Lord Matthew J. Scheckner

Matt Scheckner is CEO of Stillwell Partners, a New York City based boutique consultancy. Stillwell is best known as the producer of Advertising Week, the world’s largest advertising / marketing / media industry summit. The Week is conducted in New York City, London and Tokyo. Under Scheckner’s leadership, which dates back to 2004, the B2B event has evolved into a vibrant, platform and is # 1 in the world on both continent. The world’s premier players in the creative, marketing, media and tech actively support The Week. Scheckner’s signature recipe of blending thought leadership with one-of-a-kind evening experiences for the entire industry ecosystem propels Advertising Week. The annual festival-style event is now in year thirteen (13) in the USA, just concluded year four (4) in Europe and premiers In Tokyo on May 30, 2016.
Stillwell’s origin is derived from Coney Island. For 20 years, on the historic corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues, Stillwell has produced the annual Nathan’s 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest which includes a one hour ESPN broadcast.
Scheckner has served on the Board of Governors of the Friars Club and stands alongside such luminaries as Milton Berle, Frank Sinatra, Ed Sullivan, and Henny Youngman, as winner of the “Friar of the Year” - - a distinction he was awarded by his fellow Friars in 2011. He is active with many causes, including the launch of War Child in the United States, Comic Relief UK, London’s Roundhouse and Tuesday’s Children, which honored Scheckner as their 2013 Gala Honoree. Scheckner also served as Chairman of the World Trade Center Memorial Communications Advisory Council and led a public campaign that generated $300 million towards construction and completion of the World Trade Center Memorial.
From 2006-2008, Scheckner served as Consigliere at Yahoo!, where he produced the very first digital Upfront, “Broadband on Broadway” in 2007 and managed the corporation’s relationships with Madison Avenue. He also conceived and produced major corporate experiential marketing programs around the world - - from Cannes to Pebble Beach - - and led the company’s support of the Tribeca Film Festival, an early harbinger of the modern-day explosion of creative content streaming on the web.
For more than a decade (1995-2006), Scheckner owned and ran Empire Sports & Entertainment, a New York City-based marketing and strategic consulting firm. One of Empire’s largest clients was Radio City Productions. Under Scheckner’s direction, Empire produced major events outside the Music Hall including the 1997 opening of Arthur Ashe Stadium, which featured Bill Cosby, Whitney Houston and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Pepsi’s 1999 Centennial Celebration, which featured Ray Charles, Riverdance and the Rolling Stones and several Super Bowl Halftimes.
Scheckner also played a central role in shaping the Music Hall’s overall strategic plan including its landmark renovation in the year 2000. Empire also served as SFX’s marketing agency developing strategies to secure more than $200 million in sponsorship across SFX’s live sports and entertainment properties. The company also partnered with Ken Sunshine and the Nashville-based Opryland to produce “Always . . . Patsy Cline” Off-Broadway. The show ran for a year at the Variety Arts Theater.
Prior to incorporating Empire in 1995, Scheckner served as Counsel on Sports Marketing for the flagship office of Hill & Knowlton, a global public relations firm where he founded the firm’s sports and entertainment practice.
From 1987 through 1994, Scheckner served as Executive Director of the New York City Sports Commission, a not-for-profit organization founded during the Koch administration. During his tenure with the Commission, Scheckner was directly responsible for successful bids for the 1993 Olympic Congress of the USA and the 1998 Goodwill Games. He saved the Jerome Boxing Club in the South Bronx from eviction and secured City funds to renovate the Club; fulfilled New York City Marathon founder Fred Lebow’s request to secure the entire Verrazano Bridge as the Marathon’s starting point; closed Central Park for the Tour de Trump cycling race; stopped City government in it’s tracks by bringing Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton and Larry Holmes to City Hall; led New York City’s bid to host 1994 World Cup matches; and successfully secured City and Community Board approval to stage an Indy Car Race in lower Manhattan.
Prior to assuming his post with the Sports Commission, Scheckner served as a Policy Analyst with the Mayor’s Commission on the Year 2000, a blue-ribbon planning group, where he was responsible for the Commission's work on demographics, economic development, education, transportation and water front development.
Among Scheckner's other professional honors, he was selected as a member of Crain's New York Business "Forty Under Forty" at the age of 28. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor of Marketing at the New York University Management Institute, and was appointed coordinator of NYU's annual Summer Institute on Sports and Event Marketing in 1995. In 1998, Scheckner was appointed to a similar post as an Adjunct Professor of the Columbia Graduate School of Business. Globally, Scheckner has lectured in Sao Paolo with Pele on sports marketing, among other venues.
Scheckner resides in Port Washington, NY with his wife Ila and their children, Benny and Eliza. Sadly, his dog Lambeau passed in 2010 but lives on in memory. He is a graduate of Emory University with a Bachelor of Arts. Regarding personal pursuits, Scheckner has the distinction of having been one of two severely injured softball-playing Friars during a 2009 outfield crash in Central Park; he is an avid golfer; and competes with pride in the Friars Pool tournaments, having finished as high as 6th place.