The ROAR Podcast

Adam Kempenaar is an accomplished broadcaster, instructor, and award-winning digital professional with more than two decades of experience driving audience engagement in sports, film, and media. Adam recently returned to the University of Iowa, where he earned an M.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication and a B.A. in Communication Studies, as an Adjunct Lecturer after 20 years with the Chicago Bl...

Brad Bauer works for Altius Sports Partners, the Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) launch program for elite athletics departments and is the on-campus General Manager of Northwestern's NIL program. Before coming to Altius Sports Partners Brad served four years as manager of business development at Northwestern Sports Properties, the multimedia rights holder for the university's athletics department....

We are back for a third season of the Revenue Above Replacement podcast. This season will include some of the same characteristics of prior season along with bringing some new voices to the podcast as we cover a wide range of topics with our guest around sports and sports business. In this week's episode Adam and Brice discuss some of the key themes that will be covered this season and provide a p...

To round out the second season of the Revenue Above Replacement podcast Adam and Brice take a look back at the major themes of the season, why those topics were so important, and how they will evolve in the coming months before giving a preview into what is to come for next season.

Michelle Meyer played volleyball at UC Santa Barbara and graduated in 2009 with a degree in Psychology and a double minor in Sport Management and Athletic Coaching. After a brief professional career in Denmark, Michelle coached the beach volleyball team at University of Hawaii. She then coached at Pepperdine for one year before running the Olympic pipeline program for USA Beach Volleyball from 201...

With just passing the one year anniversary of NIL legislation on July 1st, we thought this a great time to run one of our favorite episodes again with former Northwestern quarterback Zack Oliver. Zack is the Chief Financial Officer at MatchPoint Connection. He previously worked at Citigroup as an Associate Vice President in the firm's Merger Arbitrage trading team. Earlier in his career, he worked...

During the summer quarter the MSA Student Leadership Council hosts a webinar series where they interview sports industry leaders across sports, roles, and backgrounds. The first installment of this series features Michael Amato And Ashley Escajeda from the Chicago Sky.

Justin Hoeveler by Revenue Above Replacement

Over the course of this season of the podcast one topic has appeared more than others - NFTs. Earlier this season we have the opportunity to speak with Kurt Hallead and since that time both the NFT space and his business, that is working to shape that space has continued to evolve. Kurt is co-founder of Legacy League Inc., an integrated non-fungible token creation and marketplace platform where he...

Dave DeVries is a marketing manager and public relations professional with more than 25 years of experience. He is currently a Sr. Communications Manager for HERE Technologies, the world’s leading global provider of maps, traffic and location data-enabling navigation, location-based services and mobile advertising. Dave was national sports marketing public relations manager at Sprint, supporting t...

Jason Sacks by Revenue Above Replacement

Tyler McQuality is the Illinois Institute of Technology head cross country coach/head track & field coach. He arrived at the Scarlet Hawks in 2018-19 as an assistant cross country/track & field coach. Previously, Tyler was at North Central College where he was a four-time All-CCIW selection for the three-time NCAA Division III Men's Cross Country National Champion Cardinals (2014, 2016, 20...

Cheri Kempf has long been at the forefront of women’s sports, specifically fastpitch softball - as a player, instructor, an industry marketing representative, a television sports commentator and as the Commissioner of National Pro Fastpitch. A four-time National Champion and three-time Hall of Fame Inductee, Cheri has also represented the United States on the international stage as a National Team...

On this week's episode Adam and Brice take a break from the interviews and discuss with each other current headlines and trends in sports including some recent large sports events (Miami Grand Prix, The Kentucky Derby) and the in-person attendance of those events.

Kieran Kelliher serves as the VP, Finance (CFO role) for the Chicago Bulls, with a particular focus on business operations. He leads the finance and retail operations of the team, the business operations of the Windy City Bulls G League franchise, and is the Treasurer of Chicago Bulls Charities. He serves as a member of the NBA’s Risk Management Advisory Council, and previously on the NBA All-Star...

LeKeisha Marsh is a partner at Akerman, LLP. and serves as the chair of Akerman’s Government Affairs and Public Policy Practice Group, leading a bipartisan team of professionals providing strategic counsel on policy and regulatory issues in the United States. With a comprehensive legal background serving the higher education sector, including as an NCAA staff member, LaKeisha also serves as the ch...

Kristin Kane Herbison joined the MSA faculty in the spring of 2021. Kristin has spent all of her career in college athletics and higher education. Most recently, Kane served as the Senior Associate Director of Athletics for Academic Services and Student Development at Northwestern from the spring of 2013 to the fall of 2021. In that role, she oversaw operations of the department's academic service...

Zack Oliver is the Chief Financial Officer at MatchPoint Connection. He previously worked at Citigroup as an Associate Vice President in the firm's Merger Arbitrage trading team. Earlier in his career, he worked as a Market Associate at JP Morgan Securities. Zack attended Northwestern University where he played quarterback on the university's football team. He earned a Masters in Management Studie...

This weeks episodes features a panel discussion put on by the MSA program as part of the Northwestern University School of Professional Studies Thought Leadership Series. This series is a program of online events featuring a wide range of compelling topics and thoughtfully led conversations throughout the academic year. Our topic – The Evolution of College Sports. In recent years, there has been a...

Alex Kerr is the CEO of Trajektory. In that role he brings a blend of quantitative, strategy, and marketing expertise. Trajektory is an award winning B2B SaaS solution revolutionizing the way organizations interact and leverage their sponsorship data and insights throughout the sports, media & entertainment industry. Prior to Trajektory, Alex oversaw growth marketing and business intelligence...

Taylor Bloom is the CEO and Co-Founder of SportTechie. SportTechie use immersive storytelling and industry-leading events, to connect us as consumer to the innovators and power brokers who are shaping the future of sports technology. From its inception Taylor has led the SportTechie’s charge to become the definitive global sports technology resource. His position and experience gives him powerful...

Geoff Bough got his Masters of Science from the Medill School of Journalism in 2006 and for the last 15 years has been involved in the sports industry. Geoff was a ground floor employee at FanDuel where he ran business development for the company. He then shifted over to leading large scale acquisition marketing budgets in executive roles at Flutter Entertainment, William Hill, and Caesars Enterta...

Adam Cook is the Director of Athlete Development & Partnerships at Campus Ink where he helps professional and collegiate athletes build and leverage their personal brand. His career has spanned a wide range of roles in sport, recreation, and fitness. He has served as a strength and conditioning coach, Men's and Women's Volleyball coach, and developed multiple athletic international service-lea...

Kurt Hallead is Co-founder of Legacy League Inc., an integrated non-fungible token creation and marketplace platform where he provides senior leadership and oversees the business and corporate development functions. Mr. Hallead is a former Wall Street executive with 30-years of experience providing advice to a broad range of corporations and institutional investors. Until February 2021, Kurt was C...

From the Winter Olympics to the Super Bowl and the NBA All-Star game the last several weeks have been a busy time in sports. Adam and Brice discuss those events along with the viewing patterns of those events and the shifting landscape of sports consumption.