Advisory Board
The Sportify product is the result of a collective effort of various insurance and risk management professionals who each provide expertise in product line development, insurance distribution relationships, and special contingency/disability insurance underwriting in the Lloyd’s market. In addition; Sportify's leadership team has vast knowledge of high school sports and the scholarship athlete recruitment process in the United States. While many individuals contributed to making Sportify a reality, the Advisory Board member’s biographies are shared below.
David Mace
David sparked the creation of the Sportify concept after identifying an under-served need with regard to high limit disability insurance availability for the ever growing and highly competitive high school athlete market in the USA.
David brings over 13 years of experience in specialty lines and risk management services marketing, underwriting, brokerage and advisory of crisis management, personal accident and international casualty insurance. He is tri-lingual, speaking both Spanish and English as native tongue, and French. David’ s career in insurance began at AIG where he became Assistant Vice President, Zonal Manager for the Southwest United States. Currently as a marketing consultant for crisis assistance firms and UK-based underwriting facilities, David has advised multinational companies in the oil & gas; food / beverage; and non-profit entities with diverse international projects. His advisory experience also includes guiding businesses and high net worth family office practices on hostile environment operations and travel preparedness. David’s work experience and geographic areas of expertise include North, Central and South America, Europe, and North and Sub-Saharan Africa. David received an International Politics & Economics (IPE) degree from Middlebury College in Vermont. His IPE work involved study abroad in Comparative Politics and Middle Eastern culture studies (in French tongue) at the Paris Institut d’Etudes Politiques “Sciences Po”. David earned his International MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management; a Knowledge Enterprise unit of Arizona State Univ. David's MBA was distinguished with Pi Sigma Alpha honors for political science studies.
A recruited scholar-athlete at Grapevine High School (TX), David played 3 years (‘93-‘95) of varsity (NCAA DIV 3) football at Middlebury College.
As an experienced youth/ amateur adult baseball umpire (1993-95); advanced state-level US Soccer referee (2010-15); and certified Youth Soccer licensed trainer; David has gained tremendous insight on athlete training, development and recruitment.
Mark "Alec" Shaw
Alec Shaw is a successful second-generation family personal lines insurance entrepreneur. Born and raised in Mexico City, he is a native bilingual (Spanish - English) speaker with vast experience in life, health and accident insurance placement for the ultra-high net worth market segment. Alec's father founded the Optima Insurance agency in 1989. Upon the passing of his father in 1996; Alec's leadership of Optima insurance brokerage has expanded the brokerage firm's network beyond the USA and into several Latin American countries, collaborating with independent agents and specialty lines underwriters in these countries in order to place insurance risks with US and international carriers.
Alec earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Texas, San Antonio. Mr Shaw competed as a high level tennis & golf athlete in Mexico and the United States.
Courtney Robyn M.
Courtney's vast and eclectic experience in childhood education development and hospitality sectors accentuates the multi-disciplinary skill set of the Sportify leadership team. As graduate of Cornell University, School of Hotel and Hospitality Administration (B.S.’2003); Courtney spent more than 5 years working in the high-end lodging and tourism sector of Hong Kong. After her Far East experience, Courtney then earned her Masters degree in Educational Psychology in 2013 from the University of Colorado - Denver. Her interest in the psychology of education lead her to embark on various assignments focusing on early childhood development and the study of behavior modification of special needs children such as those in the autism spectrum. Furthermore, Courtney is a licensed life, accident and health insurance agent whose academic focus on youth and parenting is a unique expertise for the Sportify platform. Courtney is conversant in Spanish and has deep knowledge of both the Far East Asian & Latin American business cultures.
Courtney had various outstanding accomplishments during her high school sports participation. She was a widely-recruited water polo scholarship athlete at Marin Academy in San Rafael, CA in the late 90’s and she earned her 1st Degree Black Belt from the American TaeKwonDo Association (ATA) in 1996. Three years later, Courtney won second place at the ATA National competition.
Steven Mace
Steven Mace has a distinguished 30+ year career as an educator in the Texas and Washington state public school systems. Steven's academic career also involves Associate Professor positions in various Texas- based colleges and universities. With a specialty in language education; Steven holds a Master’s degree in Spanish Literature from Texas A&M University-Commerce and a Master’s degree in School Administration from the University of Texas at Austin. Now retired from public education, Steven has transferred his vast skills set in language instruction and education program management to the insurance industry where he has gained experience with personal disability, life insurance and accident and health marketing, primarily to the Hispanic market in the United States. His involvement in the insurance industry allowed him to focus on grassroots development for the promotion and cross marketing of the Sportify campaign. Steven also has more than 15 years of experience working with athletic directors, parent groups and booster clubs based on his role as a high school football referee, stadium official time-keeper, and high school soccer coach.
Mr. Mace holds an undergraduate degree in history from the University of Washington (UW) and coached high school soccer for Seattle Public Schools in the mid 70’s.