Alex graduated from the University of Nottingham with a BEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in the year 2006. He worked as an electrical contracts engineer until he decided it was time for a career change to follow his passion for sport in 2010. He obtained an MA by Research in Sport Management in 2012 from Coventry University before undertaking a PhD at Loughborough University in the Sport Policy and Management Group (SPMG). Alex became a Teaching Fellow in the SPMG at Loughborough in September 2015. He is currently module leader for the Sport Industries and supervises third year and master's student dissertation projects.
Alex is a keen sportsman with a particular interest in competitive swimming.
Alex’s PhD focused on the implementation of Sport England’s Clubmark (a quality mark) and associated policies. The research used case studies in the sports of boxing, swimming, and rugby union to analyse national governing body strategies and the interpretations at the point of delivery (the community sport clubs).
Alex’s master's degree examined the concept of organisational control in voluntary sports clubs (swimming).
Alex has presented at sport management conferences all around the world. He and a colleague developed and currently moderate online seminars (using a webinar platform) for PhD students from across the globe to interact/present/disseminate their sport management research.
Alex is a swimming coach for two clubs and his interest and success in swimming is usually enjoyed in a (nice, warmish, clean!) swimming pool. However, in 2016 he completed a 2-way English Channel relay swim (which was the first university team in the world to accomplish the challenge).
Featured publications
- Byers, T. & Thurston, A. (2015) Trust and Control in Sport Organizations. In T. Byers (Ed.), Contemporary Issues in Sport Management (pp. 431-444). Sage.