Rob Prazmark is one of the most
highly regarded executives in the
Sports and Entertainment Business
and is especially recognized within
the Olympic Movement. In August 2004,    
Sports Business Journal named Rob the
Olympic’s 8th most influential person in
the world. He is one of the all-time leading
sellers of Olympic-related programs. 
And more importantly, an expert at consulting and negotiating the rights and benefits offered by various Olympic entities.

During a career in which he revolutionized sports and events marketing while pioneering the field of intellectual marketing, Rob has brokered more
than $3.0 billion in sponsorship and media
relationships to date.

He is one of the original team members that created and sold The Olympic Program (TOP) for the International Olympic Committee when it was developed in 1985.  Rob successfully sold TOP on behalf of the IOC through 1996 negotiating more than 40 different corporate deals worldwide.

He and his U.S. – based company – 21 Sports & Entertainment Marketing Group, Inc. have just completed a project for the International Olympic Committee and are currently working with the USOC, Dentsu (IAAF/FINA), Global Experience Specialists, and NBC.”
In addition to his dealings within the Olympic world, he has been involved with the World Cup, the Dallas Cowboys, the Miami Dolphins, the Smithsonian Institution, and NASA. 21 also works with the Mexican Government in developing the plan for their Bicentennial in 2010. All of these activities have earned him a worldwide reputation as an expert in event creation and complex deal making.

Prior to restarting 21 in 2007, Rob was President of Olympic Sales and Marketing for IMG from 1997 through 2006. The assignment included Special Projects.
The original 21 Marketing activities began in 1991 and in 1997 Rob sold 21 to IMG.
From 1982 to 1985, while at ABC News in New York, Rob was responsible for the sales and marketing of all network news properties, including World News Tonight, 20/20, Nightline, all prime-time News Briefs and the documentary series Close-Up.  He also created ABC’s Business Briefs and Business World with Sandor Vanocur. Prior to ABC, Rob worked at NBC.
Rob was raised in California and is a graduate of Canisius College in upstate New York.

With over 20 years of experience in strategic marketing and related fields, Tom Shepard is an accomplished executive and an established leader with a proven track record. Through his work with major properties, global travel and entertainment companies and key retailers, he is widely regarded for innovative and profitable marketing and partnership strategies. He is also noted for his adept handling of complex negotiations. He has very strong leadership abilities, and has a proven marketing vision as well as a unique ability to build relationships within companies and externally on an international scale.

During the last decade and a half he has served as SVP for a notable ski resort in Crested Butte Colorado, was a partner at Millsport, a prestigious strategic sports marketing firm, pioneered the discipline of partnership marketing, also elevating the art of sponsorship leveraging as the Executive Vice President at Visa International, and most recently was CEO of Festival Network. In each instance he was able to develop and execute business strategies that provided definitive returns for all stakeholders, and forged long term relationships across multiple cultures.

A genuine self starter, Tom began his career working at

Crested Butte Mtn Resort at an entry level, driving a ‘tour cat’, advancing to the SVP of operations with broad responsibilities for the success of the resort. Simultaneously overseeing the AAU Junior Olympics as Games Director.

Tom held the designation of partner and executive vice president with ageny Millsport, providing strategic consultation focused on the development, integration, and leveraging  of numerous properties. Notably the Olympics, World Cup Soccer, Rugby, the  NCAA, numerous federations, and the National Football League. His satisfied clients include American Airlines, Apple, Bank of America, Doubletree Hotels, Visa US and International.

Hired in 1998 to the position of the Executive Vice President of International Marketing, Partnerships and Sponsorship for Visa International, he pioneered the business of partnership marketing across all industries, leveraging the Visa network of member banks via relationship management, agency management, savvy negotiating skills, and marketing expertise to secure long term brand and financial success for Visa and its stakeholders. He is widely credited for being one of the authors of partnership marketing, earning Visa a global reputation for creating highly successful revenue and marketing models. During his tenure, he contributed to Visa’s unparalleled leadership in the payment arena, commanding a 67% global market share.
 
He created a key Visa business unit to accommodate the globalization of merchants. Strategic merchant partnerships developed included Marriott, Accor, Hilton, Ritz-Carlton, Le Meridian, Design Hotels, Star Alliance, British Airways, Lufthansa, American, United, and Delta Airlines, AIG, Zara, Amazon, Yahoo!, Google, Sony and numerous tourism bodies. He also created numerous destination marketing and high end co brand and cardholder offer programs and promotions for Visa’s Members worldwide. 

In the global sponsorship arena, his strategies for both sport and special event sponsorships, such as the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, Disney, FIFA and Rugby’s World Cup, provided a consistent and integrated brand messaging worldwide. He created legacy programs to increase visibility at these events.  His innovative and important destination programs have revolutionized the long term visibility and profitability of the host nations.

Since 2007, Tom has held the position of CEO of Festival Network, the oldest and largest producer of outdoor music festivals in the world, Shepard rebranded and reshaped the organization that started the festival business in 1954 He oversaw the rejuvenation of the company, building an aggressive team leveraging FN’s breadth to aggregate new festivals and create efficiencies in programming and production, utilizing new media and FN’s vast collection of content.

Tom was recently awarded the Travel Industry Leadership Award from Niagara University.
In January 2007, Around the Rings online magazine listed Tom as the “Dean of Olympic Marketing” and one of the 25 most influential Olympic Games’ executives. Shepard was also named fifth most influential person in the Olympic movement by Sports Business Journal in 2004, and received the prestigious “Partnership Marketing of the Year” award in 1998 from Sales and Marketing Executives International
He serves on the Board of the Student Conservation Association, STEP ( Sustainable Tourism for the Elimination of Poverty) Foundation, and Global Wines, Inc.
Shepard also teaches a graduate course at Stanford University, and resides in Mill Valley, California.

