By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
You can still apply and open the door to the world of professional sports. While many talented athletes changed their status by playing on the EuroLeague court, the same happened with some other talented individuals and Ed Scott, the Chief Operations Officer, is an example of that.
Scott is currently the coordinator of the program, after being a student of it and as he said to Eurohoops: “As both an alumnus and now the coordinator, this is another way in which Euroleague Basketball can bring about positive changes to European basketball, but also a way in which individuals benefit from investing in themselves and in their future”.
Since it was established, EuroLeague Basketball has always prioritised the importance and development of professionals working within clubs. This may sound natural in our days, but it wasn’t until the last decade. Just in 2007 a blended learning Masters was created and during the 2017-18 academic year in partnership with Vytautas Magnus University of Kaunas, Lithuania, the Sports Business MBA by EB Institute is being launched as a 90 ECTS credit blended learning program over 15 months.
The program design is unique, combining academic expertise form the leading liberal arts university in the Baltics and founding partners of the Baltic Management Institute, together with access to cutting edge content created by as well as interaction with all of Euroleague Basketball’s senior management team.
This is a new era for a program that produced 220 alumni from 38 different countries, including among others Marko Pesic, General Manager, Bayern Munich Basketball (photo); Fabien Hoeppe, Sports & Competitions Manager, FIBA; Natalja Rau, Senior Coordinator Global Merchandising, NBA; Cem Karamursel, Accounting Director, Nike EMEA; Dawn Smyth, Manager, Coach Education and Development, Canada Basketball; Mert Akdeniz, Centre of Excellence and Junior National Teams Coordinator, Basketball Australia; Kimon Stefos, Head of Marketing Partnerships South-East Europe, Euroleague Basketball and Sylwia Kacprzak, Senior Performance Marketing Lead, Microsoft.
Fourteen current full-time Euroleague Basketball staff members are alumni, whilst 50% of the 2017-18 Euroleague Basketball Delegates are also alumni. “As an Electronic Engineer via my undergraduate studies, I found it very beneficial to complement this background with the Euroleague Basketball Institute Master in Sports Management and Marketing when the opportunity presented itself”, explains Scott. “It was a great learning experience, most importantly helping develop and grow an international network, with a focus on the European basketball community. The opportunity to meet high quality lecturers from companies such as adidas, AEG, ESPN, IMG, NBA, New Era, Spalding, Special Olympics, Turkish Airlines, Twitter etc. whilst going behind the scenes at a major global event like the EuroLeague Final Four was also an incredible experience”.
For more information you can visit www.euroleague.net/ebinstitute.