Keele alumnus: ‘I’ve struck gold’

Here we take a peek into the life of alumnus Richard Frost, Football Brand Manager for Nike UK and Ireland. Richard graduated from Keele University in 2006 with a degree in Law and Economics.

Richard Frost Nike 1 v2

What does you current job involve?


I’m a brand manager so I’m responsible for how product, athletes and brand messaging shows up in the marketplace. Within my current role I have spent time managing brand partnerships with the likes of the FA, the Premier League, tier one contracted athletes and most recently led the Nike x Chelsea FC partnership launch — building and executing plans across everything from initial insights and consumer research, visual creative direction, global campaign creation and physical marketing activations across multiple different platforms.


When you write it down it sounds crazy — I always wanted to work for Nike ever since I was a kid, but I didn’t how it would ever happen. I simply stayed as close to sport as possible and trusted that if I worked hard, and made myself valuable to teams I wanted to join then it would all work out.


After graduating from Keele what led to your current career?


I graduated with a degree in Law and Economics and all I knew was that I wanted a brand marketing career linked to sport. I worked with a small action sports retailer as a product buyer and retail manager and left to join Nike when they set up brand-owned retail spaces. It was an easy transition, moving to a management role within a brand experience retail store, and very quickly my passion for product and consumer relationships was recognised and I joined the functional brand team as a product and brand specialist. It was an amazing opportunity to travel all over the UK and Ireland working with the most innovative product (current and future), build brand relationships with consumers, athletes, medical and academic societies, as well as supporting commercial campaign role-outs across all marketing touch points.

Richard Frost Nike