Agenda

Johanna Faries serves as Commissioner of Call of Duty League for Activision Blizzard, Inc. overseeing league and business operations, product development, and general management of Call of Duty esports globally. In her role, she has led the formation of the new, global city-based league, which in its inaugural season includes 12 professional teams in across 4 countries featuring the best Call of Duty players in the world and dedicated amateur competition systems year-round. Faries is a sports industry veteran, who joined the company’s leadership team in 2018 after 12 years at the National Football League at its League Office Headquarters in New York City. 

A graduate of Harvard University, Faries was recognized in 2019 as one of Adweek’s Most Powerful Women in Sports and listed on FORTUNE’s 40 Under 40 most influential business leaders. She also serves on the Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission Advisory Board and has spoken at several established conferences, summits, and university events.

While at the NFL, Faries held a number of leadership roles across marketing, league initiative strategy, fan and business development, partnerships, and consumer products. As Vice President of Club Business Development at the National Football League, Faries interfaced closely with NFL team owners and presidents to bolster their local revenue and brand goals year-round, and played a key role in launching the NFL’s first-of-its-kind ticketing network. 

Prior to that, Faries led the NFL’s efforts to amplify its reach, relevance, and popularity with key fan segments as Vice President of Marketing & Fan Development, where her charter included growing the NFL’s fan base in the near and long term, via proprietary assets, global partnerships, brand and content marketing, and tentpole events, including the creation of the NFL’s MyCauseMyCleats initiative and the record-setting elevation of the NFL Draft.  In her last year at the company, Faries spearheaded the development of the league’s Social Justice Initiative, working closely with owners, players, and third party organizations to establish a new foundation for collaboration and impactful service to communities nationwide. Earlier on in her tenure, she served as Director of Consumer Products – managing the NFL’s primary apparel and e-commerce partnerships both on-field and off, including Nike, New Era, Under Armour, and Fanatics – and also held roles in the Sponsorship & Sales and Consumer Products Business Development divisions.

Throughout her career, Faries has held executive positions in a broad range of diversity and inclusion and career development and mentorship programs, and continues to do so as a senior leader advisor to Activision’s African-American, Black & Friends Employee Network. Faries grew up a multisport athlete in Potomac, Maryland, has lived abroad in both Israel and the Dominican Republic, and is also a singer-songwriter. She resides with her husband and sons in Los Angeles, CA.

Kristen Salvatore is the Senior Vice President of Marketing for Cloud9 esports. Previously, she was the Senior Vice President of Branded Content and VP/Commercial Director of Esports at Twitch, where she was responsible for the company's partnerships with high-value brand partners, and for sales strategies around competitive gaming. A 22-year games industry veteran, Kristen also served as VP of Marketing at Nexon, App Store Manager of Games at Apple, and Director of Brand Strategy at BioWare, where she honed her expertise in video game marketing. Kristen holds an MA in Communication and Education from Columbia University.

Yvette Martinez-Rea is Chief Executive Officer at ESL Gaming America Inc., where she leads the strategy and operations for the North America region. ESL, a part of the international digital entertainment group MTG, is the world's largest esports company. Previously, Martinez-Rea served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) at ESL Gaming America, where she oversaw business operations for the region.

Prior to ESL, Martinez-Rea served as Chief Operating Officer at Violet Grey, a venture-backed luxury beauty content and commerce company based in Los Angeles, where she oversaw the company’s growth, as well as business initiatives and the development of the company’s fulfillment, e-commerce systems and retail operations.

Before joining Violet Grey, Martinez-Rea was a Vice President of Change Management for Yahoo!’s Global Products organization, responsible for leading the cross-functional change efforts to improve engineering quality and overall organizational effectiveness for a 6,000-person global division.  Previous roles at Yahoo! include Senior Director of Strategy and Business Management, Global Products, and Senior Director of Strategy and Business Operations and Chief of Staff to EVP Yahoo! North America. She also acted as the executive sponsor for the Southern California chapter of Women in Technology.

Formerly, Martinez-Rea was the Vice President of Operations at United Online Inc., a publicly traded internet services provider, responsible for business and sales operations for multiple brands including NetZero, Juno, Classmates, Photosite, and UOL Web services. 

Martinez-Rea was recognized by Sports Business Journal as a 2018 Game Changer. She also serves on the board of Young & Healthy, a non-profit dedicated to providing healthcare to underserved children and as a mentor for Techstars LA, a start-up incubator and an advisor for AnyKey, which promotes diversity and inclusion in gaming and esports. She holds dual undergraduate degrees in English Literature and Gender Studies from the University of Southern California.

Naz Aletaha serves as the Head of Global Esports Partnerships & Business Development at Riot Games where she oversees global sponsorships, strategic partnerships, business development, and media rights for the premier global esport, League of Legends. Naz has catalyzed the evolution of esports from a niche competition into the fastest-growing global sport, drawing interest and investment from traditional sports and entertainment industries as well as those closely aligned with esports. 

Responsible for identifying and procuring business development opportunities, Naz has secured groundbreaking partnerships with some of the most valuable global brands for esports and League of Legends, including deals with Mastercard and Louis Vuitton. She also led industry-first deals with State Farm, Nielsen Holdings, American Express, Coca-Cola, and OPPO. 

Recognized for her pioneering work in esports, Naz was one of 40 female business executives honored by the Sports Business Journal in their 9th annual class of Game Changers in 2019. The same year, she also was selected as one of Adweek's Young Influentials and as one of the Top Women in Sports by Cynopsis Media.

After a 10-year career in brand communications for brands including Hilton, Nestle, SEGA, Disney and more, Nicola Piggott spent over five years at Riot Games, where she led global communication for Riot’s esports team and the most successful esports title in history, giving counsel and training to esports teams and organizations worldwide. Named one of PR Week’s top Women in PR in 2015, she has managed communications around global events like the League of Legends World Championships which remains the most watched esports event to date. As Co-Founder and Co-CEO of The Story Mob, Nicola oversees a global team managing communications execution and strategy around some of the biggest brands in competitive gaming and digital entertainment.