Biography
Professor Shilbury is the Foundation Chair in Sport Management in the Deakin Business School. Prior to joining Deakin in 1990, he worked in cricket, golf and local government in Western Australia. David was appointed as Australia’s first professor of sport management in 2000. In 2017 he was appointed the inaugural Director of the Deakin Sport Network.
Qualifications include a PhD from Monash University, a Master of Science in Sport Management from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst, a Bachelor of Applied Science (Recreation) and a Diploma of Teaching from Edith Cowan University. He is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
David has in excess of 140 publications including 17 books, 19 book chapters, 75 refereed journal publications in more than 20 different journals worldwide, 31 technical reports and non-refereed publications. He has also presented in excess of 110 conference papers worldwide. His co-authored text entitled Strategic Sport Marketing 5th edition (Routledge), the first of its kind in Australia, was first published in January 1998 and the 2nd edition was adapted for the Netherlands in 2004, Greece in 2007, and translated into Chinese in 2004. In addition, he is the lead author of Sport Management in Australia. An Organisational Overview 5th edition (2017) also published by Allen & Unwin and is the lead Editor of the Routledge Handbook of Sport Governance (2020).
Research grants include those from the Australia India Council, the Australian Football League, Cricket Australia, Cricket Victoria, Sport and Recreation Minister’s Council and the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing. Research expertise include governance, sport development and strategy.
David was the Foundation President of the Sport Management Association of Australia & New Zealand (SMAANZ) from 1995 to 2001, a member of the Victorian Sports Council (1994-95), was a member of the Australian Football League Tribunal from 1992 to 2003, an executive council Member of the North American Society for Sport Management (2015-18) and a Director of Peninsula Leisure Pty Ltd (2013-18) a facility and leisure management group responsible for managing the Peninsula Aquatic and Recreation Centre on behalf of the Frankston City Council. He was also a member of the Netball Australia Nominations Committee (2019-21) and is the current President of Golf Victoria and has been a Director of Golf Victoria since 2014.
He is a former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Sport Management from 2015 to 2018, and Sport Management Review from 2002 to 2004 and remains a member of the editorial board of both journals. Both are A-ranked journals.
In 2007, he was invited by the Singapore Government to become a member of an international advisory panel to review the vision and plans for sport in Singapore. In 2012, he was invited to join the advisory board of a Task Force initiated by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism to formulate a strategic plan to develop the sport industry in South Korea and he was appointed as an International Visiting Professor at Coventry University, UK (2015-18). He was an adjunct Professor of the Global Sport Management Masters Program at Seoul National University, in South Korea (2015-18).
Awards received include the inaugural Jim and Alison Leslie award for teaching excellence at Deakin University (1998), Victorian Sports Federation’s Eunice Gill Award for Sport Leadership (2000), Research Fellow of the North American Society for Sport Management (2009) and the inaugural SMAANZ Distinguished Service award in 2009. In 2011, he became the first non-North American scholar to be awarded the prestigious Earle. F. Zeigler lecture award by the North American Society for Sport Management.
Read more on David's profileBiography summary
Professor David Shilbury is the Director of the Deakin Sport Network, the Foundation Chair of Sport Management, a former Head of the School of Management and Marketing (2002-2007) and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Business and Law at Deakin University. Dr Shilbury was appointed as Australia’s first Professor of Sport Management in 2000 having commenced at Deakin in 1990. He has previously worked for the WA Golf Association, the City of Stirling and the Australian Cricket Board/WA Cricket Association. Academic qualifications include a Ph.D. from Monash University (1995) and a Master of Science in Sport Management from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst (1989). He is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors course (2013) and has won multiple awards for his work in advancing sport management through his scholarship, teaching and service.
Professor Shilbury is a former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Sport Management and Sport Management Review. He was a member of the Australian Football League Tribunal from 1992-2003, and a Trustee to the Bowater Trust from 2002-2007. He was the Foundation President of the Sport Management Association of Australia & New Zealand (SMAANZ) from 1995 to 2001 and a Director of Peninsula Leisure from 2013-18 and a member of the Netball Australia Nominations Committee (2019-21). He is currently the President of Golf Victoria. His research expertise is in sport governance, strategy and sport delivery systems.
