Darcy Young is a founder and product strategist working across sport, technology and community.

Darcy is the founder and CEO of Contested, an athlete-led marketing company creating a more accessible way for businesses and athletes to work together.

Contested focuses particularly on the role athletes can play within their local communities — connecting businesses with relevant athletes as creators, advocates and community connectors rather than restricting athlete partnerships to major sponsorship campaigns.

Darcy’s wider work has focused on building new products and businesses. Her experience spans venture building, product strategy, go-to-market and commercial strategy across startups and larger organisations, including work with The49 and previously HSBC.

She studied Mathematics at Durham University, where sport was also a significant part of her university experience.

Her interests include the changing economics of sport, athlete entrepreneurship, women’s sport, community-led growth, emerging technology and the process of turning ambiguous ideas into viable products and businesses.

Darcy is available for speaking, panels, podcasts, workshops and selected media commentary.