Warrick Dunn is a former NFL running back and a three-time Pro Bowl selection. Dunn’s football career began at Florida State University. In 1997, Dunn was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He played for the Bucs for five years before signing with the Atlanta Falcons in 2002. Six seasons later, in 2008, he returned to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for his final season. During his career, he won the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1997, playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Walter Payton Man of the Year in 2004, playing for the Atlanta Falcons.

In 2010, Warrick purchased a minority stake in the Atlanta Falcons organization.

Warrick is perhaps best known for his involvement in philanthropy. As a rookie for Tampa Bay, Warrick founded our Homes for the Holidays program to fulfill his mother’s dream of home ownership for single parent families. The program partners with local organizations to turn houses into homes for single parent families through home furnishings and down-payment assistance. Since its inception, Homes for the Holidays has furnished 217 homes, provided over $1,070,000 in down-payment assistance, and served over 578 dependents.

Paxton K. Baker is an American businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist, who has served in the entertainment, music, sports and production industries for over 30 years.

Mr. Baker is a minority owner of the Washington Nationals Baseball club and currently serves as chairman of the Washington Nationals Founding Partners Group. He is also a governing Board Member of the Global Sports Summit, a private and exclusive gathering of global professional sports franchise owners and industry leaders. Mr. Baker has held ownership interest in both the Washington Kastles World Team Tennis League and Washington Spirit National Women’s Soccer League, with each team becoming reigning champions during his tenure.

In 2018, Baker launched the Washington, D.C., office of Liquid Soul, the agency behind the marketing and promotion of such blockbuster films as Black Panther and Fast & Furious 6.

For 16 years, Mr. Baker served as the Executive Vice President and General Manager of CENTRIC (formerly BETJ), BET’s complementary network targeting the African American and multicultural adult. Baker was also President of BET Event Productions, which produced music festivals, award shows, TV specials and concerts throughout the world.

Affiliated with a number of professional, civic and cultural organizations, Mr. Baker is a member of the board of directors for the United States Senate Preservation Trust, Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, Asia Jazz Festival Organization and Wilberforce University, the nation’s oldest private, historically black university.

In 2006, Mr. Baker was appointed by the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives to serve as a member of The Congressional Award Foundation National Board of Directors, the only official charity of the United States Congress. Shortly thereafter he was elected to serve as Vice Chairman and then Chairman of the Board in 2007 to present.

In 2022, Mr. Baker was elected to join the Board of the Washington Nationals Philanthropies, the charitable arm of the Washington Nationals. He also serves on the Board of WAMU, Washington DC's NPR station and is an inaugural Board Member for the Trucking Cares Foundation, a non-profit developed under the American Trucking Associations designed to improve the safety, security and sustainability of America’s highways.

Renowned sports and entertainment executive Max Siegel became the fourth CEO of USA Track & Field in May 2012. During his tenure, he has led USATF to financial growth, programmatic evolution and inclusive representation that are unprecedented in the Olympic family, generating over $600 million in revenue and expanding the USATF annual budget to a record $40 million.

Siegel’s achievements at USATF further complement a more than 30-year track record of competitive success in sports and entertainment. He had successful stints as President of Global Operations at Dale Earnhardt Inc. where he sold tens of millions of dollars in sponsorship; and as Senior Vice President at Sony/BMG and President of Zomba Gospel, Tommy Boy Gospel and Verity Records where he led one of the most profitable divisions in the Sony BMG system.

As the owner of Rev Racing since 2010, Siegel has led NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity (D4D) program to recruit and develop more multicultural and female talent to the sport, advancing it from a fledging effort into a competitive force on the racetrack, producing stars such as Bubba Wallace and Nick Sanchez.

He serves as a member of the board of directors of the Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (RISE), a member of the NASCAR Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, the PointsBet Diversity Council, the Board of Trustees at Martin University and the Brebeuf Jesuit Prep School in Indianapolis. Formerly, he served on the boards of USA Track & Field and the USA Swimming Foundation.

The first African-American to graduate with honors from Notre Dame Law School, Siegel is an accomplished author of three books and a film producer. He is a native of Indianapolis and currently resides there with his wife and three children.

Paris is the founder and CEO of the NCL, the first majority-minority and female owned professional sports league. Paris is also currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Harvard Business School. Prior to founding the NCL, Paris was the CEO and founder of Ovia Health, the leading women’s health and technology company.

Ovia Health's fertility, pregnancy, and parenting programs helped over 20 million families and improved obstetric and fertility care around the world for women and infants. In 2021, Paris sold Ovia Health to Labcorp (LH). Paris also founded and led Good Start Genetics, a genomics technology company focused on fertility and reproductive health, which was acquired by Invitae (NYSE: NVTA). A recognized expert on entrepreneurship and DE&I, Paris has lectured extensively in academic and corporate settings including Harvard, MIT and Wharton. Paris holds a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College, as well as an M.B.A. and M.P.A from Harvard University, where he was a Reynolds Fellow. He is an avid cyclist, and he and his wife split their time between Miami and New England to keep riding bikes year-round.

