Dr Steve Swanson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management at the Deakin Business School. He also serves as Co-Director of the Centre for Sport Research, which seeks to innovate and enhance the health and performance of people and organisations across the sporting landscape.
Prior to joining the team in Deakin, Dr Swanson served as the Director of Sport Business and Leadership at Loughborough University London. During his time at Loughborough he helped establish a new postgraduate campus on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and supported a 400% increase in student enrolment in the first five years. Dr Swanson also received multiple teaching awards – including Academic of the Year and Supervisor of the Year. His achievement as an educator was further acknowledged by being named a Fellow in the UK Higher Education Academy.
Dr Swanson has a unique background which includes a 15-year career in the sport industry prior to joining academia, where he was a Head Coach at the professional level, and held other managerial titles such as Director of Athletics and Assistant General Manager.
Dr Swanson’s research focuses on leadership, innovation, and well-being in the sport environment through investigating the internal and external factors that shape involvement in professional and amateur sport, sport business, and sport for development.
His research is consistently published in the top sport journals globally and he recently co-authored a book called Fostering Innovative Cultures in Sport which features prominently in graduate and executive education programs throughout the world. Dr Swanson is an Editorial Board Member for the Journal of Global Sport Management. He has also recently served as Guest Co-Editor of a special issue of the Journal of Sport Management, entitled Sport Leadership: A New Generation of Thinking.
Dr Swanson’s research has been funded by prestigious organisations such as the British Academy and the IOC’s Olympic Studies Centre. He consistently presents his research globally at the top sport management conferences around the world, including the the European Sport Management Association, the North American Society for Sport Management, the Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand, and the World Association for Sport Management.
He has been invited to serve as a guest speaker for several international universities and sporting bodies, including the Beijing Sport University, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Loughborough University London, and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). Through these international networks he engages and supports global colleagues on sport management topics connected to research, teaching, and enterprise.
Dr Swanson also works closely with industry professionals for leadership development initiatives and other collaborations. For example, he has served for several years as a leadership coach for the Sport Industry Group’s NextGen Leaders program, and provided leadership development workshops for top sporting club’s such as West Ham United FC.
Background
Athlete/Student
Steve won the Iowa State Basketball Championship in 1987 in the USA. He later earned a basketball scholarship to Southeastern Community College where he was named Iowa’s only National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Academic All-American in 1990 (for all sports). While playing for Monmouth College, he was featured in Sports Illustrated Magazine for a 37- point performance. After completing his Bachelors Degree in Mathematics, Steve was awarded the prestigious National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) Post-Graduate Award to study for a Masters in Sport Management, which he completed at Georgia Southern University in 1993. After a 15-year career in the sport industry, he received the only scholarship awarded for a PhD in Business / Sport Management at Temple University, which he completed in 2014. As a PhD student, he won the prestigious North American Society for Sport Management’s (NASSM) Student Research Competition in 2012 for his research leadership in the sport environment.
Coach/Manager
Before joining academia, Steve spent 15 years in the international sports sector where he held various titles in the high-performance sport domain, including Director of Athletics, Assistant General Manager, and Professional Head Coach. At 24 he was named Director of Athletics at Southeastern Community College, making him the youngest collegiate sports director in the nation. As an Associate Head Coach, he won the NJCAA National Basketball Championship in 2000. In 2001, Steve was invited to serve as Assistant Coach and Assistant General Manager of the Brighton Bears in Brighton, UK. While in Brighton, he won the National Cup Title in 2003 and helped take the team from national to international competition. Later in 2003, he became Head Coach of the Scottish Rocks in Glasgow, UK. While leading the Rocks he became the club’s all-time wins leader and was named Coach of the Month on four separate occasions. He also helped develop and lead an award-winning Sport for Development initiative in Scotland. In 2006, he achieved a long-standing ambition to coach Division I basketball in the NCAA, when he became Associate Head Coach at Idaho State University.
Academic
After a illustrious career as a an athlete and international basketball coach, Dr Swanson moved to academia where he is now a world-leading researcher, an award-winning educator and a champion for innovation in sport business and leadership. His unique industry background is a major asset and he leverages his network and experiences to create some of the most high-profile higher education relationships and activities in the field of sport management. With his current platform he is able to develop and deliver programs at the post-graduate and executive levels. Through these efforts he supports economic growth by creating a high-quality workforce, boosting graduate earning power, and contributing to a stronger and more resilient knowledge-based economy.
Dr Steve Swanson 