Eden Ghebresellassie is a unique global brand strategist and authenticator, with over 14+ years of experience in the Sports, Entertainment and Sustainability industry. She is a powerful, multilingual and multi-media marketer and creative strategist. As a leader and team collaborator, her solution-oriented skills attribute to fundraising, business development, and partnership strategy. Her experience spreads from leading ESPN events (ESPYS/X-games) to social impact via HelpUSA, Harlem Routes, United Nations (UNDP), and Project Tsehigh (as Chief Financial Officer). American, born and raised in Italy, to Eritrean parents, Eden holds not only three different nationalities, but also a multifaceted global view of our world.
After her job for the FIFA Master, Eden had spells at the Street Soccer USA and the New York Cosmos football club, a team made internationally famous in the 1970’s when they had the Brazilian legend Pelé as their star player. “It was great to be able to work for a team, at a much faster pace than any other company I had ever worked for”, she says. That experience and exposure to different sides of the entertainment and sport business led Eden to ESPN, where she stayed for almost 9 years – more recently as Global Creative Strategy Lead.”
Eden strongly believes that sport is ‘vital’ for the fight against racism. She would rather call it ‘journey to equality’ and not ‘fight against racism’ – if politics is taken away from the equation and simply agreed that no one should be systematically kept behind and treated unfairly or killed for being non-white, she thinks change would come way faster. In regards to sports, its beauty is that it has the invisible mission statement that sport is where athletes make and give people magic by being all equal on the field.
In 2020, Eden was named one of the 100 women of excellence by OkayAfrica, a platform that connects a global audience to African culture.