Julie Uhrman, co-founder and President of Angel City Football club, undeniably emerges as a standout contender for the North American Soccer Executive of the Year, given her extraordinary contributions to the soccer industry in the US and globally. ACFC is one of the world's only majority female-founded and run professional sports teams. Uhrman founded ACFC with Academy Award-winning actress and activist Natalie Portman, technology venture capitalist Kara Nortman.

Uhrman's leadership at ACFC, Los Angeles' professional women's soccer team, has not only demonstrated financial prowess as one (if not THE) most highly valued women’s sports team in the USA in terms of revenue and impact, but has also had a profound and positive impact on the community, marking her as a true game-changer in the field.

Xavier Asensi is the Chief Business Officer for Inter Miami CF, most recently named the Doug Hamilton Executive of the Year for Major League Soccer. Asensi manages the Club’s direction across all business verticals and his strategic leadership and vision stands as a fundamental catalyst propelling Inter Miami to exponential heights. Asensi joined Inter Miami CF from FC Barcelona in 2021 and within three years of his arrival, the Club has tripled revenues, signed now-eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi, and World Cup champion Sergio Busquets, and commenced Miami Freedom Park's development after securing a stadium site. Asensi has played a significant role in these major milestones, including signing groundbreaking partnership deals (several of the largest deals in Major League Soccer history), planning the Club’s first international tour for the 2024 preseason, and most notably landing Messi in South Florida and maximizing his impact.

Under his leadership, Inter Miami has already sold out of Season Tickets for 2024 with record renewal rates, more than two months before the start of the season and even before the announcement of the 2024 MLS schedule. Inter Miami CF has also been awarded Major League Soccer’s Digital and Social Media Team of the Year, Marketing Initiative of the Year, and Security Team of the Year for 2023 under Asensi’s stewardship, leading all MLS Clubs with the four recognitions.

While St. Louis was an incredible soccer city long before it was awarded a Major League Soccer team in 2019, Carolyn Kindle has led the efforts to set fire a new spirit, uniting the community through the world’s most popular sport and shining an international spotlight on St. Louis. As CEO of MLS’ newest expansion team, St. Louis CITY SC, and part of the majority-female ownership group, Kindle is inspiring a new energy and vitality among St. Louisans.

During their record-breaking inaugural season, CITY SC catapulted themselves into the MLS history books while setting out to be more than a soccer team. It was Kindle’s priority from day one to put fans and community first by invigorating the region and showing off the best of St. Louis – its people, its cultures, its food, its innovative mindset and its love of soccer. What transpired in the club’s inaugural season exceeded expectations on every level.

During his first year as EVP of sports, he has increased the storytelling, and the business success of Telemundo by introducing new technology, new diverse voices, and new ways of thinking to all of Telemundo’s coverage. The network’s World Cup commentary team featured the most women ever in Spanish-language U.S. media history. Simultaneously, Eli focused on expanding and enhancing vital relationships within the sport, as he has done with U.S. Soccer, Liga MX and elsewhere, to make sure that the go to home for all things futbol, whether you are Spanish first or English first, is Telemundo. The game exceeds language, it is all about personality, and no one has grasped that more than Eli Velazquez.

Jeff Gerttula is Executive Vice President, Digital, CBS Sports, News and Stations, and during his tenure CBS Sports and Paramount+ have become the leading destination for men’s and women’s soccer fans in the U.S. Since securing the rights to UEFA Champions League beginning in 2020, CBS Sports’ impact on the soccer industry and the sport’s growth is clear as CBS Sports has reshaped soccer coverage in the U.S.

CBS Sports’ extensive soccer portfolio includes more than 2,500 live matches per year featuring 145 nations across five continents and from more than a dozen competitions. Leading that portfolio is the UEFA Champions League, a competition whose popularity has exploded in America in large part because of CBS Sports’ UEFA Champions League Today studio show. And Gerttula was instrumental in the rights renewal with UEFA through 2030, the longest renewal in UEFA history.

With Gerttula’s leadership and strategic vision that has turned CBS Sports into soccer’s premier destination, CBS Sports is building on the incredible momentum of its sports right to execute on a broader blueprint of becoming fans’ 24/7 home. To that, CBS Sports Golazo Network launched in April with best-in-class studio shows and top-tier live matches.

The 2023 season was momentous for Orange County Soccer Club—thanks in no small part to the decisive leadership of club President Dan Rutstein.

Rutstein’s recent executive successes include:

- Saving the club from losing its home. Rutstein spearheaded a campaign to keep the club in its much-loved home, Championship Soccer Stadium.

- Overseeing and administering a community fundraising initiative, which raised over $300,000 from over 750 investors in its first two weeks.

- Transforming the club’s reach, selling out the last seven Saturdays of the season, when the club had only ever sold out twice in the previous 10 years.

- Supported international partnerships and created messaging to tell the story of the club’s international transfer activities.

- Community initiatives, including the award-winning Noah Bernadout Foundation campaign.

- Helped raise tens of thousands of dollars for OCSC’s charitable Foundation with its first-ever Gala.

- Innovative, quirky, and profitable matchday activations, including beer festivals,free mascot tattoos for fans, whisky and tequila tastings, and enhanced corporate matchday experiences

Rutstein - a former British diplomat, sports journalist, referee and podcast host - has demonstrated a significant contribution to the growth of American soccer.