News

Anbinder to Leave the IQA

by IQA Staff | May 16, 2014

The IQA would like to formally announce that effective immediately Logan Anbinder is stepping down from his position as marketing director. Alex Benepe, CEO and president, will serve as interim director until the formation of the USQ in July.

Anbinder explained his decision to resign: “I've really enjoyed working so closely with other members of the IQA, but it's time for me to step down to devote more time to other commitments.”

Anbinder initially became involved with quidditch through the University of Maryland (UMD) Quidditch team where he served as president from spring 2010-2012. After playing for UMD at World Cup IV, Anbinder emailed Benepe to say that he would be attending the second LeakyCon in Florida that summer. Benepe put him in touch with Kristina Moy who had attended various conventions, and from that point on, Anbinder became an IQA volunteer.

During his tenure, Anbinder served as a conventions representative, Maryland State Representative, Assistant South Regional Director, and while serving in that position proposed the creation of the Mid-Atlantic region, serving as the region’s first director. COO Alicia Radford praised Anbinder’s performance in that position.

“He helped give the Mid-Atlantic a strong sense of regional identity and did a fantastic job as the tournament director for the first IQA-run Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship,” she said.

After tournament-directing the first Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship, while based across the country in San Francisco, Anbinder transitioned to the position of Marketing Director, and began to sit on the IQA’s executive board.

Radford, who oversaw Anbinder in his position of marketing director, spoke highly of the strides the department made under Anbinder’s leadership.

“As marketing director, Logan oversaw editorial grow into a thriving team of 20 people, from writers to editors to photographers,” she said. “Thanks to his leadership with our [Public Relations] strategy, the iqaworldcup.com site got 2,841,557 hits during World Cup weekend this April - a record for us!”

She also praised his performance as a member of the IQA’s executive board, “Behind the scenes, Logan's voice has been integral to our management team - Logan is fantastic at asking hard questions and making sure all angles of a problem have been considered.”

Benepe echoed the effusive praise of Anbinder’s performance, “Logan did a fantastic job balancing the many aspects of marketing - social media, editorial, video, and PR, and weaving them together into a comprehensive showcase of the IQA's news, mission and community.”

Anbinder’s achievements can be seen in the expansion of the marketing department. Under his watch the marketing department grew from seven staffers to 33, while the number of facebook followers more than doubled from 15,000 to nearly 39,000. Anbinder is particularly proud of the work of the editorial team, which is now the largest group in the marketing department.

“I’m very proud of what we’ve done in editorial. [Editorial manager Amanda] Dallas and [former editorial manager Andy Marmer] did a great job working with the editorial team to increase both the quantity and quality of our articles, and to provide more of a journalistic spin to our event coverage.”

Anbinder hopes that his successor can expand on the department’s achievements and take it to new heights.

“Hopefully the next person who comes in is able to network with players and spectators to better market the sport,” Anbinder said. “What I mean is we have a lot of mechanisms in place. We have a lot of good machinery in place… I’m excited to see the new marketing person come in and identify what they want to focus on and then hopefully build on some of the stuff that we’ve established.”

Sarah Woolsey, the IQA’s events, development and gameplay director, who has known Anbinder prior to either’s involvement with the sport weighed in on working with Anbinder on both a personal, team and league-wide level.

“He has incredible insight, perspective, and passion for his work and it's been a joy to work with him,” said Woolsey.

Before they became involved with the IQA, Woolsey and Anbinder, with the help of IQA editorial team member Andy Marmer, worked together on a proposal for Division II after World Cup IV, which eventually--with some tweaks--became a reality at World Cup V at Randalls Island in New York City.

“Working with Logan was a privilege,” said Marmer. “He works incredibly hard and his passion shines through in everything he does. When Logan sets his mind to something, you know that he’ll accomplish his task.”

The end of his tenure with the IQA is a bittersweet one for Anbinder, but one that he’ll look back on with fond memories.

“The kid who read Harry Potter over and over again at the dinner table never really imagined that I would grow up to travel across the country to attend the quidditch World Cup,” Anbinder said. “[I never imagined that] I would have an entire network of friends who played quidditch [or] that there would be an organization that I volunteered for that actually pays people to organize quidditch tournaments. To be a part of that has really been an exciting experience and [has been] really important to me.”