BIOGRAPHY

Lisa Pennington | Chief Operating Officer, BLR World 

​​​

Lisa Pennington is a renowned C-suite executive leader who brings over 25 years of global experience in governance and leadership in major sporting and mega-events, including 10 years in the Middle East.

 

A widely respected industry expert, she has played a key part in building and leading teams for the successful delivery of some of the world’s biggest sporting spectacles and global events, including the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ and FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia New Zealand 2023™.

 

Her career in sports and events started as Head of Events and Travel for New Balance (NB) where her passion for delivering exceptional experiences at Major Sporting Events was sparked, when she was responsible for delivering NB’s Global Hospitality Programme at Athens 2004 Olympic Games™.  After a decade at NB, she established Definitive Events (UK) in 2006 and then moved to Dubai and established Definitive Project Management Services (UAE) in 2015 providing advisory, consultancy and (sport) event management services to numerous organisations. 

 

During the 14 years of running Definitive, she delivered various landmark projects and events globally, including sponsorship activations and hospitality programmes for sponsors of European Premier League Football Clubs and Olympic Games Beijing 2008™ and London 2012™ including Olympic Hospitality Houses. She also provided advisory and consultancy services for mega events such as Expo 2020 Dubai through to delivering high-profile events for the UAE and UK Governments.

 

She joined FIFA in March 2021 to take up the senior leadership role of Director Services in the Event Operations Division, where she was responsible for governance and leadership of workforce, volunteers,  guest experience, guest relations & protocol, guest operations, accommodation, travel, transport and logistics across all FIFA Tournaments. Her remit also involved establishing FIFA World Cup Subsidiaries which included the organisational design, workforce planning, HR and recruitment. 

 

After 4 years at FIFA, she moved back to Dubai, UAE and joined the BLR WORLD team as Chief Operating Officer at beginning of April 2025, where she is responsible for building new teams that unite experts from around the world under a common goal of setting new benchmarks in delivering sports events, mega-events and experiences globally.