FIMBA students welcome Jonathan Hall as guest speaker
The Management School recently welcomed Jonathan Hall, CEO of Techfront UK, as a guest speaker for students on the Football Industries MBA (FIMBA) programme.
Techfront is one of the global leaders in selling LED signage to sports venues. One of its most recent developments is ‘digital replacement technology’ which Jonathan says gives “huge opportunities” as it enables differing commercial signage to be shown to people watching the same sporting event in different places around the world.
Prior to working for Techfront, Jonathan was the Director of the Football Association. He has also advised national football associations on strategic planning, worked with a technology company that provides cameras for goal line technology and broadcasting and also been involved with developing enhanced psychometric testing to help sports people determine what they can go on to do after their sporting career ends.
As well as hearing about Jonathan’s background, students were able to ask questions about a range of topics including international and European football, the development of the under 21s league, sponsorship ethics and anti-doping regulations.
Pablo Hernández Quijas, FIMBA student, commented, “It’s always good to hear how the industry works from the inside with real cases. Jonathan spokes to us about his experience as chairman in the FA, how to handle the relationship between the FA and the Premier League and the main decisions he had to make. The main thing I took from the talk is that being a leader in a football entity is not to say and apply the rules but to work as a team and collaborate between areas.”