Founder, Chase the Squirrel Consulting
With over 30 years working in sport, Marzena has a background from Olympics to Women’s Football; she has seen incredible change in sport over the years from a commercial, marketing and diversity perspective. Her time now focuses on non-executive roles and consulting, setting up Chase The Squirrel Consulting this year, supporting brands and organisations across the sporting spectrum.
Most recently in her seven years at The Football Association, as Head of Marketing and Commercial, Women's Football, Marzena played a leading role in the exponential growth that has been seen across women’s football. She developed the first commercial and marketing strategy for the women’s game and lead its delivery through a cross functional team – from grassroots to leagues and competitions to the England team.
Commercially the bar has now been raised across the whole of the women’s game starting with the initial landmark multi-million pound investment from Barclays in 2018 as title partner of the Barclays Women’s Super League, a partnership that has since been renewed for a further three years. The exponential growth has continued from just 5 commercial partners in the women’s game in 2017 to 19 in 2023. This growth alongside the first record breaking broadcast agreement with BBC and SKY for the Barclays WSL – with exponential increases in audiences and followers.
Marzena was instrumental in visualizing and leading the ambition to host a home women’s tournament as a means to fast track the growth of the women’s game, winning the right to host in 2018. This gave England the platform on which to host the iconic and historic UEFA Womens EURO 2022. She was then part of the leadership team around the tournament helping to maximise the potential of the event with a strategic focus both on and off the pitch. She left the FA in December 2023 leaving a solid legacy from which the FA can continue the growth for women and girls.
From 1996-2006 Marzena was the inaugural Director of Marketing at the British Olympic Association (BOA) where she built and managed the BOA’s first commercial and marketing department. Her most notable achievement during her time at the BOA, was as the architect of the Team GB brand that is now embedded into sport in Britain.
Prior to The FA, Marzena founded b-focused ltd, an agency specialising in sports marketing, sponsorship and event management. Clients included Team GB, Youth Sport Trust, British Rowing and Panasonic, among others. She led the management and co-ordination of largescale events such as the Team GB FanZones 2016, Birmingham Rugby World Cup Fan Zone 2015, the London 2012 Live Sites Network, 2008 Visa Handover in The Mall, London and 2004 Olympic Torch Relay, London.
Marzena has also held a number of Non-Executive roles including Volleyball England and British Gymnastics – utilising her commercial and marketing expertise