Career highlights
- Established Australia's first business based courses in sport management in Australia and building the profile to include six programs.
- Appointed Australia's first Professor of Sport Management in 2000.
- Member, AFL Tribunal for 12 years (1992-2003).
- Elected as Foundation President of the Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand and in conjuntion with the board developing the vision, mission and strategy for SMAANZ.
- Established Sport Management Review in 1998.
- Delivered the Earle F. Zeigler award lecture to the 2011 NASSM Conference as the first non-North American to win this award.
- Appointed as the first non North American as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Sport Management.
- Teaching as a invited Professor into the 'Dream Together' Master of Sport Management at Seoul National University. The program targeted students from developing countries and was funded by the Korean government providing opportunties for a level of study and focus that many of the students would not have had in their home countries.
- Worked with many different sport organisations to conduct reviews and provide direction on strategy and sport governance.
- Master of Business (Sport Management) ranked 3rd in the world in 2014 by Sport Business International.
- Overseeing the strategy to see Deakin Sport climb from a ranking of 30 in the world in 2018 to 6th in the 2021 and 2022 QS Subject rankings.
- Advising industry via reviews, including for example, Basketball Victoria (High Performance Review), Australian Touch Football Association (Structure & Governance), Cricket Australia (Coaching Review; 3 yr Review of Club Based Models), Eastern Independent Schools Association (Review of Inter-School Sport Structures), plus facilitating strategy and governance sessions for numerous sport governing bodies (e.g., Golf Australia/Australian Golf Management, Motorcycle Victoria, Squash Vic, Bowls Australia, Tennis Australia, Australian Weightlifting Federation, Aussi Masters Swimming, Vicsport, VICSWIM, the Australian Indoor Cricket Federation, Rowing Victoria)
- Supervised 10 PhD completions.
Research interests
- Sport Governance
- Sport Development
- Bibliometrics
Affiliations
Member, North American Society for Sport Management
Executive Council, North American Society for Sport Management (2015-18)
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Sport Management (JSM) (2015-18)
Associate Editor JSM, (2011-12), Senior Associate Editor JSM (2012-15)
Member Editorial Board, JSM (2002 -)
Member, Sport Management Association of Australia & New Zealand
Editor, Sport Management Review (2002-04)
Associate Editor, SMR (1998-01)
Member, Editorial Board, SMR (1998 -)
Member & Graduate, Australian Institute of Company Directors
Director, Peninsula Leisure (2013-18)
Member, Netball Australia Nominations Committee (2019-21)
President Golf Victoria (2022 on) and Director, since 2014
Chairperson, Scientific Committee for the UNESCO Chair in Sport Governance and Sustainability, University of Central Lancashire, Cyprus, 2022 on
Member, National Sports Research Agenda Advisory Board, Australian Sports Commission (2022 on)
Teaching interests
- Strategic Management/Sport Business Strategy
- Sport Leadership and Governance
Knowledge areas
- Sport management
- Sport governance
- Strategy
- Sport Development
Expertise
- Sport management/governance
Conferences
Governance Structures in Professional Sports Leagues: Consolidating and Refining the Case for an Independent Commission. Paper presented to the 27th annual SMAANZ conference, virtual, 2021. (with J. McLeod).
Keynote Address. In search of sport governance theory. Are we dreaming? Paper presented to the European Association of Sport Management Festival of Sport (virtual) Conference, Re-Opening the Black Box of Governance. 29 September, 2021.
Emotions in sport governance: A research agenda. Paper presented to the European Association of Sport Management Festival of Sport (virtual) Conference, Re-Opening the Black Box of Governance. 29 September, 2021. (With G. Zeimers)
The Influence of Passion on Sport Board Performance. Paper presented at the 26th Annual SMAANZ conference, 30 November - 4 December, 2020, Virtual Conference (with G. Zeimers).
Power and rent-seeking on boards: A case study of national sport federations in India. Paper presented at the 26th Annual SMAANZ conference, 30 November - 4 December, 2020, Virtual Conference (with J. McLeod & G. Zeimers).
The role of passion in governing non-profit sport organisations. Paper presented at the 25th Annual SMAANZ conference, 4-6 December, 2019, Christchurch New Zealand (with G. Zeimers).
