James McKeown is co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of the Global Institute of Sport (GIS), the world’s leading destination for sports education delivered inside stadium campuses and online. He also serves on the Executive Leadership Team at the University Campus of Football Business (UCFB).
James’ success story is a truly global one. Born a sports-mad Melbournian, he took his passion on the road with high school in Switzerland followed by university in the UK. With sports science and international management degrees under his belt from Loughborough University, James forged a professional basketball career in the British Basketball League.
Off the court has seen James make his greatest impact, initially as a pioneering sports marketer with clients including the NBA, London 2012 Olympic Games, Setanta Sports and in-house at British Athletics.
When James’ professional playing career was brought to an end by injury in 2014 he took the next step on his journey in sports administration, joining University Campus of Football Business to launch their flagship Wembley Stadium campus. Over the next eight years, James led their unparalleled growth from a start-up organisation to the UK’s fastest growing higher education institution with Europe’s largest cohort of sports students.
In 2020, James launched the company internationally with the introduction of its postgraduate college, the Global Institute of Sport. Within three years it now operates across the world with elite stadium teaching venues in London, Manchester, Miami, New York, Toronto and Melbourne as well as networking centres in Mumbai, Shanghai, Dubai and Singapore and a growing online body of students.
In addition to his growth focus, James has continuously improved the socio-economic, gender and racial diversity of the student cohort by spearheading unique initiatives. These include but are not limited to allocating a multi-million-pound scholarship portfolio and recruiting an industry advisory board of the biggest names in world sport to inspire and mentor students from all backgrounds.
James’ dedication to using education to democratise the pathway into sport for young people worldwide has reaped fast results: GIS alumni are now statistically the most likely to secure a career in sport upon graduation.
