Ben Gill ’26 Teams Up with FIFA During Wasserman Internship

Summer internships are a great way to strengthen your résumé, gain valuable experience and create lasting connections in the industry — JWU students know this better than anyone. This summer, we’ve had dozens of internship success stories, like Ben Gill ’26. This Sports, Entertainment, Event — Management (SEEM) major spent the summer interning with Wasserman, a global entertainment agency that represents some of the biggest names in sports, music and media. 

Gill took some time out of his busy schedule to chat with us so we could learn more about him and what he’s been up to this summer with the Wasserman team.

What made you choose JWU for college? 

I chose Johnson & Wales for college largely because of the proximity to 4 major sports teams (Charlotte Hornets, Carolina Panthers, Charlotte FC and Charlotte Knights). Coming into college, I knew I wanted to work in sports, and I had confidence that the Johnson & Wales’ Sports, Entertainment, Event — Management program would set me up for success to achieve that goal.  

How did you hear about this internship? 

I found out about this internship through one of my professors in the SEEM program. He connected me to the general manager of Wasserman’s branding and signage team. Then that blossomed into a meeting that eventually led to me getting hired for this opportunity. 

Are you close with your professors in the SEEM program? 

I have been close with Associate Professor Sean Baldwin, Ph.D, who’s been a phenomenal mentor. He helped me learn and grow so much throughout my time here, sharing resources that have helped me, as well as countless other students, grow our networks, secure opportunities within the industry and learn how to become professionals in the Sports & Entertainment industry. Baldwin is a testament to the quality of the Johnson & Wales SEEM program, and I’m grateful for all he’s done to help me.  

How do you get involved on campus and with your SEEM peers?

I’m not heavily involved on campus as I spend most of my free time working within the sports industry. However, I was asked by Dr. Baldwin to be a part of the Sports Marketing Club this past year. The club had been very active prior to COVID-19, but since then, it has been a struggle to get it reignited. We got together a group of 8 SEEM students this past year to get the club active again, and we were able to take a trip to Washington, D.C., for the Sports Industry Networking & Career Conference at George Washington University. This trip was an excellent opportunity to gain valuable insights from professionals within the industry and expand our network. 

Tell me more about Wasserman — what do they do?  

Wasserman is a global sports, music and culture agency. They specialize in talent representation, brand and property marketing, and media/content creation. In terms of talent representation, they represent all kinds of athletes and artists. In brand and property marketing, they have a wide range of partnerships where they help activate those brands at various live events. Lastly, Wasserman represents media talent and collaborates with brands to create compelling social media content.  

What is your role with them this summer? 

I am on the branding and signage team for the FIFA Club World Cup & World Cup. Wasserman was hired by FIFA to install artwork as well as signage in four stadiums for the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 and seven stadiums for the World Cup 2026. Additionally, we’re in charge of installing signage at nearby hotels and practice facilities.   

My job mainly involves helping with operations/logistics of installing and taking down our artwork/signage in the stadiums. For example, updating our database to show our progress in the project, helping hire other summer interns to assist at each of our four stadiums, creating spreadsheets to keep track of our progress in the project and creating schedules via our database to get our artwork and signage delivered to the right locations. I also went to Bank of America Stadium (one of our Club World Cup venues) to attend a game with co-workers and help derig our items at the stadium when the games in Charlotte were over.  

We just had a meeting following the end of the Club World Cup and our project director mentioned FIFA was very pleased with our work. It was a surreal feeling seeing everything that we had worked on come to fruition, especially getting to attend a game and see our work in person. Now that we have finished up with the Club World Cup, we have been able to put our full focus on preparation for the World Cup.  

So, what does an average day at work consist of for you? 

An average day of work for me consists of arriving at the office at 9am and checking in with my boss to see what projects I can help out with. Then I will typically work on a project in Excel or work on updating our company database for most of the morning. Normally, around 12 - 1pm, we will have a meeting with the team to discuss progress and get updates on how things are going. Until 5pm, I will work on any other projects I have been assigned, typically in collaboration with other members of my team.  

What has been your favorite task or project you’ve done there so far? 

My favorite task so far was creating our daily reporting system, which was sent to FIFA each day. I developed an Excel sheet that extracted data from our company database and broke it down into pivot tables and pie charts. Every day for about three weeks, I would update our database, extract the information from the database into the Excel sheet, and refresh our sheet to provide FIFA with an update on our progress in the project. This was important for visibility and giving FIFA confidence that we were in a good position.   

How have you used what you’ve learned at JWU to help you in this internship? Have any particular classes prepared you? 

Sponsorship, Sales & Relationship Management is a course that definitely helped me during this internship. In this course, we delved into the relationship between sports teams, agencies and brands. It helped me gain an understanding of what both sides aim to achieve in a sponsorship/partnership, the financial benefits it can bring to both parties, the role agencies play as intermediaries, and how sports teams utilize data and analytics to track the success of a partnership. During my internship, it has proven beneficial to have an understanding of what partnerships look like as I work on the branding and signage team. For example, FIFA has exclusive partnerships with specific brands. If one of the stadiums hosting World Cup games has signage for a competitor of one of FIFA’s partners, then that must be covered up during the entirety of the games. 

Additionally, in Business Analytics, we learned how to apply Microsoft Excel to real-world business scenarios. In this course, I learned how to read data better and apply it to business. I also learned how to analyze data and visualize trends to demonstrate performance. Understanding Excel and data has been a considerable portion of my internship. One of my most important tasks has been to enter data into our company database, export it to Excel, and then break it down into refreshable PivotTables and pie charts for our daily FIFA report. Each day, we are required to report our progress to FIFA, which ensures we are on track.  

Both of these courses, along with the overall professional development Johnson & Wales has provided me with, played a crucial role in preparing me for this internship. I believe that Johnson & Wales does a phenomenal job of teaching students the importance of building their network, gaining industry experience, communicating professionally, and offering courses that are relevant to the jobs students will hold after graduation. These are all crucial to development and will translate into the working world.  

What is your dream job/career path, and how will this internship prepare you for that? 

My dream is to work for an NBA team in a front office, coaching or scouting role. This summer, Wasserman exposed me to a variety of different roles and responsibilities. I have helped track and update data, manage projects, interview and hire additional summer interns, schedule crewing & machinery for different venues and kept within a budget. I firmly believe that being well-versed in multiple areas is crucial. This experience helped me develop many different skills that will be highly transferable, particularly in an NBA job. Having a good understanding of Excel and being well-versed in data/analytics, financial literacy and communication skills are all skills that this job has helped me sharpen, which will prove to be beneficial in the future.  

What advice would you offer to other students who are looking for internship opportunities like this? 

I would advise them to network as much as possible, especially if they want to work in sports. Sports, specifically, is a very who-knows-who industry and the broader your network, the more likely it is for opportunities to come your way. So, my advice would be to foster relationships in the industry, build upon your network, continue to follow-up and learn as much as possible, and not be afraid to reach out to ask people within your network if they are aware of any opportunities available. Lastly, work hard, gain experience within your field, and learn as much as you can in each opportunity you are given!