Dr Gerard A. Akindes combines a wealth of experience in sports as an athlete and coach, a former manager of a sportswear company, a scholar, and a researcher. He captained the Benin basketball national team as an athlete and played semi-professional basketball. He coached youth, women, and men’s basketball in Belgium.

He worked in Qatar for several years as a research and insight senior manager for the Josoor Institute, a legacy program of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. Before moving to Qatar, Gerard taught sport management and sports and development in the Department of Sports Administration at Ohio University, Athens, Ohio.

Akindes is adjunct faculty at Northwestern University, Qatar, and New York University, New York. His academic publications focus on international sports management, broadcasting, and elite athletes’ mobility and migration. He co-edited two books, “Identities, politics and Football in Africa” and “Sports in Africa, Past and Present.”

Akindes is also a sports management consultant for sports organizations. He mentored the National Paralympic Committees of the Central African Republic and Burkina Faso.

He is co-founder and coordinator of SportsAfrica Network’s conferences, webinars, and the Interdisciplinary Electronic Journal of African Sports Ohio University, Impumelelo.