Stephen Clark

BA (Hons) Marketing and Communication, Fashion Marketing

Global Senior Director, Men’s and Kids Product Merchandising, Jordan Brand/Nike Inc.

Growing up, Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) alumnus Stephen Clark was unsure of what his future held and left school with few qualifications.

He had a passion for clothes, music and culture, but was not sure how to find a career centred around these passions.

While he was loading lorries and driving forklifts, his mum motivated him towards gaining a degree at University, and it all changed for him when he found the marketing and communications course at GCU.

Since then, Stephen has worked for Puma, Converse and the Jordan/Nike Inc brand in London, New York, Boston, and Portland.

In his current role, as Global Senior Director of Men's Product Merchandising, he has worked on collaborations with the likes of the rapper-songwriter Travis Scott and Paris Saint-Germain FC.

Stephen said: “GCU was the best four years of my life. I met one of my best friends here. He was on exchange from Ohio Northern College, USA, and it inspired me to do an exchange, so in my third year, I went to the USA for six months. It was like a movie. I had a great laugh, learned so much, and I definitely had a passion for America and American influence culture, et cetera. So it's funny that I ended up living in America.”

GCU was the best experience, so much so that I contacted the University because I wanted to share my story with its students and help them with career advice.

Reflecting on his career during a guest lecture to more than 200 fashion and marketing students at GCU, he urged students to show passion and energy to prospective employers.

“My mum would say I took the long road to stuff. I still hold the mindset that am just getting started, and I have much more climbing to do, but I’ve had a great journey so far,” Stephen said.

He added: "When you leave University you think the hard work is over but it never ends, you have to keep going.”

That relentless keep-going attitude shows in his work because Stephen isn’t only working on apparel and collaborating with key names in the industry, but he focuses his team’s efforts on creating platforms for people to build equity businesses.

“There’s political unrest, the pandemic, climate change, the war in Ukraine and you have to really swallow that pill for a moment and really check in on people, see how their families are and add that positive value.”