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Key Takeaways:
- Ena was an attorney for 8 years
- Her experience in tax management taught her project management
- A diverse team leads to better results
- Plan to scale the business up to 6,500
- They currently have 100 or less employees – they work as a start-up
- She works closely with the Olympic Committee
Ena Patel is a sports executive working and living in Los Angeles. She is currently serving as Director, Games Planning & Delivery for LA28, the joint venture tasked with executing the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. She serves in a central planning role & ensures cross-functional integration and coordination across Games Planning & Delivery, Legal, IT, HR, Finance, Strategy, and other business functions. Ena spent over 7 years practicing general tax and corporate law at various Big Law firms in the Bay Area before joining the Colorado Rapids as their Director of Player Personnel in 2018 as the highest-ranking female on the technical staff in Major League Soccer. Ena also served as an operations consultant for expansion teams such as Charlotte FC and Angel City Football Club to help bring those organizations to life. In each of her sports roles, Ena focused on general day-to-day club operations as well as player development, budget forecasting, CBA provisions, and community. She has a passion for connecting people & the community, as well as paving the way for women and minorities in the sports industry. Ena earned her BA in Political Science from USC, JD from Loyola Law School and LLM in Taxation from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. She is also a member of the Sports Lawyers Association, a founding member of the Pro Sports Assembly, and sits on the Executive Programming Committee of WISE Los Angeles. She also regularly attends the Sports Business Journal’s annual Thought Leaders Retreat.
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