Contributors
please email any enquiries to blog.initiative@uk.initiative.com
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Kevin Alavy Kevin runs Initiative's global research on the World Cup and other major sporting events. He is a passionate soccer fan but will be restraining his emotions during the World Cup in order to deliver objective analysis. In his spare time he is a keen goalkeeper - nicknamed 'the cat' - and coaches children's soccer at Arsenal Football Club. |
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Alison Gaskell Alison works with Kevin in London on our sports projects. She can't play soccer very well but will be watching all the professionals in action during the World Cup on TV! She also likes tennis so she wants to try and watch some of Wimbledon in-between the soccer |
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Giles Cottle Giles is a huge soccer fan, but this season his favourite team (Sheffield Wednesday) finished fifth bottom of their domestic league. He is therefore looking forward to England performing much better than this in Germany He also enjoys to play soccer on weeknights. His favourite position is goalkeeper, mainly as it means he doesn’t have to run around very much. |
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Nick Moore Nick runs Initiative's UK sponsorship division looking after a number of clients including J&J and Vauxhall. A passionate sports fan who experienced first hand the power of sport when he carried the Olympic Torch at the Winter Olympics in Torino 2006! |
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Nicky Williams Nicky is a huge football fan. She supports Liverpool, and was lucky enough to be at the Champions League Final in Istanbul last year when they beat AC Milan. She is very excited about the World Cup and she has a feeling
England will win (Well, she can dream!!) |
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Rosa Serrano Rosa is our US Hispanic market specialist with over twenty five years of experience in multicultural markets (that is seven World Cup’s). She was born in Mexico and came to live in the US at the
age of seven. She will be cheering for both the Mexican
and US teams to victory. |
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Kevin Collins Kevin oversees the broadcast buying for the Coors Brewing Company and Levi’s business in the NY office. He’s an avid sports fan who last played soccer in high school, where he was an all-American goalkeeper. In his spare time, Kevin enjoys sitting on the beach with
his two children (Finley and Rowan) and reading books on
media buying. Although he is hoping for a USA upset, he
has Poland in the World Cup pool! |
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Roy Jeans Apart from supporting England , he also supports Everton, who have two players in Germany -Valente (Portugal) and Cahill (Australia). If England do not win he would like to see Holland win
instead. |
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Nenette de Lange Nenette is no real soccer fan, but when she gets tickets to a rugby game, she's there. Participating in sport is not on top of her to-do-list but she loves watching games from the safety of her lounge. She's constantly corrected by her husband on games and she admits she's fallen asleep during one game (but can’t remember which sport it was) – her husband was disgusted. |
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Hester Scholtz Hester knows one soccer term which is "Laduma" - it means “Goal” in one of the African languages. She loves watching soccer as it provides great acting tips
such as faking injury and acrobatics. However, she is currently
developing a more serious interest in soccer and will probably
be following the World Cup. |
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Alexander Toshkov Alek is a big football fan and plays at least twice a week with friends. He regularly watches the European Cup games (Champions League, UEFA Cup, etc.) Alek also likes watching the Spanish Premiera League, but he is especially interested in the English Premiership. He is a Manchester Utd fan. He will be supporting England in the World Cup. |
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Jana Olikova Jana works in the TV buying department and is 30 years old. She occasionally likes watching soccer, especially when Czech Republic are playing, but she is more of a passive soccer fan. She is also interested in the appearance of footballers!! Jana has a 2 year old son and she teaches him how to kick
a ball – maybe he will be a famous footballer in the future! |
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Maris Tuvikene In terms of football, Maris enjoys watching it on TV and will surely be keeping an eye on the World Cup results. Her best soccer memory is one cold New Years Eve – trying to play football in full winter-wear with snow up to her knees!
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Jaroslav Kokoskin Jaroslav works in Lithuania and is crazy about basketball, but is also a big football fan. In his free time, he plays Sunday football league as a left defender. During the World Cup he will definitely miss some games and training. Jaroslav says he is going to support England because the Lithuania football team didn’t qualify :)
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Mauro Sacco Mauro loves football and plays twice a week. He used to coach a University team, where he was also a player. Mauro will be watching as many games as possible in the tournament, even though Uruguay didn’t qualify.
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Ana Guedes In Brazil, Ana is a big supporter of the São Paulo Soccer Team and this is complicated because her husband supports another team, Palmeiras, so they can never celebrate together! But for the World Cup, they are going to be cheering for
the same team, of course! And probably celebrating together...
:- ))
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Courtney Chia Courtney works on some of the sports projects in the Toronto
office. She’s a bit of a jock(ette), as she’s always been
competitively involved in a variety of sports. She even
played soccer on her high school varsity team…but that was
LONG…LONG ago! She’s also a certified personal trainer and
currently training 6 days a week to possibly compete in
the fall. |
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Helmut Prattes As the Austrian soccer league isn't really full of suspense
(!) Helmut is looking forward to the World Cup 2006. Let the games begin!
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Istvan Kozari Istvan handles part of Unilever business and is also the head of Fastbridge – digital unit. Istvan is a passionate participant of ViewerTrack projects, even though he is hopeless at playing soccer. There were times he tried to play, but usually ended up with a broken arm or ankle! He says watching on TV is far safer, and more fun. He
will follow this WC with interest, in order to provide insights
for the analysis and to find out whether the favourites
do well. |
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Jakob Hultman During his spare time Jakob plays football in one of the lower divisions in Stockholm as a left winger. His style of playing is similar to the Swedish superstar
Fredrik Ljungberg who he thinks will dominate this World
Cup and hopefully take Sweden far in the tournament. |
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Joo, Byoung-Kyu Kevin Kevin is the Initiative contact point regarding tools and technologies in South Korea. He is an all kinds of sport person and used to play soccer
on a Sunday morning with high school colleagues. |
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Song, Ji Hyun Ji is the youngest member of her team, and she works hard to learn. She is a passionate soccer fan, although she is not very good. Ji will be cheering on the streets for the Korean team during this World Cup. She loves watching movies, especially romance. Her favourite
movie star is Keanu Reeves. |
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Laura Rickard Laura is a new recruit to the Dublin office and the World Cup will be her first major project to work on. She enjoys watching soccer, but as Ireland failed to qualify
(still a sore point!!) she will be supporting whatever other
underdogs are playing on the big screen in the pub! |
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Louise Fitzpatrick Louise is not a football fanatic, preferring to watch gaelic games, especially hurling. As Ireland are not in the WC this year she will probably be cursing the competition by mid-June. Louise’s interest will mainly revolve around the talent (i.e. the looks!) of players involved. She will watch some of the games in the pub, because of the social atmosphere and will be supporting Sweden, Paraguay and Trinidad & Tobago…… |
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Mauricio Chaparro Mauricio is a Colombian living in Chile. When he was a boy he was really passionate about soccer. The aspects that today impact Mauricio about the World Cup are the inauguration ceremonies, their covering and world promotion. Of course the final ones are events with a lot of adrenaline and he cannot wait to see them.... |
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Phil Eligio Phil works with the research team in the Australian branch of Initiative in Sydney. He is keen to report back on how Australian audiences will interact with the 2006 FIFA World Cup, considering that it is the country’s first foray into this stage of the tournament since 1974! He is a recent convert to following soccer but has already
committed himself to the sport by taking a role on the right
hand side of midfield for the Men’s Division 5 Woy Woy FC
squad. |
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Stephane Carillo Stéphane loves music (especially Massive Attack), Sports (Table Tennis, Football) and Cinema. He hopes that France will win the World Cup (dreams can become a reality!) and that Zidane decides not chose to retire at the end of the tournament. |
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The WinIMTeam 2006 Basti, Anne, Jan, Daniela and Steffen are trainees and the WinIMTeam2006 in Germany. They are infected by the football-virus and built up an Initiative football-altar with team pictures, a paperboard football player and gimmicks. They initiated a betting shop and a daily football quiz to fix everyone at Initiative Hamburg too. |
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Rafael Colombino Rafael likes sports, especially football and is a supporter of C.A. Peñarol (a team from Uruguay). During the summer, in his leisure time or on holiday, Rafael practices bodyboarding on the east Uruguayan coast. He is also a great fan of music, especially classic rock artists. In the World Cup, he thinks England will reach the semi-finals, but will stay in 3rd or 4th place. |