Hybridity in non-profit sport organisations: Organisational challenges. Paper presented at the 33rd Annual North American Society for Sport Management conference, 29 May-1 June, 2019, New Orleans, USA (with G. Zeimers).
The future of sport governance: A multi-disciplinary view from inside boardrooms. Workshop to be presented at the 24th Annual SMAANZ conference, 22-23 November, 2018, Adelaide (with G. Schoenberg, K. Rowe, M. Naraine).
Publishing in sport management journals: Perspectives of editors. Workshop presented at the 32nd Annual North American Society for Sport Management conference, 5-9 June, 2018, Halifax, Canada.
Shilbury, D., Sotiriadou, P., Wicker, P., Alsop, A. and McIntosh, E., 'Managing high-performance sport. A new era of elite sports', 23rd Annual SMAANZ Conference, Australia, 29 November - 1 December 2017.
Keynote Address: 'The pace of change: How professionalisation has shaped the work of sport management', 25th Annual European Association for Sport Management Conference, Switzerland, September 2017.
Shilbury, D. and Sotiriadou, P., 'The Sport development cube. An emerging framework.', 31st Annual North American Society for Sport, 2017.
Shilbury, D., Cameron, M., Ferkins, L., Meiklejohn, M., Corbett, B., Bryham, G., Molloy, T., Dee, K. and Karg, A., 'Examining ownership structures in Australian and New Zealand professional sport', 22nd Annual SMAANZ Conference, New Zealand, 23-25 November 2016.
Keynote Address: 'Global sport governance Challenges: A research opportunity', 24th Annual European Association for Sport Management Conference, Poland, September 2016.
Professional activities
Media appearances
CNA – Channel News Asia, Singapore, Indonesia Stadium Stampede, 3 October, 2022.
CNA – Channel News Asia, Singapore, Australian Open and Novak Djokovic, 10 January, 2022.
CNA - Channel NewsAsia, Singapore, Impact of Diplomatic Boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, 9 December, 2021.
ABC Radio Melbourne, AFL CEO and background and experiences required. Lisa Leong, 3 July, 2022.
ABC News Radio, Lack of tennis practice can cause injury, Thomas Oriti, 19 January, 2021.
ABCTV National News, Fans are desperate to get back to the footy after coronavirus, but it may not look like this again. 9 May, 2020. https://iview.abc.net.au/show/abc-news-vic
Akane, O., Rurika, I., & Tan, CK. (2020). Asia's sports business learns how to take a COVID-19 punch. Nikkie Asian Review. 24 July, https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-Spotlight/Asia-s-sports-business-learns-how-to-take-a-COVID-19-punch
Naik, S. (2020). When a year is not long enough to ensure Tokyo Olympics’ hustle-and-bustle. The Indian Express, 9 July, https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/sport-others/tokyo-olympics-2021-year-not-long-enough-covid-19-6463952/
Galloway, P., & McDiamid, J. (2020). Fans are desperate to get back to the footy after coronavirus, but it may not look like this again, ABC News online. 10 May, 2020. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-10/coronavirus-will-change-what-a-day-at-the-footy-looks-like/12219344
ABC National TV News 24. Should a Tasmanian AFL team be based in Hobart or Launceston? The Geelong Cats may provide an answer. 25 November, 2019.
ABC Radio National, How to be a good sport manager, Sporty, with Amanda Smith, 2 February, 2019
BBC Radion 4 UK 'Ball Tampering, Australian Cricket Team' with Martha Kearny, 27 March 2018.
Quartermaine, B. (2020). A real game changer. Sunday Times, 30 August, pp. 22-25.
Nannestad, K. (2020). Play still some way off for community sport, Surf Coast Times, 21 May, p. 19.
Bailey, M. (2019). Matildas have their AFL sisters to thank for pay deal. Financial Review, 6 November, p. 7.
Rolfe, P. (2019). Now its cash Barty. Herald Sun, 5 November, p. 5.
Boyd, T. (2019). Wimbledon is worth more than the prize money to Barty. Financial Review, 4 July, p. 3.
Rowbottom, C. (2019). Should a Tasmanian AFL team be based in Hobart or Launceston? The Geelong Cats may provide an answer. MSN News, Press Australia & ABC News Melbourne.
