Lisa Pennington

Globally respected C-suite senior executive with over 25 years of leadership, including a decade in the GCC region, in shaping and delivering exceptional world-class guest/client experiences to set new benchmarks across sports, mega-events and entertainment and destination-led platforms that align with corporate objectives and brand vision.  A former senior leader at FIFA and a Senior Advisor to UAE and UK Governments, Lisa has extensive global and local experience in transforming strategy into execution with precision, creativity and purpose, along with leading the end-to-end design and delivery of transformative human-centric experiences that create the ultimate “pinch-me” moments and lasting lifelong memories: from bid governance and evaluations of host countries/cities, strategic visioning and development, CONOPS development, asset/environment and destination design, build and fit-out, seamless mobility solutions across destinations, services and hospitality design, digital transformation and innovation through to workforce strategy and mobilisation including volunteer communities and C4 crisis and repututation management ensuring seamless operational execution and service excellence underpinned by world-class experience design.

Lisa is an innovative, multi-faceted leader, who continually seeks to and has, pushed the boundaries of Guest Experience and who has the strategic vision and foresight to lead teams to continually deliver the “World’s Best Guest Experiences”.  She drives a guest experience strategy that not only meets guests’ expectations but exceeds them every single time.  Lisa has a proven track record of shaping and scaling CX strategy across global platforms and multi-country/city/assets at some of the most iconic mega-events on the planet from FIFA World Cups™, FIFA Women’s World Cups™ through to Expo 2020 Dubai, Olympic Games and other high-profile Government and UAE Events including Qasr Al Hosn, MOTN, Majlis for Future Generations and World Police Games Abu Dhabi.  She excels in working in an autonomous environment and takes accountability through a blend of driving change, aligning execution with world-class standards (FIFA/BIE), benchmarking exercises, knowledge of regional trends and external factors, industry know-how and network, along with national transformation goals and legacy ambitions.

Expert in identifying and profiling guest personas, mapping every client journey and incorporating the seven senses to ensure consistency and excellence across every touchpoint and asset, whilst also ensuring the guest experiences reflected the unique culture, heritage and values of the Host Country, creating connections between guests, fans and visitors with the local community.  Through enhancing the guest journey, creating personalized, seamless and transformative experiences for all client groups and stakeholders, the strategic integration of guest experience initiatives and experience-led thinking into governance, operational and services frameworks resulted in delivering the “biggest and best” FIFA World Cups ever.

Through Lisa’s deep expertise in complex ecosystems and globally scrutinised, demanding, high-performance, multi-stakeholder environments and the ability and experience in building strong partnerships, stakeholder engagement and collaboration, she can manage and challenge high-level internal and external stakeholders to constantly put clients/guests at the heart of every decision to deliver cohesive and impactful experiences.  Lisa is also known for her ability to build, lead and mentor global, high-performing, diverse, cross-functional teams in multicultural environments, with rigour and empathy to set them up for success and thrive under pressure, perform at their best in high-stakes environments, strive for excellence and identify opportunities to deliver ‘WOW” moments at every turn.  Known for her emotional intelligence and cross-cultural fluency, Lisa is a passionate advocate for inclusive, legacy-driven experiences that inspire, connect and endure.