To create a high-performance volunteering industry composed of inspired people with optimal silks-sets and ready to deliver successfully and world-class perceived events.
Vision
Mission
● Bring effective solutions to sports events organizers in the area of the management of volunteers
● Leave an impact on volunteer's career path and inspire the volunteering culture globally
● Ensure that the Management of Volunteers functional area receives the necessary recognition compared to its contributions to the sports industry.
Value Proposition
Our value proposition is the mindset regarding sports volunteering management as a fully dedicated organization to this industry. We keep the volunteers as the centerpiece of the program. We connect the operational side of sports volunteering with the academic world, using the theoretical knowledge to create better and more sustainable volunteering programs for our clients based on the local volunteer culture with an observational research approach. As a result, both the organizer and the volunteers grow together and benefit from the experience.
MEET THE TEAM
Founder and CEO of NR Sport Volunteering Solutions
Expert of Sports Volunteering Management
ABOUT NADA ROCHEVSKA
NR Sports Volunteer Solutions is a German registered Consultancy lead by MSc. Nada Rochevska. Nada is a lawyer by vocation, an internationally recognized leader in sports event management and volunteer leadership, and a former national basketball player.
A love of sports, especially basketball, has shaped Nada’s values in her personal life and career. Nada enjoyed considerable success as a national basketball player. Her experiences on and off the court taught her the importance of teamwork, individual effort, commitment, and how to stay calm and focused under pressure.
After graduating as a lawyer, these values were further homed in her role as a strategic team member associated with international projects for the National Democracy Institute (NDI), headquartered in Washington, DC, from a national perspective Skopje.
Drawing upon the values that had served her so well on the basketball court, Nada functioned as the International Federations Coordinator at the Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer 2016. She also took an active role as part of the NOC Chef-de-Mission team, NOC Assistant, supporting the Macedonian athletes for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and NOC’s Assistant at the Winter YOG Lausanne2020. Returning to her native homeland, as apart from the Local Organizing Committee of the Macedonian Football Federation, Nada delivered the Volunteer Program for the UEFA Super Cup Skopje 2017 and was engaged to carry forward a multitude of diverse projects in her primary role as the Sports Volunteer Manager at the European Mountain Running Championship in Skopje 2018. Her management activities included: planning, recruitment, screening and selection, orientation, training, performance management, and recognition.
In 2018 her comprehensive experience and academic knowledge in sport management were recognized. Nada took an active part in NIFISA International Sports Academy in Kanoya, Japan, and later as Team Leader Language Services at Tokyo 2020.
From passion and love for Volunteering to a real-life fascination, she has carved out a professional and academic career in this field.
A life-long learner with a desire to be increasingly involved in sports, Nada holds Master of Science degree in Sport Management with a specified interest in sport volunteering management and is currently completing a second master’s degree in Olympic Studies at the German Sport University Cologne with research focus in the Olympic Volunteering.
Nada uses her vast leadership experience in Sports Operations and People Management, formational regional and international mega sports events, to provide innovative solutions for clients seeking to develop sports volunteering programs through the promotion of a values-based framework
When combined with her legal expertise, her former life as an athlete, and a leading role in international sports position Nada Rochevska as a premier sports volunteer consultant.
ABOUT DR. NIKI KOUTROU
Dr Niki Koutrou is a Senior Sport Management and Policy Researcher and Academic. Her research focuses on events management and Olympic studies, alongside mega-sport event volunteering, participation legacies, volunteer management, sports programme evaluation and sustainability. Over the years, she been engaged in various research and knowledge exchange activities aimed at bridging the gap between academia and the wider society. Most recently, she held a Project and Research Manager role at PlayGreen, an Erasmus+ Sport-funded and EUFA endorsed pan European collaborative project on behalf of the European Sports NGO which aims to enhance the environmental sustainability of sport by developing volunteer capacities.
Her work on volunteer legacies has also been featured in Geographical, the Royal Geographical Society Journal, and has acted as the Workshop Facilitator and Coordinator at the European Sports Platform, European Youth Sport Forum and International Olympic Academy among others. She has given guest lectures and keynotes at various conferences and initiatives around the world including, for example, for the British Library, the International Olympic Academy, the Chinese Taipei National Olympic Committee, the Dream Together Seoul Forum, the Tokyo 2020 Policy forum on Disability, for the International Society for Third Sector Research, for Sport and the European Green Evolution Conference by the French Ministry of Sports.
She was the Principal Investigator of a recently concluded project funded by the Olympic Studies Centre of the International Olympic Committee. Along with her collaborator, Dr Geoffery Kohe (University of Kent), she produced a report on ‘reawakening sport and community engagement in a previous Olympic host city: Capitalising on the Athens 2004 Olympic volunteer legacy 17 years on’ (Lausanne: IOC, 2011).
