As a Senior Principal at Populous, John has been a practitioner of architecture, planning, and urban design for over 25 years, working with a wide range of clients in various U.S. and international cities. His early career began with residential and commercial projects in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and expanded into more complex retail and mixed-use developments as a senior designer at RTKL, before leading larger urban design projects driven by sports/entertainment anchors with Populous. His projects have garnered numerous professional awards and, more importantly, have acted as catalysts for redevelopment activity across a variety of urban scales. More recently, he has been working on a number of university campus projects, sports-based urban mixed-use districts, and ongoing strategic planning for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. He has spent much of his career bridging the professional-academic worlds with his ongoing teaching and research at various universities, including the University of Kansas (KU) where he completed his PhD dissertation on urban design issues. At Populous, John actively integrates research and development design initiatives across multiple disciplines including architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, real estate development, and urban planning.

Jay Cooper is General Manager of the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, MO. Jay has a strong record of success in his 35 years of experience of managing the development and growth of the world’s most successful indoor and outdoor sports and entertainment facilities and campuses. In his storied career, more than 2,500 events have been presented in venues under his direction. Throughout his distinguished career, Jay has demonstrated a unique ability to engage employees, drive measurable profits, optimize results and exceed client expectations. Jay is currently serving as General Manager of T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, MO. Located in the heart of downtown Kansas City, MO, the 19,246-seat landmark anchors more than $8 billion of reinvestment in a revitalized downtown. The award-winning arena has hosted over 12 million guests since opening and is widely recognized as transforming the live entertainment experience in the Midwest. As General Manager, Jay oversees all aspects related to venue operations including revenue, growth, financial oversight, event booking and facility operations. He recently served as Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Global Solutions, a wholly owned division of ASM Global providing comprehensive management and planning services to sports and entertainment facilities worldwide. Global Solutions offers a full scope of customized solutions designed for venue owners and operators that are considering opening a new venue, renovating a venue or entertainment-based campus, as well as those already operating a facility. Jay brings extensive expertise and proven results having led numerous projects on 4 continents and 8 countries through planning, construction, and operational stages. Under Jay’s direction, the group provided fully integrated operational solutions and customized packages of services designed to improve operational performance, maximize returns from construction and capital expenditures and optimize revenue generation potential for each facility. Jay joined ASM Global in 2005 in the role of Vice President and General Manager where he was responsible for the pre-opening, marketing, booking and operation of the ASM Global-operated Toyota Park located in the Chicago metro area. He oversaw the development and management of the 28,000-seat stadium which is the home of the Chicago Fire Major League Soccer team along with numerous concerts and other professional sports. In addition to his leadership at Toyota Park, he also served as general manager of Nationwide Arena (Columbus Blue Jackets) and held senior management roles at Tampa’s Amalie Arena (Tampa Bay Lightning) and Joe Louis Arena (Detroit Red Wings). Jay is a graduate of the University of Iowa, Tippie College of Business with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. He also holds a Master of Arts degree in Sports Administration from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Jay and his wife, Melissa, reside in Kansas City, MO and have two adult children.

As Co-Head of O'Melveny's Entertainment, Sports and Media Industry Group, Irwin P. Raij has extensive experience advising clients on a wide range of sports business issues, on both the professional and the collegiate levels. He has represented owners and acquirers of professional sports teams, leagues, universities, and state governments. His experience includes matters related to MLB, MiLB, MLS, NBA, NHL, NFL, and EPL, along with major colleges and universities. Irwin also is an owner of the Oklahoma City Dodgers (MiLB), and the MLS Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC). Irwin has handled new stadium development projects, project program and development counseling, financing, construction, license/lease agreements, management agreements, concessions, merchandising, ancillary development, licensing arrangements, promotional and advertising agreements (including naming rights), sports technology counseling/ventures, ticketing arrangements, stadium service agreements, RSN formation, and television, radio and media rights agreements. A consensus builder, Irwin also has experience successfully negotiating complex public-private partnerships.

Randy Bredar currently serves as Executive Vice President in JE Dunn Construction’s Kansas City office. In this role Randy is responsible for profit and loss, growth strategies, and customer service for the company’s largest region, delivering nearly $2 billion of construction annually. Randy also leads JE Dunn’s national sports facility construction practice. As a registered architect, Randy practiced for more than 20 years designing some of the largest and most recognizable stadium and arena facilities in the country. Prior to joining JE Dunn, Randy served as a Design Principal at Ellerbe Becket (now AECOM) and cdfm2 Architecture (now HOK), and as National Director of Sports Architecture at HNTB. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Iowa State University, with post-graduate studies in business at The University of Texas-Arlington. Randy is and has been involved in numerous community and civic boards, including the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City; Kansas City Sports Commission and Foundation; Downtown Council of Kansas City-Imagine Downtown 2030; Urban Land Institute-Kansas City; St. Luke’s Hospital/Bishop Spencer Place; Missouri 100; the School of Computing and Engineering at UMKC; and the Department of Architectural Studies at the University of Missouri.