Sean O'Connor Author & Editor

Mohammed Ben Sulayem is one of the most famous and successful sportsmen in the Middle East. The UAE national was a winner of a record 14 Middle East Rally Championships and competed with success at World Championship level. He is also a Vice President of the Federation Automobile International (FIA) the global governing body for motorsport including Formula 1. He has an intimate knowledge of sport management within the Middle East (and indeed globally), combining is scholarly contacts combined with practical engagement in the field. Sean O'Connor has an established research publication record in the field of sports management. He has lectured at a number of universities in the Republic of Ireland, including University College Dublin, and Dublin Institute of Technology. A Doctoral candidate at University of Ulster he has over twenty five years professional experience in the marketing and communication of sport in particular in the Middle East region. He holds an MPhil from DIT and a MA in Political Communications from DCU. He is also a Director of the Automobile and Touring Club of the UAE reporting to its President Mr. Ben Sulayem. He was a member of the organizing committee of the inaugural Abu Dhabi Formula 1 Grand Prix that won the award for the best Grand Prix in the 2009 world championship. David Hassan is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Ulster, Jordanstown. He is the Academic Editor of Sport in Society, an international, peer-reviewed journal (Routledge) and Series Editor of Foundations in Sport Management (with Dr Allan Edwards), a new Routledge book series beginning in 2010. He is a holder of a Distinguished Research Fellowship from Ulster in recognition of his outstanding contribution to research and in 2008 was appointed as an International Scholar with the International Football Institute in England. He is the editor of seven academic books on sport studies, has published over 50 scholarly articles in peer reviewed journals/edited books and has presented at international conferences around the world.