Entrepreneur and investor, Alexis Ohanian landed in Cannes and headed to the Outfront Yacht to host a panel with Sophie Kelly, Senior Vice President of Whiskies at DIAGEO and Laura Correnti of Giant Spoon.
The panel, timed to the anniversary of Title IX, focused on women’s empowerment in marketing and partnerships.
Ohanian is a founding investor in Angel City Football Club, the first women owned and operated sports team, of which Johnnie Walker, that Kelly leads, is the founding spirits partner and an ongoing champion of equity for women who also most recently helped create the team’s first original anthem written by Brittany Howard.
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It was a deeply inspiring conversation with a crowded room where Ohanian spoke to equity in awareness, investment and celebration of women’s sports and its incredible athletes.
As the panel wrapped, an attendee asked Ohanian how his wife Serena was doing at Wimbledon. In a fitting move, he took out his phone and said, “let’s check out the match and see if ESPN is giving equal awareness to women’s sports on the app.” As he scrolled his phone, he then joked “how hard it was to see how his wife’s day at work was.” He then said it was the goal to bring home a big shiny plate!
As he closed, he noted a full circle moment and why he feels so passionately about Angel City Football Club and working with partners like Johnnie Walker to drive change in the industry and beyond – he said during the women’s world cup in 2019, Olympia was running around the house in her soccer kit and he commented how cool it would be if she played in the World Cup one day, and Serena quipped not until she gets paid equally!
With that he raised his glass of Johnnie Walker Blue Label and said “challenge accepted.”
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