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We connect the UK's best sports and health tech startups with the clubs, brands and investors who need them.
Meet the team behind Leadout Innovation:
Elliot Johnston
Founder & CEO
Elliot Johnston founded Leadout Innovation to connect sports startups with the clubs, brands and investors who need them. He played football professionally for Salford City, before pivoting to triathlon where he finished 21st in the world (AG) at the Ironman 70.3 World Championships. At Nike, he worked on the communications and marketing team, focused on how the brand reached and grew audiences across the UK market. He is completing a Masters in Entrepreneurship at Cambridge University.
Across these experiences, Elliot has built a rare set of skills and perspectives, letting him understand the sports industry from every angle.
Riele Short
Head of Partnerships & Strategy
Riele
Riele Short is a Sports Partnerships & Strategy specialist who spent six years in the American market before coming to Cambridge University for her MBA. Her career spans strategy, partnerships, and storytelling across major entertainment and media companies with a focus on commercialising sport at the highest level.
Riele has worked across the US market in NCAA basketball, the NFL, NBA and the Olympic Games, building partnerships and producing content that connects audiences to the athletes and stories that define modern sport. Most recently, she consulted for UNICEF UK on sports partnership strategy, identifying alignment opportunities across the UK sports market.
Alice Sharpe
Head of Events & Athlete-in-Residence
Riele
Alice Sharpe is an experienced event manager and elite cyclist, bringing together expertise in event delivery with a career competing at the highest level of international sport. She represented Ireland at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, holds European and World Cup medals, and is a 2x Irish National Road Race Champion. She is training toward LA 2028, aiming to pilot the tandem for Ireland.
Alice holds a degree in Sports Management and has delivered events from major sporting fixtures and corporate cycling to bespoke events and weddings, covering the full lifecycle from bid development to on the ground delivery.
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