Introducing The 2025 Professional Women's Seminar Speakers
The 2025 Professional Womens Seminar will take place in Prague on April 13-14. The purpose of the two-day event is to give managers, coaches, executives a chance to exchange ideas and be inspired by the great work others have done, also in other sports, both on the field of play, and outside it.
For the full Professional Women's Seminar program, CLICK HERE
Of course, some of the inspiration and information will come from the host of speakers at the event, who will share their experiences and expertise.
The following speakers will take the stage in Prague:
Meghan Chayka, Co-CEO & Chief Marketing Office
Chayka is the co-CEO and Chief Marketing Officer of Stathletes, which provides exclusive data, reports, insights, and visualizations to major hockey leagues, teams, partners, and affiliates worldwide. She’s also a data scientist in residence at the Rotman School of Management.
Meghan has been on the cutting edge of hockey analytics from the dawn of the era. In Prague, she’ll give the participants a thorough overview of data and analytics use hockey, including best use cases (both business and performance) for data and data products in women’s hockey.
Marin Hickox, Vice President, Women & Girls Hockey, Hockey Canada
Having worked both at the National Hockey League and the MLSE (Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment), Hickox now leads the delivery of strategic recruitment and retention objectives to ensure continued sustainability and growth of women and girls programs in Canada, with a special focus on long-term development and equitable opportunities, on and off the ice.
Markus Nilsson, Deputy CEO, Hammarby Football Club
While Hammarby is one of the pioneers in women’s football in Sweden, having won its first title in 1985, its current ascent began in 2017 when the operations were gathered under the same umbrella as the men’s team. Nilsson will share his experiences and insights on building a team from the ground up (and from the bottom!) to the absolute top, from the brink of bankruptcy to record-breaking crowds and playing in the Champions League in just five years. Fueled by world-class supporter engagement as demonstrated by the fact that 7,000 fans travelled to an away game to see Hammarby clinch their second Swedish title in 2023, and then thousands met the team in downtown Stockholm to welcome them home.
Dominik Schreyer, Apl. Professor of Sports Economics & Director, WHU — Otto Beisheim School of Management & Center for Sports and Management (CSM)
Women’s sports are on the rise—or so it seems. Dominik Schreyer, an apl. Professor of Sports Economics at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management in Düsseldorf, Germany, has published over 40 articles in international peer-reviewed journals. He’s particularly interested in analyzing sports demand—for example, football spectator no-show behaviour and the growth of women’s sport.
At the seminar, he’ll examine the current growth trajectory in women’s pro sports, and what executives can do to truly elevate the women’s game moving forward.
Tobias Calminder, Product Manager at Elite Prospects
Calminder has extensive experience in leading product development teams in digital media and marketplaces. He previously held several senior product development positions at Schibsted Media Group. Elite Prospects has more than 23,000 paying subscribers, and over 300,000 members and receives approximately 5 million unique visitors per month, another way to grow the women's game.
Europe’s Leading Women’s Hockey Leagues
Angelica Lindeberg, Chief Commercial and Chief Operating Officer of the SDHL, joined the league in 2018 as its first employee. In her seven years with the SDHL, she has seen the league take several steps toward a professional league, including a collective agreement, a TV deal, and partners that, alongside the league, work to make it better and bigger. Today, the SDHL is arguably the best women’s league in Europe.
Henni Laaksonen is the Director of the Finnish women’s league that recently finished its inaugural season under the new brand name Aurora League. Laaksonen, who joined the Finnish Ice Hockey Association in 2023, led the brand work that led to the new name and a higher profile for the league. The first season was a success, with records broken in the stands, on TV, and on social media.
Paolo Angeloni joined the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation in 2017, and today, he’s Director, of Leagues & Cup in that capacity, he also oversees the operations of the PostFinance Women’s League, one of several European leagues. The federation recently extended their naming rights deal with PostFinance to cover the 2026-27 season, to give the women’s league a boost.
International Women’s Hockey: Vision, Growth & Governance
Emma Terho, Vice-Chair at the Finnish Ice Hockey Federation and Athlete Commission Chair at the International Olympic Committee also patrolled the Team Finland blueline in 257 games, including five Olympic Games and eight World Championships, many of them as the team captain. She’s also a member of the European Olympic Committee’s Executive Committee.
Ashley Ehlert has been with the International Ice Hockey Federation since 2009 and in that time, she has seen it all in international hockey, from forming a European ice hockey league, drafting and negotiating global sponsorships, broadcasting and commercial rights agreements, reformulating the IIHF governance and disciplinary structures, implementing a global trademark protection and licensing programs as well as managing IIHF cases in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Today, she’s also the Deputy Director General.