Raphael Edwards is a former international professional basketball player and accomplished entrepreneur known for his exceptional skills on the court and his dedication to giving back to the community. Edwards is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Cape Town Tigers Basketball Club. And, in less than three years, Edwards has assisted in building the powerhouse team that has qualified for the Basketball Africa League two years in a row and won two National Championships.

After an impressive basketball career that took him to various teams in Finland, France, Dubai, Venezuela, and more, Edwards transitioned into a successful career as a personal trainer. He created Superior Athletic Natural Development (S.A.N.D) Training with a unique approach to training, emphasizing both physical and mental development. S.A.N.D earned Edwards a reputation as a sought-after trainer, working with notable athletes like Brandon Ingram, Jerry Stackhouse, and Al Harrington.

Edwards received a Bachelor’s in Communication and Media Studies from East Carolina University. He was a scholarship member of the Men’s Basketball team playing Small Forward/Power Forward.

Brian Michael Cooper is President and Chief Operating Officer of the American Flag Football League (AFFL), responsible for the new pro league’s strategic planning and business operations.

Brian has over 25 years of experience as a sports attorney, agent, executive and advisor. Prior to joining the AFFL, Brian was a partner in the Houston office of Frost Brown Todd LLP, where he led FBT’s sports and entertainment practice group and FBT’s venture capital practice group. While at FBT, he was named a Top Houston Lawyer by Houstonia Magazine in 2021 and 2022 and was a two-time FBT CREW Award recipient for work excellence.

Brian also has served as President of the XFL Houston Roughnecks, for which he received recognition in the national media for his work, and President of the NBA G-League Rio Grande Valley Vipers. Prior to his work with the Roughnecks, Brian was a partner at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, served as Director of Sports Programming for DISH Network and served as Senior Associate Athletic Director at Rice University. While leading the Vipers, Brian negotiated the first hybrid affiliation agreement between an NBA team (Houston Rockets) and NBA G-League team (Vipers). Brian began his career in sports as a legal intern for the NFL Management Council and as an attorney at the New York office of Proskauer Rose LLP, working on matters for the NBA, NHL, ATP Tour, and Major League Soccer.

A graduate of Cornell University, Harvard Kennedy School, and Columbia Law School, Brian presently serves on the boards of Positive Coaching Alliance (Texas) and Longitude (Rice University). Brian is currently an adjunct professor of sports law at the University of Houston Law Center and a regular speaker, panelist, and media guest on sports law and sports business topics. An avid runner, Brian also has completed five New York City Marathons.

Brian lives in The Woodlands, Texas with his wife Jacqueline. Daughter Kendall is a first-year student at Harvard.

CJ Harrington is a sports and M&A associate at Hogan Lovells in Washington, DC. He counsels leagues, teams, and business leaders throughout the sports industry and routinely advises investors in buying ownership stakes in sports teams. CJ’s recent deal work includes the acquisitions of preeminent clubs such as the Denver Broncos, Washington Commanders, and Olympique Lyonnais Féminin. Last year, Sports Business Journal named CJ to its New Voices Under 30 class. CJ graduated from Stanford Law School and earned a certificate from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. Prior to law school, CJ attended Washington University in St. Louis, where he was a captain of its men’s basketball team. CJ is an associate member of Washington University in St. Louis’s Alumni Board of Governors and his passions include pick-up basketball games, playing the piano, and volunteering to distribute meals to those experiencing homelessness through his local church.

Fitz in a finance lawyer based in San Francisco. She co-founded Cotogna Sports Group (CSG) in 2022. CSG is an investment group focused on building and developing sports franchises. CSG targets opportunities globally and across sporting disciplines, seeking alpha by advancing undervalued teams. In 2023, CSG purchased Pallacanestro Trieste - an Italian professional men’s basketball club based in Trieste, Italy. The purchase made news worldwide as CSG was the second American owned investment group to purchase a professional basketball team in Italy. Fitz serves as a the President of CSG and Vice Chair of the Pallacanestro Trieste. She is the first Black queer woman to own a professional team in Italy. CSG is currently working on other acquisitions including women’s and men’s professional soccer teams.

Fitz’s day job is General Counsel at Engine No. 1, a hedge fund based in San Francisco. Prior to joining Engine No. 1, Fitz held several positions at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. While at the Commission Fitz served as Senior Counsel to Commissioner Allison H. Lee. In that role, Fitz advised the Commissioner on rulemaking, enforcement actions, litigation, and whistleblower-related matters. Fitz also served as Senior Counsel in the Division of Enforcement where she conducted confidential investigations into potential violations of federal securities laws. Finally, Fitz served as Senior Counsel in the Division of Examinations where she led teams conducting on-site examinations of registrants including broker-dealers, investment advisers, private fund advisers, and mutual funds. Throughout her tenure at the Commission, Fitz worked closely with other regulators, including the Department of Justice, various U.S. Attorney’s offices, CFTC, and FINRA.

Fitz received a BBA from Pace University, a JD from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, and an MBA at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.