12
Inspiring alumni
One of the best things about our global Keelite community is finding out what
all our alumni have gone on to do with their lives and careers after leaving us.
The huge range of diverse and interesting activities is not only inspiring to fellow
alumni, but also aspirational for our current students.
Richard Frost is Football Brand
Manager for Nike UK and Ireland.
Richard graduated in 2006 with a
degree in Law and Economics.
What does you current job involve?
I’m a brand manager so I’m
responsible for how product, athletes
and brand messaging shows up in
the marketplace. Within my current
role I have spent time managing
brand partnerships with the likes of
the FA, the Premier League, tier one
contracted athletes and most recently
led the Nike x Chelsea FC partnership
launch - building and executing plans
across everything from initial insights
and consumer research, visual creative
direction, global campaign creation and
physical marketing activations across
multiple different platforms.
When you write it down it sounds crazy
- I always wanted to work for Nike ever
since I was a kid, but I didn’t know how
it would ever happen. I simply stayed
as close to sport as possible and
trusted that if I worked hard, and made
myself valuable to teams I wanted to
join then it would all work out.
After graduating from Keele what
led to your current career?
I graduated with a degree in Law and
Economics and all I knew was that
I wanted a brand marketing career
linked to sport. I worked with a small
action sports retailer as a product
buyer and retail manager and left to
join Nike when they set up brand-
owned retail spaces. It was an easy
transition, moving to a management
role within a brand experience
retail store, and very quickly my
passion for product and consumer
relationships was recognised and I
joined the functional brand team as a
product and brand specialist. It was
an amazing opportunity to travel all
over the UK and Ireland working with
the most innovative product (current
and future), build brand relationships
with consumers, athletes, medical
and academic societies, as well as
supporting commercial campaign role-
outs across all marketing touch points. that you can show independent
thinking and hopefully that you can
spend a few years around other types
of people, and have some of that
amazing experience rub off on you.
I was then fortunate to manage a
team during the 2012 Olympics,
redefining how the function worked
with our brand partners and supported
key commercial cities, before once
again moving into the retail marketing
function, and managing the UK fleet of
brand retail spaces to build and deliver
amazing campaign-led multi-sport
consumer and product experiences.
Then my last move led me to step into
a pure brand management position
working solely on football. Working in
London - capital of the most important
country in the world for football - and
currently heading into a tournament
phase, I really feel like I’ve struck gold! Never will you ever have an
opportunity to spend that amount
of time with your friends and peers
with what is a relatively stress-free
environment.
Working for such a well known
company must be exciting, how
do you feel about your inspiring
progress since university?
I feel incredibly privileged to work
for such an inspirational brand. I’m
still close with a good group of lads
from Keele and it’s only when we get
together and talk about life, family
and jobs that you appreciate just how
far you come and just how important
it was to get a degree (in whatever
discipline) under my belt. What
employers seem to really be looking for
- unless you want to specialise - is that
you can show some self-drive, that you
can study, analyse, learn and assess;
What are your favourite memories of
studying at Keele?
The amazing sports culture -
Wednesday was all about team sports
and it’s what I lived for, not to mention
the following night at the Union. Friday
night was also awesome in what was
called K2 back then. But largely this is
all down to the people.
Sophie Tirrell is Marketing
Communications Project Manager
at Bentley Motors Ltd. Sophie
graduated in 2006 with a degree
in Business Administration,
Marketing and Politics.
What does you current job involve?
I project manage film and photography
ensuring we choose the right creative
approach to support the launch
of the product globally, including
pre-production, supplier selection,
attending the shoot to ensure we
capture everything we’ve agreed to
deliver and resolve any issues that
may arise onset. Then finally the
post-production process is where we