John Beech's Homepages - Professional

John Beech was an Honorary Research Fellow at Coventry University, where he was previously the Head of Sport and Tourism Applied Research, Head of Strategy and Applied Management, Head of Leisure, Sport and Tourism Management and Acting Head of Marketing and Leisure.

John was based in the Applied Research Centre for Sustainable Regeneration (SURGE) and was also a co-director of the Centre for International Business of Sport (CIBS). He was the founding editor of the CIBS Working Paper series.

He served on the university's Strategic Academic Planning Group and Sports Coventry University Steering Group as well as the university's Examinations Investigatory Panel, as Chair for three years.

John is currently an International Professor at the Russian International Olympic University at Sochi in Russia and a part-time Masters dissertation supervisor at Loughborough University's London campus. He has served as a Visiting Professor at FH Kufstein University of Applied Sciences, Tirol, Austria, and at the IE Business School in Madrid.

He has been a member of the Executive Board of ATLAS and Chair of the ATLAS Mass Tourism SIG, a member of the national committee of SPRIG, and organisational representative to ATLAS, ATHE, and CHME. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Fellow of the Academy of Marketing Science.

In 1999 John was the first individual to be awarded a prize for Teaching Excellence by Coventry University, for work on developing e-learning.

John has broadcast extensively, and has been interviewed on British, Greek, Polish and Russian television. His many radio appearances include interviews for the BBC World Service on World Football and Sportsworld Extra, and on 5 Live Sport. He has been featured on BBC1′s Football Focus and Late Kick Off.. His research has been reported in, inter alia, The Times, The Independent and the Financial Times.

His PhD was from Cranfield University’s School of Management, investigating critical success and failure factors in recent start up airlines in the United Kingdom. His other research interests include insolvency in English football clubs, the commercialisation of sport, dark tourism, heritage tourism, the history of mass tourism, and the e-marketing of sports organisations.

As well as co-editing The Business of Sport Management, The Business of Tourism Management, and The Marketing of Sport, he is the author of books on management self-development, business history and aircrew training.

Having completed a Masters degree in Business Administration with Distinction at the University of Dundee, he decided in 1992 to change careers and teach this subject at University level, which he has done at the University of Dundee, De Montfort University and Coventry University, specialising in Sport Management and Tourism Management.

His early career was in air transport training in the private sector, and for sixteen years he was Director of Educational Services at Air Service Training, Perth Airport, Scotland.

John's first degree was from the University of Cambridge, where he studied at Christ's College.

John maintains a research blog of his interests and activities, and also maintained a football management blog which provided regular commentary on management practices in English football clubs.

He provides news portals on Football Finance, The Business of Sports Management and The Business of Events Management, which can be accessed here.