Expert of Sport Management and Volunteering
Expert in Marketing and Business Development
ABOUT DANIELA NEGREDA
Daniela Negreda, a Brazilian-Portuguese Senior Marketing Leader, brings her broad Marketing and Business Development knowledge to IGNITX as Advisor with more than 20 years of Marketing experience in both the corporate and sport industry.
Daniela worked for Kimberly-Clark for 13 years in different Marketing roles and countries before joining the International Olympic Committee. She started as a Brand Manager in Brazil then moved to the Latin American business where she led the implementation of a proprietary trade marketing tool in 18 countries following the SAP migration. Daniela was promoted to coordinate and develop trade marketing tools, reporting, trading and analytical processes within the US team and subsequently to Canada where she was a Customer Marketing Manager for several accounts, including Loblaws.
As an enthusiastic volleyball player, Daniela always wanted to work in sport. She made the decision to move to Lausanne, Switzerland, the Olympic Capital and secured a position in the Marketing Department of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In her 7 years at the IOC, she managed the strategic development, production and implementation of the promotional brand campaign for four Olympic Games with the objective of promoting Olympic Values beyond the Olympic Games with an integrated approach of TV, digital, social media, two-way engaging communication and a pro-social activation component.
Daniela also oversaw the development of IOC proprietary consumer and B2B research studies, provided analysis customized per stakeholder augmented by storytelling based on market trends. These research insights were used to successfully sell and renew partnerships as well as maintain the Olympic Brand recognition to its highest level.
With her deep knowledge of business development, she also led the development of effective fit-for-purpose sales tools which included compelling benefits to partner with the property. These tools were used for training, sales, and servicing of partners at all 3 levels of Olympic sponsorship resulting in various sponsorship renewals and new partners contracts with IOC, Host Cities Organizing Committees and National Olympic Committees, including the multi-million dollars deals with Bridgestone and Toyota.
Daniela is an MBA graduate from University of Phoenix, holds a professional certificate from University of California, Berkeley and an extension certificate from Faculdade Getúlio Vargas, São Paulo.
She is a strong advocate of education and self-development and is currently working on courses on marketing foundation, strategic analysis of big data and on self-transformation, assisting people to find their path and develop their inner-self. Her latest lecturers were at renowned institution such as Universiti Putra Malaysia, Glion Institute of Higher Education and Global Institute of Sports Business (GISB).
She is currently a Consultant in Marketing and Business Development working for clients such as World Health Organisation (WHO), Digital Partners Switzerland, and the Games experts IGNITX.
ABOUT TATIANA NIKULINA
Tatiana is an experienced Sport Management Consultant with a proven track record of successful volunteer management projects for major sporting events. As the Head of the Volunteers Selection and Training Department at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee in Russia, Tatiana played a critical role in volunteer workforce planning, with over 100 job descriptions created and reviewed to establish a headcount of 6,000 volunteers for the FCC 2017 and 18,000 volunteers for the FWC 2018. She led the recruitment, selection, and training process for both events, ensuring the seamless execution of key operational tasks.
Tatiana’s impressive career in sport management began in 2009 when she worked in the Volunteer Department of the Organizing Committee for the Kazan 2013 World Summer Universiade, a highly complex event that involved 27 sports, 13,000 athletes, and 20,000 volunteers. After her work on the Kazan 2013 event, Tatiana was hired to the Organizing Committee of the Sochi 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Games. In 2015, she was invited to serve as an expert and advisor for the Volunteers Program for the European Youth Olympic Festival in Tbilisi, Georgia, providing valuable insights and recommendations to ensure the success of the event.
In addition to her work with FIFA, Tatiana has been involved in various projects with the International University Sports Federation (FISU) in different roles, including volunteer management consulting for 10 years already.
Tatiana holds an Executive Master’s in Sport Organizations Management (MEMOS) from the co-organization of the International Olympic Committee, Olympic Solidarity, and 12 universities worldwide in Lausanne, Switzerland. During the program, Tatiana conducted applied sport management research on the key elements of successful volunteer management programs for major sporting events, with a specific focus on two case studies – Kazan 2013 and Tbilisi 2015. Her findings, which included innovative strategies for building a sport volunteering culture in countries with limited volunteering traditions, have been highly influential in the field. Professor Ian Henry, Director of the Centre for Olympic Studies & Research at Loughborough University, London, was a Tatiana’s tutor in the MEMOS program.
Overall, Tatiana’s unique blend of expertise, experience, and innovation make her an invaluable asset to any sport management team.
