Liseli Sitali moved to Edinburgh aged 17 in 2008 to follow her dreams of attending university in the UK. Led by a passion for languages, an interest in PR and communications and a desire to work in marketing, Edinburgh Napier’s English and Communications course was the perfect choice. Determined to grab all the opportunities she could, she became a Student Representative, joined the university and local hockey teams, and spent a year working at the University as an International Marketing and Advertising Intern.
Her first career break happened thanks to a class discussion about Formula One motor racing. The conversation inspired Liseli to base her final year assignment on branding and semiotics, on how Italian brands like Ferrari have used their national heritage to cultivate Formula One into an aspirational and globally renowned sport. Her lecturer knew Ferrari’s Head of Communications and was so impressed with her work he forwarded Liseli’s assignment to the luxury car company. As a result, Liseli was offered a role as an intern at Ferrari’s racing division, Scuderia Ferrari.
“I felt like the luckiest student alive.”
In her final year of university, Liseli was encouraged by the-then General Manager of Edinburgh Napier’s Students’ Association to play a bigger role at the University. After graduating with first-class honours in English & Communications in 2012, Liseli was elected Vice-Present of the Students’ Association.
"Be curious. Don't stop being curious to learn, discover, meet, and connect with people because you just never know where it might lead. Use the University’s great support system and network in and around it. Take risks, work hard, and believe in yourself.”
After completing her 12-month term, in 2013 Liseli moved to Italy and joined Ferrari’s graduate programme. However, the role was not permanent and having a younger sister to support through university, Liseli moved back to the UK and began searching for a more secure role.
“I remember making a spreadsheet of 250 sporting and other organisations and agencies. I hand wrote to every one of their heads of marketing and sent them my dissertation along with my CV.”
After some serious legwork, Liseli secured a permanent job at The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) as Senior Brand Marketing Executive. She was tasked with creating new and exciting partnerships between WSJ and lifestyle brands to encourage long term subscriptions to the publication. As a deliberate move to stay in contact with the sports world, Liseli wrote to her contacts at Ferrari asking them to create a luxury hospitality package on Formula One weekends which offered WSJ subscribers the chance to tour the paddocks and meet the drivers. They accepted.
Following this success, Liseli instigated a series of leadership events called WSJ Talks. Liseli’s friend was the sports communications assistant for world-famous NBA (basketball) star Lebron James, so Liseli got in touch and suggested the idea of a roundtable talk with the player given his vested interest in investing in sports businesses. She pushed forward, and with Lebron’s agreement started a spectacular leadership event series, which paired high-profile athletes, entertainers, and celebrities with business people for the talks.
In 2014 whilst still working with WSJ, and wanting to develop her career in the sports world, Liseli started working as a freelance sports journalist and social media community manager for the online, up-and-coming sports publication, GiveMeSport. Liseli was able to secure this opportunity by using her knowledge of subscription marketing gained via WSJ as well as her dissertation, which focused on how football clubs leverage marketing their brand IP and players, to position themselves as global brands.
“My dissertation was like my calling card to get interviews and make connections. It was a deliberate choice to focus on this subject at university so that I could connect with people early in my career.”
However, Liseli’s real ambition was to disrupt the sports industry. At the time there was little support of female athletes, and she decided to work pro bono to support and build the profile of a couple of up-and-coming female athletes. Fast forward to 2023, and Liseli is now working with England Women's Euro 2022 winning football player, Alessia Russo.
In 2016, Liseli joined renowned sports talent agency CSM Sport & Entertainment through a connection she made in her freelance sports journalism career. This granted her the opportunity to represent former two-time Heavyweight World Champion boxer, Anthony Joshua as his commercial agent shortly after his triumph at the London Olympics in 2012. Following her two years at CSM, Liseli reconnected with Anthony whilst working as Senior Marketing Campaign Manager for emerging global sports streaming platform, DAZN. She was responsible for promoting Anthony Joshua’s US debut fight which saw him headline Madison Square Garden, New York.
An example of this is how Liseli acquired her role at DAZN. In 2018 she made an unsuccessful pitch process to win the company as a client. Although unsuccessful, Liseli connected with the DAZN’s Global Media Marketing Director, who then invited her to apply for a role as the company's Global Marketing Manager. She was successful and spent four years at DAZN before being promoted in recognition of her contributions in launching the brand in over 200 countries.
However, the 2020 global health pandemic saw a halt to global sports being broadcast which resulted in Liseli being furloughed for a period of three months. She used this time as an opportunity to pursue a passion project, and to set up a podcast and career mentoring programme called In Her Corner, a purpose-led brand platform dedicated to addressing gender inequity, racism, and sexism in the sports industry. The podcast focuses on raising the visibility and representation of women working at every level of sport to encourage more women and girls to enter and stay in the sports industry whether through a career on or off the field. Since launching the podcast in April 2020, Liseli has secured brand sponsorship from brands and sports funding bodies to develop a career mentoring and sports coaching programme for young girls in inner city schools in and around London. Liseli aims to create career and progression pathways for women and young people from underrepresented gender and ethnic groups. Additionally, she is passionate about encouraging men to become advocates for women working in sport.
"This has been a real career highlight for me. I wanted to try and make it normal for women to be successful in leadership positions in male dominated spheres, and to improve key funding and commercial opportunities for female athletes. So far it has been incredibly successful with four brands offering to officially sponsor the podcast and ensure the ongoing success of the mentorship programme.
“I genuinely believe that competing on track and playing hockey from a young age helped me massively. It built my confidence, taught me to turn up, feel physically strong and stand up for myself.”
Liseli's supreme efforts have not gone unnoticed. She was awarded Female Trailblazer of the Year at the 2022 Global African Awards for her inspiring efforts in mentoring and affording women and girls positive career and progression opportunities, despite the obstacles and challenges faced. She was also honoured as Commercial Executive of the Year by the Football Blacklist and Premier League Industry 2022 Awards, in recognition of the brand and business impact she has delivered through her role as Head of Marketing at Sky Sports.
Liseli had always wanted to work for Sky Sports. She’d previously applied for five different roles over the years but had never been successful. Things changed late in 2021, when Sky Sports came across Liseli’s work through In Her Corner and invited her to apply for the role of Head of Marketing, which was a real “pinch me” moment for her. Following a challenging tenure, Liseli decided to take the risk of leaving her role at Sky Sports to enable her to find a more globally focused role where she could leverage a brand’s influence and business power to drive tangible social impact for underrepresented communities and talent.
So, in January 2023 Liseli joined the global travel company Expedia as Director of Football and Music Partnerships - another role opened to her through a former client she had worked for at Beats. This new opportunity to deliver brand and marketing campaigns for Expedia through football – with a focus on investing in partnerships to grow women’s football and the profile of Black and Latino talent- has given Liseli the perfect chance to agitate the role women play in the world’s biggest sport, while making the Expedia brand feel more culturally relevant.
In 2013, Liseli received an Edinburgh Napier Alumni Award.
“This was a massive confidence boost considering the impressive people that graduated around me. I was in the initial stages of my career, and this gave me the impetus to double down and have confidence in myself. I used that recognition to help power my career.”