director with credits on documentaries, current affairs and radio. He has been with the BBC since 2010. In November 2020 Qasa was awarded with Best Radio Presenter at the Asian Media Awards.
Qasa freelance presents for BBC Radio 5, BBC Radio London and presents a weekend show for BBC WM. Qasa further presents shows for Radio 4 that include Costing The Earth and From Our Own Correspondent.
Qasa hosted an event for the UN at COP26 and is passionate about preventing climate change because of how he has seen it affect his family and ancestral home in Bangladesh.
This year Qasa has reported for BBC Sport at Wimbledon and The Commonwealth Games on sustainability in sport. Qasa has reported on the whole of the Commonwealth Games 2022 that included the athletes parade on the opening day.
Qasa loves sport, particularly cricket and tennis. 2021 Qasa launched @realtennispod with @dominglot. 2021 also saw Qasa host @thehundred @Edgbaston . He also presented the 2019 ATP World Tour Finals for BBC 5 Live Sports Xtra, the season ending tennis tournament between the top 8 men’s players in the world, from London’s 02 Arena.
Bob Ramsak
Bob Ramsak is the Head of Sustainability at World Athletics, the global governing body for track and field and long distance running, a journalist who has covered the sport globally for more than two decades and a long-time advocate for environmental, economic, and social justice.
David Garrido
David Garrido is a Sky Sports presenter with almost 25 years’ experience in the industry, and he is widely considered one of the leading communicators and content-makers for sport and sustainability in the UK and Europe. His documentary, ‘Football’s Toughest Opponent’, explores the relationship between the biggest sport in the world and the climate crisis, and his ongoing episodic series, ‘Playing For The Planet’, profiles elite athletes and their journeys in climate action. Recent guests include British men’s tennis number 1 Cam Norrie, Premier League footballer Ben Mee, double Olympic sailing champion Hannah Mills and marathon world record holder Eliud Kipchoge.
Katie Cross
Katie is CEO of Pledgeball, a research-backed charity that supports sports bodies to engage fans on environmental sustainability and climate change. Working with stakeholders across the sports community, from UEFA, the Lawn Tennis Association and the International Biathlon Union, to clubs, County FAs and leagues, Pledgeball effectively mobilises fans and players to make pro-environmental choices resulting in a reduction in emissions on game day and beyond.
Matthew Campelli
Matt is strategist, communicator and content creator specialising in sustainability and sport, he is the founder of The Sustainability Report and Sustainability Huddle and the managing director of Touchline Earth, a boutique sustainability agency for the sports industry.
WM
WM is focused on reinventing what’s possible for communities, companies, and society to be more sustainable – where materials are repurposed, energy is renewable and communities are thriving. With unique industry expertise and experience in event management, WM Advisory Services designs value-driven sustainability solutions to help leagues, venues, teams, and large-scale events, including holistic sustainability plans and effective implementation strategies. The team provides hands-on support with sustainability strategy development, comprehensive impact benchmarking, sponsorship program design, emissions reduction tactics, and more.
Aileen McManamon
unicepta
UNICEPTA is a global provider of media and marketing intelligence solutions. With AI-driven technology and over 450 analytics and monitoring experts, UNICEPTA analyses globally available content from social, online, print, TV and broadcast media as well as numerous other data sources – in real-time and at any other desired time. The high-quality analyses and insights serve global companies and organisations as a basis for decisions in corporate management as well as in communication and marketing. UNICEPTA’s offices are located in Berlin, Cologne (headquarters), Krakow, London, Paris, Shanghai, São Paulo, Washington DC, and Zurich. In Germany, over 50% of all DAX-listed companies rely on UNICEPTA’s expertise.
www.linkedin.com/company/unicepta
Travel Places
For over 45 years, Travel Places has managed group travel plans for sporting governing bodies, world class athletes and media and production crews attending events such as Formula One, the Olympics & Paralympics, FIFA World Cup and Sail GP. As a certified B Corp, we are committed to meeting the needs of our clients, whilst understanding and increasing the positive impact we have on people and planet. Combining this passion to be a force for good with specialist industry knowledge and a global network of suppliers, we our proud to deliver sustainable and personalised seamless group travel for our clients no matter how complex the itinerary.