Howcroft, J. (2018). Football Federation Australia AGM Gears up for Post-Lowry Future. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/nov/12/football-federation-australia-agm-gears-up-for-post-lowy-future, 12 November.
Mercer, P., 'Australia cricket scandal: A body blow to an incredulous nation', BBC Online, 26 March 2018.
Interview on AFL player management signings and endorsement opportunities, 3AW, 7LAFM Launceston, Australia, 9 February 2018.
'Valuable but vulnerable, Welfare of International Students a top priority', International Student Cricket Academy, SBS News, 6 November 2017.
National 9 News, Commenting on AFL clubs are battling to have the best player and training facilities, 19 April, 2015.
ABC National TV News 24, Contact Sport, Swimmer’s Salaries, 13 July, 2012. (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-13/contact-sport-friday-13-july/4130130)
ABC National TV, 7.30 Report, Storm Defiant as Investigation Begins, 26 April, 2010. (http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2010/s2883079.htm#)
Research groups
Centre for Sport Research
Awards
- 2015 WJC Banks Award for Distinguished Contributions to Teaching, for Master of Business (Sport Management). Deakin University
- 2011 Dr Earle F. Zeigler award recipient, North American Society for Sport Management
- 2009 Inaugural Distinguished Service Award, Sport Management Association of Australia & New Zealand
- 2009 Research Fellow, North American Society for Sport Management
- 2000 Eunice Gill Award for Sport Management, Victorian Sports Federation annual awards
- 1998 Dr Jim & Alison Leslie Award for Teaching Excellence, Deakin University
-
1998 Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence, Deakin University
Projects
- Sport Governance - collaborative governance, collective board leadership, sport governance in India, the role of the chair, harnessing passion on sport boards, inclusion and diversity.
- A Research Agenda for Sport Management. Elgar, Edited Text (published 2022).
- Routledge Handbook of Sport Governance (Published 2020).
- Sport Management in Australia 6th edn (Routledge, new edition due out 2023)
Publications
No publications found
Funded Projects at Deakin
Other Public Sector Funding
Doping and Australian Professional Cycling; Attitudes, Issues and a Pathway to a New Approach
Mr Martin Hardie, Prof David Shilbury
DHA Grant - Anti-doping Research Program - Department of Health and Ageing
- 2011: $2,019
- 2010: $21,284
- 2009: $63,501
An Educational and Partnership Approach to Transforming Sport Governance in India
Prof David Shilbury, Dr Geoff Schoenberg, Dr Joshua McLeod
DFAT Australia-India Council Grants Program
- 2018: $16,750
- 2017: $36,400
Industry and Other Funding
Developing Governance Capability of Non Profit Sport Organisations
Prof David Shilbury
Bowls Australia - Research Grant, Squash Vic
- 2013: $10,000
- 2012: $30,000
- 2011: $22,000
Supervisions
Sandra Joy Hillas
Thesis entitled: The Elite Athlete Selection System in Australia: Selectors' Perceptions
Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Management
Katherine Rowe
Thesis entitled: Women's Cycling Participation in Australia: Examining Influences and the Role of Cycling Education
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Management and Marketing
Geoffrey Schoenberg
Thesis entitled: Examining Strategic Preparation for CEO Selection
Master of Commerce, School of Management and Marketing
Fiona Graetz
Thesis entitled: Forms of Organising: Changing Structures, Processes and Boundaries
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Management and Marketing
Lesley Ferkins
Thesis entitled: Sport Governance: Developing Strategic Capability in National Sport Organisations
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Management and Marketing
Emma Sherry
Thesis entitled: Exploring Executive Conflict of Interest in the Australian Football League
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Management and Marketing
Paul Turner
Thesis entitled: Broadcasting Technology Effecting Interorganisational Relationship Formation
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Management and Marketing
Peter Smolianov
Thesis entitled: Integrated Advertising and Sponsorship in Corporate Marketing through Televised Sports
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Management and Marketing
Hans Westerbeek
Thesis entitled: Marketing across Cultures: An Investigation into Place Specific Dimensions of Service Quality in Sport
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Management and Marketing
Adam Karg
Thesis entitled: Structure and Functioning of Complex Sport Organisations
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Management and Marketing
Andrew Dawson
Thesis entitled: Managing the Career Development of Australian Coaches
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Management and Marketing