FIFA MASTER ALUMNI - WHERE ARE THEY NOW? - HEATHER O'KEEFFE

Heather O’Keeffe

Current Position: Commercial Planning & Strategy Manager at FIFA

Year of graduation: 2021 (21st edition)

Nationalities: American / Australian

What does your current role involve?

I was fortunate to join FIFA as a trainee immediately after graduating from the FIFA Master. I joined the Commercial Strategy and Intelligence Department. Over the past two years I have been involved with a variety of projects and have now worked my way up to Commercial Planning and Strategy Manager. Our team is currently working on numerous strategic projects across competitions and commercial revenue streams. This means that we are constantly learning and delving into new topics, which I find very rewarding.

My projects have been quite varied. For example, I have worked with our licensing and retail teams on analysis of host market merchandise and fan consumption trends. I have also worked with our Legal team on how we translate sponsorship rights into contracts, researched and brainstormed sponsor activation ideas, and managed our rights inventory throughout the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 partnership development process.

I am really excited to next work on FIFA World Cup 2026 since one of the host countries, the USA, is where I was born and raised. I am also keen to see how we can continue to push women’s football and the sports commercial growth after the huge success of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand just a few months ago.

Which aspects of the FIFA Master course have helped you most in your career?

The course gave me a very thorough understanding of the broader football and sport ecosystem. This is so helpful and serves as a foundational knowledge base of which I can build my capabilities upon. As we gear up for the FIFA World Cup 2026 in North America, I’m recalling course lectures on the European versus North American sports model and differences in commercial, sporting, and cultural approaches. This is just one example as to how my studies continue to support the work I do today.

I know that this will be repeating every FIFA Master alumnus before me, but the friendships and bonds I formed with my fellow FIFA Master classmates are priceless. Not only did I learn from my classmates during the year, but they continue to be a wealth of knowledge. Just this week our class WhatsApp chat was full of advice and input on best practices when licensing music for sports events. Being able to quickly get input and advice from trusted friends across the industry is invaluable.

What advice would you give to future students on the course?

The FIFA Master is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and investment in yourself, so treat it as such. My one piece of advice to each and every student is to be present during the course and stay in the moment. This will propagate in numerous ways throughout the year from being attentive during each lecture and not being afraid to ask questions, to diving into group projects and pursuing extra readings on topics that interest you. It extends to the more social side of things such as celebrating the holidays of your classmates and trying their local recipes - to exploring Leicester, Milan, and Neuchatel and getting involved in the local sport. If you’re present for each of these moments and all the little ones in between, you will graduate from the FIFA Master a more knowledgeable sports administrator and fulfilled individual.

FIFA Master - International Master in Management, Law and Humanities of Sport, ranked  Europe's No.1 course a record 11 times by SportBusiness.

Organised by CIES in partnership with De Montfort University (UK), SDA Bocconi School of Management (Italy) and the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland).