The Knowledge Exchange with Sports Industry experts

Kat McGettigan is a board director at international communications agency Grayling. As a consumer brands specialist, with nearly 15 years of comms agency experience, Kat has worked for some of the world’s most recognised brands including Visa, Huawei, Red Bull, Twitter, MasterCard, Co-op Food and Dixons Carphone.

Kat previously held the role of Head of Consumer at both Grayling UK and M&C Saatchi PR & as of January 2020 is now Head of Grayling Manchester, leading Grayling’s expanded full comms service agency offer across corporate, consumer and public affairs.

Jon is the Chief Executive of the Rugby League World Cup 2021. Jon commenced his role in February 2018 leaving his post as RFL Director of Projects & People. Jon has been involved in the project since the inception in late 2015 having successfully led the bid for the tournament including a £25m funding award from HM Government.

A sports management graduate with over 25 years’ experience in the sports industry. Jon has previously worked for the PGA European Golf Tour, Manchester FA which included a secondment to UEFA and ran his own sports consultancy company. Jon was the Operations Director for the Rugby League World Cup 2013, Director of Readiness for the Tour de France Grand Depart in 2014 and Tournament Director for the last Rugby League Four Nations tournament in 2016. In 2017 Jon was the International Federation Tournament Commissioner for the Rugby League World Cup in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

Jon is a member of UK Sports Major Events Panel, a specialist advisory body. Its main purpose is to represent the interests of UK Sport by making major event investment recommendations to the UK Sport Board.

Adrian Bevington is one of football’s most experienced communications professionals and has also held various senior leadership positions within the industry.

He is presently working as a Sports and Communications Consultant. Previously, he enjoyed 17 years at The English Football Association. After a long period as Group Communications Director, Adrian was rewarded with the leadership postion of Club England Managing Director. This saw him responsible for all operational management of 24 England national teams. At The FA he was part of the executive management team, overseeing the Wembley Stadium rebuild and opening of St. George’s Park. Bevington was also prominently involved in five World Cups and three European Championships. He was directly involved in the recruitment of current England Manager Gareth Southgate into the organisation.

Post FA, he successfully formed his own sports and communications consultancy, Adrian Bevington Sport & PR Ltd. The company thrived, acting as tournament advisor for the Football Association of Wales for Euro 2016, dealing with all operational aspects as the team historically reached the semi-finals. Other highlights include acting as communications advisor to Andrea Radrizzani during the six-month period he was purchasing Leeds United and similarly, performing as UK communications advisor during the purchase of Portsmouth FC by Michael Eisner’s Tornante Group. As a consultant he provided senior executive leadership to owner and board of Nottingham Forest FC and Aston Villa FC.

Adrian has also worked with commercial organisations such as Pitch International LLP and Dugout and UEFA. More recently, he returned to his home town club Middlesbrough FC, where he was a part of Club Executive Management Team and Board until December 2019.

With over 15 years of experience across corporate and consumer communications, Kate joined the ECB in July 2019. As well as leading communication strategies in-house for William Hill, Kate has been a partner at consultancy group Engine where she advised clients such as The FA, Sport England, BAE Systems and Vodafone UK, and delivered award-winning work for The FA and The Emirates FA Cup in addition to Sport England’s ground-breaking campaign ‘This Girl Can’.