Visiting Professors within Sports and Exercise Science

Professor Larry McCarthy teaches in the Centre for Sport Management at Seton Hall University, USA, and is Director of the School's Institute for International Business. His research focuses on sport marketing and has appeared in the Journal of Sport Management, Sport Marketing Quarterly and the European Journal of Sport Management. He co-authored with colleagues William Sutton and Richard Irwin the text "Sport Promotion and Sales Management."

Professor McCarthy has extensive Olympic Organizing Committee experience, having worked with The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) as an Olympic envoy to the Olympic Council of Ireland. He is one of the founding members of the Sport Marketing Association and is a former chairman of New York Gaelic Athletic Association. He received his M.A. from New York University and a Ph.D. in sport management from The Ohio State University.

His research focuses on sport marketing and has appeared in the Journal of Sport Management, Sport Marketing Quarterly and the European Journal of Sport Management. He co-authored with colleagues William Sutton and Richard Irwin the text "Sport Promotion and Sales Management."He is a visiting professor of the School of Sport and Exercise Science at Ulster University.

Patrick Nelson has been CEO of the Irish Football Association since August 2009. In that time the Association has developed well on a number of fronts, particularly improving in the areas of governance, strategy and structure, and of course qualifying for UEFA Euro 2016 after a gap of 30 years. In this role, Patrick was also responsible for the £38 million rebuild of the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park, which opened in October 2016. Patrick is a director of the Association's subsidiary stadium management company and a trustee of its charitable arm, the IFA Foundation. Patrick is also a director of the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the organisation which sets the Laws of the Game worldwide for football. Prior to joining the Association, Patrick was CEO at both Macclesfield Town and Notts County Football Clubs.

Before moving into the football industry, Patrick worked in the global payment cards industry for many years, with roles at Capital One, MasterCard and American Express.

He holds an honours degree in Business Studies from Nottingham Trent University and a master's degree in European Sports Governance from the Institute of Political Studies in Paris.

Patrick was appointed as a Visiting Professor in the School of Sport at Ulster University from February 2020.

In June 2023, Patrick was appointed as Chair of the National Trust Regional Advisory Group for Northern Ireland.

In April 2024 Patrick was appointed by the Minister for Justice as an independent member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board.

Professor Philip Glasgow is a highly experienced sports physiotherapist who has worked with elite athletes from a wide range of sports at numerous major championships. Phil was Chief Physiotherapist for Team GB at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and was Head of Sports Medicine at the Sports Institute Northern Ireland for 14 years before moving to high performance consultancy in 2017.

Professor Glasgow's doctoral studies examined factors associated with muscle damage; his current interests are in effective performance in both sporting and professional environments and in the management of muscle-tendon unit injuries. He is currently Vice President of Physios in Sport (UK).

Professor Glasgow teaches on a number of postgraduate programmes at various UK and European universities and regularly presents at international conferences on various aspects of sports medicine. He is a visiting professor of the School of Sport and Exercise Science at Ulster University.

Professor James Skinner has conducted key research for national and international governing bodies, as well as professional sporting organisations and the Australian Sports Commission.  He is also a visiting Professor at the Russian Olympic University and is a former board member and Director of Football Queensland, Australia.

Professor Skinner has held academic appointments at three Australian universities prior to his role of Institute Director for Sport Business at Loughborough University London. His teaching interests are Leadership, Sport Business and Research Methods and he has a passion for PhD supervision and research training. His research interests are in four distinct areas: Organisational Change, Culture and Leadership in Sport,; Doping in Sport; Sport and Social Capital and Research Design and Methods for Sport Business. He is a visiting professor of the School of Sport and Exercise Science at Ulster University.

Prof Mark O’Donnell is a Consultant Vascular and Endovascular Surgeon at Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.  He is skilled in Interventions, Trauma Surgery, Research, Vascular Surgery, and Endovascular. Prof O’Donnell is a strong consulting professional with a Master of Medical Science in Education for the Health Care Professions (MMedSc) focused in Medicine from Queen's University Belfast. He is a visiting professor of the School of Sport and Exercise Science at Ulster University.