My immediate thought after working with the Footdown Fifteen group members was - Here is a group that has all the potential to succeed of a top premiership football team.   I look forward to hearing about the group’s many successes in the future.

Dr Chris Brady uses his passion for football - combined with his varied background - to show leaders how they can learn from football managers; the people he considers the most successful managers in the man management business. His lessons go well beyond team-building and motivation to include the management of stress, attention to detail, enthusiasm, dealing with mavericks, recruitment and, of course, luck. He has now encapsulated these lessons in his latest book: “The 90-Minute Manager: Lessons from the Dugout.”

Chris is Associate Dean at Cass University Business School and Director of their MBA programme. His academic expertise is in policy analysis and he researches into the role of teams in organisational structures, corporate coaching, decision-making theory, international organisations and game theory.

After an early career in industry, he joined the Royal Navy where he stayed for 16 years, gaining an MSc and PhD in International Relations as well as performing intelligence duties during the Gulf and Balkan conflicts.

Chris is a keen football fan and a qualified UEFAA licence football coach; he played and coached football to semi-professional level including a spell as Manager of Basingstoke FC!