Dany Berghoff has a rich background in sports and entertainment marketing.  Over the course of his career, he has touched multiple corners of the sports industry, ranging from talent representation to event management to corporate sponsorship. Prior to joining 21 Marketing, Dany represented sportscasters and retired athletes making the transition to the broadcast booth at IF Management, Inc. His clients ranged from the sideline reporter for the New York Mets to the play-by-play man for the Los Angeles Clippers.  In addition to negotiating contracts with sports networks and teams across the country, he also created customized short and long-term strategies for each of his clients aimed at exceeding their career goals.   He also developed digital strategies that differentiated the firm from its competitors in the marketplace.

At 21, Dany is involved at all levels of the sponsorship sales process.  He is active in refining strategy, negotiating rights & benefits packages, and creating activation platforms for properties.  He is also the architect of the 21 Empirical Solution, 21 Marketing’s proprietary sponsorship valuation model.  Dany has built valuations for a wide range of domestic and international sports properties, including stadium naming rights,

National Olympic Committees, and International Governing Bodies, among others.  Dany has also created customized valuations for publications such as the Wall Street Journal and the Sports Business Journal.

Dany began his career with the Staten Island Yankees, procuring, marketing, and managing concerts and special events.  He has also spent time working for Major League Soccer, and, as a founding member, serves on the Board of Directors of Cybersports, Inc. - a video game company that uses a
real-ball object tracking system powered by motion sensors.

Dany, who is originally from Los Angeles, currently lives in Manhattan.  He holds a B.A. from Columbia University (where he was the kicker on the football team), and a M.B.A. from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University.

Jenny Dutko brings over a decade of sports marketing expertise to the “21” team. Dutko excels in identifying equity between a corporation and property, developing innovative, strategic marketing plans, platforms and promotions, and implementing and executing programs in-market. Dutko’s area of expertise lies in Olympic consulting, marketing and hospitality. Jenny has vast experience in working with the International Olympic Committee, over 75 National Olympic Committees, Organizing Committees of the Olympic Games, Bid City Candidates for the Olympic Games, National Governing Bodies of Sports, International Federations and Olympic athletes. Prior to becoming a part of the “21” team, Jenny spent five years at IMG where she sold sponsorship for the United States Olympic Committee, and led Olympic TOP sponsors through executing sponsorship on local, regional and global levels. Jenny brings the experience of working at four Olympic Games to the “21” team, including the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games, Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Dutko made history in the sports industry in 2008 when she sold the first Medical Device and Diagnostics sponsorship of all time, which was to USA Softball.

Dutko’s sports career began in 1999 when she worked for the Oregon State University Football team, overseeing sponsorship and game day hospitality, working directly with head coach, Dennis Erickson. Upon graduating in 2003, Jenny won the MasterCard Priceless Edge Sports Program, which exposed her to a crash course in sports marketing from industry experts. Dutko went on to work for the New York Mets, Octagon and IMG. While at Octagon, Dutko was instrumental in the success of Nextel’s 2004 inaugural NASCAR season, and activated MLB, NBA, NCAA, PGA, LPGA, NFL, NASCAR, NHL and MLS sponsorships for clients.

Dutko attended Oregon State University on a Provost Scholarship, where she established the women’s lacrosse team, and was honored as the top business student in her class, earning a Bachelor of Science in both Marketing and Business Administration, and a Minor in Philosophy. Originally from Princeton, Jenny resides in New York City, is an avid New York Yankees fan, and enjoys rollerblading, photography and traveling.

Ashley Manganiello, a recent graduate, is just beginning her career in sports and entertainment marketing. Her interest in the field stems from a lifetime of sports fanaticism in addition to an internship at Octagon Inc. (Norwalk, CT). During her experience she worked in the sampling division of Octagon’s Marketing-Related Consulting Expertise, where she assisted such clients as Pedigree, Playtex Sport, and RapidBath in product sampling and market reach.

Before joining the 21 team as “project coordinator” in June 2008, Ashley graduated with a B.S. in Business Management from Fairfield University. Originally from Pittston, Pennsylvania she currently resides in Stamford, Connecticut.

Armond LaNuddy, the newest member of the 21 team, has one of the most diverse and interesting careers in all of Sports Marketing.  His ability to assess and manage opportunity is unsurpassed. The experience that he has gained over the years has helped him to develop a keen sense of priorities and has always been able to extract the best from the individuals he has worked with in the past.

In the midst of receiving his B.A. in sociology with a minor in psychology from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, Armond spent his spring semester of 1995 abroad in London where he gained his first experience in the field of Human Resources at Arthur Anderson.

After graduating in 1996, Armond moved directly to the accounting department of Luzern, Switzerland based ISL where he entered into the field of International Sport and Leisure Marketing during his employment from 1996-1998. He then returned to the States to work for WorldCom in Clinton, Mississippi. Proving to be an invaluable asset within the company’s Executive Offices including the offices of the Chairman until his departure in 2002.

From 2002-2004, Armond took a personal leave of absence from the workforce before returning for a brief stint at the Subprime Mortgage Desk at Lehman Brothers for part of 2008. From there he continued on to Circuit City where he filled the role of Director of Retail Expansion. Before finally joining the 21 team as Human Resources Director in August 2010, he was a senior advisor within the communications department at B.P., personally assisting the PR strategies of its Chairman and CEO, Tony Hayward. Originally from Green Bay, Wisconsin Armond currently resides in Secaucus, New Jersey with his mother Gladys LaNuddy