Bay Area Host Committee CEO Zaileen Janmohamed on knowing when to follow your gut to make a public speaking impact

Zaileen Janmohamed was only a few weeks in the job when she found herself in a windowless room, standing in front of 32 of the most powerful people in America.

With just ten minutes on the clock, it was her first to task as CEO of the Bay Area Host Committee to pitch for the hosting rights for the 2026 Super Bowl.

She decided to throw the templated stump speech in the trash and go with something bold.

In this episode of Leaders Worth Knowing, Janmohamed unpacks the high pressure, high impact presentation she gave to the NFL Owners meeting that resulted in Levi's Stadium winning the right to host the most recent Super Bowl

Janmohamed became CEO of the Bay Area Host Committee in 2023. It's essentially the sports commission for the Bay Area, and bids for and then operates major, top-tier sports events. Janmohamed runs a team responsible for raising revenues for those events, telling coherent stories about the impact they'll have across the region, then making sure that comes true, while ensuring a legacy too.

She looks ahead to the upcoming Fifa World Cup, which will play six games in the Bay Area; and attempts to unpick and explain a lattice-work stakeholder environment that is creating tension in various host regions just a few weeks out from the biggest World Cup in history.

Janmohamed is a member of the Leaders Under 40 class of 2017, and she also reflects on a career that has seen her play leadership roles at rights holder, brand, and agency organisations; the sport industry full house!