Our Learning in Communities students

Your time at the University

I never thought education was for me. I didn’t have a strong academic background from my time at school and I left at the earliest opportunity. Instead, I went into the workplace at 16. That was until a few years later when I discovered the Community Education degree at the University of Edinburgh. It was a course that aligned with my working experience within the community regeneration and development sector and it interested me. I’d been working at the time as a Director for various local community projects within Glasgow and I felt I could learn a lot from the course and develop academically, where I had maybe lacked experience, and this is exactly what the course did for me. Moray House School of Education is where I studied and I really enjoyed my time there.

When I came to university, adjusting to the daily commute was the biggest challenge. I was still living in Glasgow throughout my time, and so instead it was early morning starts to make it through for lectures and tutorials, but I really enjoyed my course and it was completely worth it.

My real passion has always been football and the University had its own football team which I was desperate to be involved in, but the commute was too much for me with the team training at Peffermill and me commuting from Glasgow at the time. Instead, I contributed to the side in a different way, I took the learning from my Community Education course and my experience of professional football teams doing more ‘in their local communities’ and worked closely with the team captain at the time to try and increase the community engagement side of the University football team.

Your experiences since leaving the University

Since leaving the University of Edinburgh I have been fortunate enough to work in three different countries including the United States, England and Scotland working in professional football.

I’ve held roles responsible for the day-to-day running of football clubs including Atlantic City (National Premier Soccer League), Greenock Morton (Scottish Professional Football League & Stevenage (English Football League).

At just the age of 26 I became a CEO responsible for managing multi-million revenue & turnover. In 2018 I was awarded a British Citizen Award from Westminster for Outstanding Contribution to Society.

In July 2023 I was appointed to my current role as CEO of Partick Thistle (Scottish Professional Football League).

Life during Covid-19

During the pandemic I led Greenock Morton Football Club through challenging times, including Covid-19 restrictions. Leading any business through that period would have proven challenging, but a professional sports club that faced no ability to trade in its normal manner, facilitate a spectator sport or even allow athletes to train in normal conditions was a real test and I was fortunate to have a great team of staff and volunteers who could help us come through that period as best as we possibly could.

As someone who has managed through the pandemic, I would say leadership is your ability to hide panic from others, and you will not be able to run a front office administration effectively as a CEO unless you can lead and inspire your staff teams to success.

Alumni wisdom

It is important to create your own opportunities, believe in yourself and be confident in what you do. If you can do that, you can really achieve something special.