2006 Media Releases
Monday, 20 November 2006
Sports management can score goals as an export industry
La Trobe University has appointed two senior academics to Professorial Chairs in the growing field of Sports Management.
The two new professors are Dr Hans Westerbeek, Head of the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management, and Dr Aaron Smith, Associate Head and Director of Research Grants in the School.
Announcing the new appointments, Vice-Chancellor, Professor Brian Stoddart said both men were widely known for their research and teaching and contributions to industry.
‘Sports management is a developing discipline within the Faculty of Law and Management and the University aims to become the national leader in the discipline within the next few years.’
The two new professors already consult widely in the international field of sports management, applying strategic management and international marketing theory to the sport, recreation and leisure industries.
Research projects have taken them to countries such as the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands, the UK, and the USA.
Sport and leisure industries, increasingly important in the global context, also serve as popular policy tools for governments and NGOs to achieve community objectives for citizens.
Both men are currently working on behalf of the Dutch and Australian governments to formulate a Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries to establish long-term collaboration in the field of sport policy development.
Professors Westerbeek and Smith say Australia's international reputation for state-of-the-art sports administration gives Australia an edge in this growing industry.
'Many developing countries have little or no tradition in playing and organising sport. With sport becoming a more vital element in nation building, and a benign way of uniting people, Australia has much to teach the world.
'We have played sport for 200 years and it has become a way of life, envied by people in other countries. Over those two centuries we have built up expertise in sports management that other countries, particularly in Asia and the Middle East, simply do not have.'
(As this report of a London-based study (by ArkSports) notes, Melbourne has just been ranked as the world’s number one sports events city, with Sydney joint second.)
Biographical details
Professor Hans Westerbeek holds a PhD and MBA from Deakin University and an MSc (Research: Pedagogy) and BA (Phys Ed) from the University of Groningen, Netherlands.
Co-author of 11 books in the field of sport management, sport marketing and policy design, he is Visiting Professor at the Free University of Brussels, Belgium, and the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark.
Professor Westerbeek co-founded the European Association for Sport Management and the European Journal for Sport Management. He was also a founding member of the European Network of Sport Science Institutes.
A founding Board member of the Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand where he helped establish the Sport Management Review, Professor Westerbeek receives regular invitations to deliver key note speeches at academic and professional conferences in Australia and overseas and has established extensive relationships with national and international partners.
He joined La Trobe University in 2004 where for the past two years he has been Head of the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management. From 2000 - 03 he worked at Deakin University’s Centre for Business Research. Professor Westerbeek received the 2006 Henry Fong Award for Contributions to Global Citizenship, awarded by the International Network of Universities.
Professor Aaron Smith holds a BAppSc (1st class Hons) and a PhD in Management from Victoria University.
For the past three years he has been Associate Head and Director of Research Grants in the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management La Trobe University.
Professor Smith’s research, supported by ARC and industry funding, has made a significant contribution in the areas of sport consumer psychology and change management. As the author or co-author of 11 books, Professor Smith has been instrumental in shaping the development of sport management theory.
He has worked in positions within the sport facility and event management sectors and consults to sport organisations in Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East. Professor Smith has been a Visiting Professor at Brussels’ Free University and is a regular invited keynote speaker at international sport management conferences.
From 1999- 2004 Professor Smith was a senior lecturer at the Bowater School of Management and Marketing at Deakin University and a senior associate of the Centre for Business Research in Deakin’s Faculty of Business and Law. Prior to that he worked in the Department of Sport, Recreation and Performance, and in the Faculty of Business at Victoria University.