Alex Benepe
Commissioner & Board Chairman
Hometown | New York, NY
Education| Middlebury College, 2009
Alex Benepe is the founder and commissioner of the International Quidditch Association. He has guided the sport from its conception at Middlebury College in 2005, to the start of an unofficial college league in 2007, to incorporation in 2010, and globalization in 2012, which has been focused around growing the World Cup event from two college teams and 800 spectators in Middlebury, VT, to 94 college teams and 10,000 ticket holders in New York City, over a 5 year span. Alex comes from an arts and marketing background, including work as a set designer at the New York Public Theater and the Delacorte Theater, (home of Shakespeare in the Park) in New York.
He also has worked as an account executive, social media director, and consultant at the following firms: PMG Public Relations, Phil & Co digital marketing, and Manhattan Media. Alex has also worked in fundraising or curatorial departments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Museum of Modern Art, all in New York City. Alex received a Runner Up award for PR Event of the Year from PR Week Magazine in 2009 for orchestrating the Middlebury Quidditch Spring Break Tour, beating out KFC, Nestle, and Target for the second place prize with a shoestring budget and a squad of college kids. His PR and media talents have helped earn the sport of quidditch more than a billion media impressions over the past years, including 300 million media impressions at the sixth World Cup alone.
Alicia Radford
Chief Operating Officer & Board Secretary
Hometown | Seattle, WA
Education | University of Washington, 2010
Alicia Radford is the Chief Operating Officer of the IQA. She oversees the day-to-day operations of the company and directly manages the IQA’s seven department directors. In her two years as COO, she has spearheaded many internal improvements within the IQA, including forming and hiring the management team, streamlining departmental communication and processes, and creating style guidelines for the IQA brand. Alicia has a strong marketing and design background, with a creative writing degree and three years of professional experience as a graphic designer and web developer.
In addition to league operations, Alicia maintains a special focus on projects that improve the IQA’s legitimacy and public reach, like QuidCon and the print publication Quidditch Quarterly, of which she is the editor-in-chief. Alicia has been involved with quidditch since 2008, when she started a team at the University of Washington. That fall, she brought the team to the World Cup at Middlebury College. She currently lives in Phoenix, AZ.
Alex Terry
Board Member
Hometown | Dallas, TX
Education | Ringling College of Art + Design, 2012
Alex was an early pioneer in gaining academic administration support for the sport of quidditch, working with the Ringling administration to explore the possibility of building the first official Quidditch pitch.
Alex is an Advertising Designer by trade and an avid web developer, particularly with innovative mobile applications. He enjoys cycling and hopes to change the world one step at a time. He is starting a blog in August 2010 that will chronicle his efforts to live with a lowered carbon footprint while in college. Lastly, he has just recently filed his first U.S. patent that includes some of the revolutionary web design elements he has created in partner with his first internship out of Dallas.
Aimee Howarth
Board Member and Development Advisor
Hometown | Houston, TX
Education | Texas A&M University, TWU, 2010
Aimee co-founded the Texas A&M Quidditch team in the spring of 2008. Texas A&M went on to compete in the 2009, 2010, and 2011 World Cup’s, finishing 3rd in 2011. Aimee served as Southwest Regional Director from 2010-2011 and as Development Director from 2011-2012. Aimee continues to serve on the Board of Directors and on the Title 9 3/4 Development sub-committee. Aimee is currently pursuing Master degrees in Women’s Studies and Counseling Psychology at Texas Woman’s University. She also works as a health educator for The Elisa Project, a non-profit based in Dallas, TX, that works to promote the effective treatment and prevention of eating disorders.
Kristen Howarth
Board Member
Hometown | Houston, TX
School | Texas A&M University, 2010
Kristen co- founded the Texas A&M Quidditch team with her sister Aimee in 2008. By the next fall Texas A&M Quidditch was the farthest traveling team at the 2009 World Cup at Middlebury College. By 2010, the team hosted the first Southwest Quidditch Tournament and first annual Yule Ball, an event that attracts over 600 students annually. Kristen has held various positions within the IQA, including Southwest Regional Director (2010-2011) and Teams Director (2011-2012). Kristen has a background in Marketing and International Business, and has spent time studying global marketing across Europe as well as business consulting in South Africa. She currently works full time at a promotions agency in Texas.
Xander Manshel
Board Member & Real-life Quidditch Inventor
Hometown | Burlington, VT
School | Middlebury College, 2009
In the fall of 2005, Alexander Manshel began organizing the first Muggle Quidditch matches at Middlebury College, adapting the rules from JK Rowling’s Harry Potter novels. Since then, he has enjoyed assisting the IQA as an organizer, World Cup Announcer, and now as a member of the organization’s board. Currently Xander is a Dean at the Chinese International School in Hong Kong.
Harrison Homel
Board Member & Teams Director
Hometown | Simi Valley, CA
School | UCLA 2012
Harrison Homel has been a member of the quidditch community since 2009. He quickly found his niche in management – first of the teams he has been a part of, and later as an IQA staffer. He started the team at Moorpark College in Moorpark, CA, before transferring and joining the UCLA team. He has served the Teams Department of the IQA for three years, and is primarily known for his time as the Western Regional Director. He is very proud to have seen and assisted the growth and definition of Western quidditch, and to have helped develop an ethos of inclusion and community unrivaled in any other sport.
He graduated from UCLA in 2012 with a degree in International Relations, and is currently working as an ESL teacher. He plans to live and work in Russia in the coming year. In addition to his posting on the board, he works for the league as the Teams Director, among other things. He is proud to bring his passion and perspective as teams’ liaison and advocate into developing the league’s long term outlook.
Dan Hanson
Board Member & Assistant Manager of Referee Development
Hometown | Reading, MA
School | Emerson College, 2011
Dan has been playing quidditch since September 2009, competing on the Emerson College World Cup team in the third and fourth World Cups. After graduating in 2011, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in television development. In December 2011, he co-founded one of the IQA’s first non-academic club teams – the Lost Boys – who went to the Elite Eight in the sixth World Cup.
His first actual role with the IQA was as a journalist, which he remains passionate about as one of the most powerful tools in quidditch. He has written for Quidditch Quarterly (formerly The Monthly Seer), The Eighth Man, the IQA website, and will even admit to writing for quidditch’s pioneer YouTube program, SnitchCenter.
Dan’s main occupation in the IQA is his role as the assistant manager of the Referee Development Team. He began refereeing at World Cup IV and refereeing was his focus by World Cup V. and His officiating success launched his IQA career with roles on the RDT, the Rules Team, and as the referee director for the Western Region and QuidCon. He had the honor of being selected as the Team USA head referee for the IQA Summer Games. In September, he was named to the IQA Board of Directors and is thrilled to be able to work with the IQA at the most professional level.
Jacob Adlis
Board Member
Hometown | Houston, TX
School | University of Texas at Austin, 2013
A native Texan, Jacob Adlis helped create The University of Texas’ varsity quidditch team in the spring of 2010. At World Cup VI, Jacob played in his final tournament with that team, which went undefeated and became the first team other than Middlebury to win a World Cup. In addition to playing for UT, Jacob was also one of the creators of and co-host of the hit quidditch YouTube talk show, The Pitch. In 2013 Jacob will graduate with a B.A. in Economics and a B.B.A. in Finance, and will move to Manhattan to begin working for Evercore Partners, an investment banking advisory firm.
