Bill Carter
Founder, Student-Athlete Insights

Bill Carter is a Sports Business Journal Forty Under 40 recipient and the founder of the NIL education firm Student-Athlete Insights. He provides on-demand courses, live workshops, and consulting to universities, brands, and professional service providers.

In 2020, Bill developed the largest ongoing survey of student-athletes on the subject of NIL. Today the NIL Research Poll collects data monthly from a panel of 5,000 college student-athletes and 1,000 high school prospects about their NIL experience.

Previously, Bill was a co-founder of sports agency Fuse, where he spent over 20 years advising brands including Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Gillette, and Ford on their athlete and event sponsorships. Bill teaches NIL at the University of Vermont's Grossman School of Business and writes NIL Corner, a monthly column in Sports Business Journal. For more information, visit https://studentathleteinsights.com/ 

Ben Stockman
Venable

Ben Stockman has experience in all areas of labor and employment law. Ben represents employers and executives in a range of legal matters involving restrictive covenants, wage and hour issues, employment discrimination, equal pay, family and medical leave, disability, and employee discipline and termination. He counsels employers on day-to-day employee relations matters and conducts internal investigations. He also handles traditional labor matters, including proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and collective bargaining negotiations. He has a bicoastal practice and represents employers in all phases of trial and appellate litigation in federal and state courts.

Ben advises clients in media and entertainment, advertising, sports, higher education, biotechnology, and healthcare, among other industries. Ben regularly counsels clients on hiring and termination, executive employment agreements, employment due diligence for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions, large-scale workforce reorganizations, and employment policies and practices, including employee handbooks and workplace training.

Operating from Venable’s New York office, Ben Stockman is a trusted advisor on labor and employment law, offering tailored counsel to sports clients on critical issues such as restrictive covenants and executive compensation, at the intersection of NCAA athletics and labor and employment law. His experience spans day-to-day management-side employment counseling, internal investigations, collective bargaining, executive compensation negotiation, employment litigation, and navigating the evolving employment landscape in professional and collegiate sports.

A former Division I lacrosse player at the University of Vermont, Ben draws on his competitive drive and deep understanding of team dynamics to deliver results for clients. Since joining Venable in 2014, he has represented clients across industries, including media, entertainment, private equity, higher education, and healthcare. Ben earned his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School and his B.A. from the University of Vermont.

Chris Waller
Freelance Consultant on Sports, Media & Entertainment Projects

Chris has worked at the intersection of sports, media and marketing for over 11 years - in New York City, Tokyo, and most recently Burlington; on advertising, creative ideation, media sales / strategy, sponsorship, and consulting; at advertising agencies, sponsorship advisories, publishers / broadcasters, and consultancies. During his career, Chris has been able to: launch & solidify new ad sales & sponsorship initiatives at global sports, media & marketing businesses, manage teams, foster collaboration & grow the careers of amazing people, move abroad & learn a new language and work with some of his favorite musicians, athletes, fine artists, personalities, chefs, etc. 

Ali Kenney
Chief Strategy Officer, Burton Snowboards

Enlivened by creating forward-thinking strategy, solving problems, and driving progression toward better ways of doing business across industries and organizations, Ali is a strategic advisor, board member, investor, and business & impact leader. Ali spearheads key future-oriented work creating and executing focused company strategy, driving company transformation, defining and integrating brand purpose and positioning, building systems for consumer-centricity, and developing strategies and action plans for impact & sustainability. She currently sits on the Senior Leadership Team at Burton reporting to the CEO and was recently selected as one of the “Top 50 Women Leaders” in Vermont.

After years working in Finance and then Product Management, Ali proposed and built Burton’s environmental and social impact program and team from scratch in 2011. While reporting directly to the owner & CEO of Burton, she led the company to become a global leader in sustainability through deep materiality work and long-term company-wide commitments. In 2016, Ali took over the 80-person global supply chain organization. She now leads a suite of teams, all that she proposed and built, including Global Strategy & Transformation, Customer Insights, and Purpose & Impact, the latter of which includes Philanthropy, Environmental & Social Impact, Sport Advocacy, and Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI). She is also a certified NACD Corporate Board Director and has led the progression strategy of the Board of Directors at Burton.

Ali has done work in over 50 countries and believes deeply in integrating diverse and global perspectives for holistic success. They have served on boards across a variety of organizations, in addition to appointed roles in city government. Ali holds an MBA from the University of Vermont and a BA from Brown in International Relations. Outside of work, Ali prioritizes being active in the fresh air, outdoors, and with family & friends – think backpacking, hiking, biking, snowboarding, yoga, playing and dancing to live music, designing/building/carpentry, surfing, gardening, playing guitar, and hanging with her wife, Anja, young sons, Cedar and Indigo, and 4 chickens!