James McLaughlin | Chief Executive
Having studied Retail Management at Bournemouth University James began his career as Head of Sales at Southampton FC, despite being a lifelong Portsmouth fan!
During his four-and-a-half stay with the Club, James was a key member of the management team that delivered the club’s new £32m St Mary’s Stadium, an FA Cup Final appearance and the highest league table position in the Premier League.
James moved to Holland as Product Manager for Football Equipment for Nike EMEA and continued his moved within football by joining Watford FC as Commercial Director with one of his key achievements being a 23,000 sold out Sir Elton John concert at Vicarage Road
With Watford securing promotion in 2006, James headed to Birmingham and joined Edgbaston Cricket Ground as Commercial Director and once again was part of the management team that saw the opening of the new look £32m Edgbaston in the summer of 2011. The move to the stadium saw Jaguar become a long term partner of the Club
After nearly six years at Warwickshire and having been a Trustee of Cure Leukaemia since 2010 James made the switch into the third sector becoming CEO of Cure Leukaemia in April 2012.
Supporting the work of the world class clinical team based at the internationally acclaimed Centre for Clinical Haematology, led by Professor Charlie Craddock CBE, Cure Leukaemia has continued to grow year on year for nine years securing a number of local partnerships with the likes of Deloitte, KPMG, Pinsent Masons, The Binding Site and Brewin Dolphin
During 2017, Cure Leukaemia raised an additional £1m to fund the expansion of the Centre to double its capacity and after a 6-month selection process the charity also secured a two-year national partnership with Deutsche Bank which raised in excess of £2m. This partnership then enabled Cure Leukaemia to begin funding the national Trials Acceleration Programme (TAP) establishing the charity as a leading UK blood cancer charity.
James is now focussed on ensuring the sustainability of TAP for the future and continuing the steady growth of Cure Leukaemia.
He was also instrumental in securing the partnership with the Tour de France in the UK, aligning Cure Leukaemia with one of the world’s biggest and most famous annual sporting events.
James regularly takes part in sporting events including the Great Birmingham Run, London 2 Paris and Copa Del CL. In 2020 James ran 14km for each of the 12 centres the charity now funds in the TAP. In total he ran 180km in under 1 month and raised over £20,000 from his ‘Tour of the TAP.’ This event took place when it was clear Cure Leukaemia were set to record a fundraising shortfall of £1,500,000 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.