Mariam Mahdavi

After receiving an LL.B from King’s College, London, Mariam Mahdavi set sail for Paris, where she pursued her studies at the Sorbonne with a Masters in private law followed by a DEA (further education certificate) in Anglo-American business law. After crossing the Atlantic, she enrolled at Columbia University, where she was awarded a Master in Law (LL.M) degree in 1991.

Her studies completed, she joined international law firm Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton, working first in New York and then in Paris, where she specialised in business and corporate law. She was admitted to the Paris Bar in 1995. A move to Switzerland set her career on a different course. In 1997, she joined the IOC’s marketing subsidiary (now ITMS). The eight years she spent there led her to explore the fields of sponsorship, marketing and international negotiations, while cultivating her business skills. Thanks to this solid expertise, she was propelled in 2005 to the helm of Sportfive International, Europe’s leading sports marketing agency in football-related media rights.

From 2008 to 2017, Mahdavi worked as an independent consultant advising various companies on their strategic development, before leading the legal department of AGICOA, a Geneva-based not-for-profit international association. In early 2020, she returned to the IOC as Director of Legal Affairs.