Int’l sports lawyer Rowena can fill Athletics void in Sports Council
The local athletics community raised their eyebrows yesterday following the appointment of the National Sports Council 2020 because it lacked representation from track and field, the only sport which has won Olympic medals for Sri Lanka. Athletics is also the sport which won all of Sri Lanka’s Asian Games Gold medals and more than 50% of South Asian Games Gold medals.
Out of 14 professionals of the highest caliber, internationally acclaimed sports lawyer Rowena Samarasinhe could fill the void of track and field.
Rowena is a partner of a top law firm LEVEL based in London and is founder and Managing Director of Gen-Sport, a company which works with top international sportspersons in marketing, player representation etc. She has vast knowledge about sports, track and field and international sports law and specializes in the negotiation and implementation of international sponsorship and broadcast agreements. She has also worked with some of the largest global sports properties, concluding ground-breaking deals for sports bodies, in addition to major endorsement deals with some of the most prolific athletes in the world.
She is a Non-Executive Director of CIMPSA, the professional development body for UK sports and physical activity sector and board member of the professional Squash Association.
On the legal front, she is among the Legal 500 General Counsel Powerlist Switzerland 2018 and Legal 500 ‘Next Generation Partner’ Sport 2020.
Apart from being a top legal expert, she also has a MBA in sports management from Loughborough University.
With Sri Lanka’s new Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa aiming to introduce a new Sports Act to replace the 47-year-old Sports Act of 1973 , her knowledge as a sports legal expert will be vital to draft the Act and other laws to guide sports forward .
Sri Lanka has a history of being at loggerheads with International Olympic Committee (IOC) and other international bodies over various sports laws introduced over the past few years, while the country was banned over some issues, where her knowledge will be vital to avoid such unfortunate situations.
Among many other achievements, she negotiated a major sponsorship deal for IAAF (now World Athletics), which was considered as the biggest ever sponsorship, and also negotiated a broadcasting deal for the IAAF World Championship.
During her 16-year legal career, mostly in sports related fields, following are some positions she has held:
– Director Legal at Sportfive, which was UEFA Euro 2008 broadcast rights sales agent
– General Counsel at Athletics Management &Services AG, which is the service agent for the International Sports Business Division of Dentsu Inc. (Tokyo, Japan).
– Director – professional Squash Association
– Non-Executive Director – Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (CIMSPA), Professional development body for UK sport & physical activity sector
– Consultant – Right formula which is an award-winning global sports and entertainment consultancy that handles all aspects of sports sponsorship
– Managing Director- GENSport, a consulting agency focusing on the provision of affordable and accessible commercial and other consultancy services to all sporting organisations and individuals.
– Partner – LEVEL, London based law firm
