Super Bowl guru’s Galway roots!

Emma Newell is the Executive Vice-President of Marketing and Partnerships Department of the Houston Super Bowl Host Committee, which is tasked with fundraising enough money so that the Texas city can host the prestigious sporting event on Sunday, February 5.

A daughter of Mike Newell, originally of Shop Street and now living on Inis Mac Atreer on Lough Corrib near Headford, Emma Newell is the grandchild of former president of UCG, Martin J Newell, and a niece of former Galway footballer, Martin L Newell, who was a member of the 1960s famous three-in-a-row All-Ireland winning team.

Born in Clare, she lived in Ireland until 1986 and then moved to London where she built up an impressive sports marketing CV, including liaising with the Premier League, Olympics and Ryder Cup.

This experience worked in Emma’s favour when she emigrated to Houston three years ago, with her husband, who is employed with BP.

“I started in sport, about 20 years ago. I just happened to fall into a job in a very small boutique sports marketing agency and my first client was the All Blacks rugby team. They were sponsored at the time by Steinlager, and they were coming over to the UK for their tour and my first job was helping to promote the Steinlager association with the All Blacks,” said Emma.

“From there, I literally covered a multiple of sports, from test series cricket with npower, to working on round-the-world yacht racing, to working on the FA Cup sponsorship. I also did some work on the London Olympics in 2012.

“Probably the biggest one I’ve worked on was with Barclays and the Premier League for almost ten years doing all their international PR. Off the back of that, it was difficult for me to find something that was going to be as challenging, where I was still learning after so many years in the business.

“Coming to the US, the ultimate event to work on is the Super Bowl. What I’m doing now is incredible,” she said.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.