Draft:Paul J. Foster



Paul Jonathan Foster (born August 31, 1970) is a business leader and entrepreneur from Sydney, Australia. He is the first and current CEO of the Global Esports Federation as well as a Board Member, positions he was appointed to on March 30, 2021 by GEF President Chris Chan. He is a founding member of the GEF in December 2019, first serving as a Senior Advisor to the GEF Board before being named the Chief Operating Officer in April 2020.

Foster is the Chairman of the Board of World Technology, an organization featuring competitions in the areas of Data Sciences, Earth Sciences, Life Sciences and Industrial Sciences. The first World Technology Games are expected to be held in 2026.

Foster is the founder and principal of consulting firm PJF Group, established in London, Sydney and Los Angeles. In academia, Foster serves as an associate lecturer in universities in Rome and New York in the field of International Relations.

Career
Olympic Movement

Foster began a career in the Olympic Movement in 1997, joining the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Organizing Committee in the lead up to the Summer Games in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. He subsequently served on the Organizing Committees of the Salt Lake City 2002 and Torino 2006 Winter Olympics. From 1997 to 2012, Foster led international teams at more than 10 Olympic Games and served a term at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as a consultant from 2002 for the Athens 2004 Olympics Games, and later as the first Head of Protocol, Events and Hospitality through 2012, based at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. He established his consulting firm in London and continued to consult for Olympic stakeholders including the Madrid 2020 Olympic bid team.

In 2014, Foster was appointed as the Director of Protocol for the Organizing Committee of the Baku 2015 European Games (BEGOC).

World Expo

Foster served as the Vice President of Protocol, Events, Ceremonies and Hospitality at the Expo 2020 in Dubai and later was appointed Executive Director of Baku, Azerbaijan's bid for World Expo 2025.

Global Esports Federation

Foster was appointed CEO of the Global Esports Federation with the goal of establishing the credibility, legitimacy and prestige of esports. Foster has led the development of the GEF's esports events portfolio, including the creation of the annual Global Esports Games and Global Esports Tour. He has also established strategic partnerships between GEF and continental associations within the sporting and Olympic Movement, including the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), South American Sports Organization (ODESUR), the European Olympic Committees (EOC), and Panam Sports. These partnerships led to the creation and hosting of the first 2022 Commonwealth Esports Championships, 2022 South American Esports Championships, 2023 European Games Esports Championships, and the 2023 Pan American Esports Championships, respectively.

In 2023, Foster helped establish a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Esports Federation (IESF), leading to the creation of the Esports Leadership Group (ELG) chaired by IOC Vice President Ser Miang Ng. GEF President, Chris Chan, and IESF President, HRH Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, are founding members of the ELG.

Foster has also coordinated a strategic collaboration between GEF and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) with the aim of contributing to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. The GEF is an Official Supporter of SDG Digital in conjunction with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Foster attended the 78th United Nations General Assembly in New York in September 2023. There, alongside ITU Secretary General, Doreen Bogdan-Martin, and in partnership with SDG Digital, he presented the GameChangers Award in the Pioneer category. Humans in the Loop, a youth-led organization that offers data and human input for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning processes, received the award.

Foster has assisted the GEF in signing partnership agreements with companies such as Amazon MGM Studios in January 2024 to produce content around GEF events, esports athletes, and gamers. In April 2024, the GEF signed agreements with Portfolio Management Companies Cinematic and NODWIN Gaming to operate the GEF events portfolio in North America and select markets in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, respectively.

Education
Foster completed undergraduate studies in Economics at Macquarie University followed by an MBA from the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia. He has two Master of Arts degrees in Protocol and Diplomacy, first from the International School of Protocol and Diplomacy (ISPD) in Brussels in 2016 with a focus on International Relations, followed by his second MA in the same field from Universidad Camilo José Cela in Spain in 2017. In 2021, Foster completed post-graduate studies in Business Strategy and Artificial Intelligence at MIT Sloan School of Management and the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

Further Personal Learning

Foster is a certified E-RYT 500 yoga teacher with continuing education and certification by the Yoga Alliance who established a yoga studio in Newport Beach, California.