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OWEN HILL went from being the leader of one club to becoming the leader of the entire Jamaica Premier League (JPL) as CEO of Professional Football Jamaica Ltd (PFJL).

Hill, the first former player to do so, said his previous role as captain of the UWI Football Club has helped him tremendously as the PFJL CEO.

“It helped in more ways than one, understanding first, what the players’ needs are as a former player. As a player, I was exposed to different experiences and that facilitated me in understanding what the players truly want. They are essentially the product, they guide a lot of what happens,” said the former UWI defender and captain.

“So if we are ensuring, in a wholesome way, that their needs are met, then I think we would be on the right track. That would have helped me because my approach, my suggestions, the execution, they were all centred around the players and the clubs.”

Although one role complements the other, Hill notes that there are major differences between the two.

“As a player, you are in a particular position for one club, as the CEO for the league you have to take into consideration all 14 clubs. That would have magnified the expectations and execution required. It also requires an unbiased approach where all the clubs would have benefited from the decisions made,” Hill, who played from 2015 to 2017, explained.

The 2022/23 season was Hill’s first year as the league’s chief and so The Sunday Gleaner asked him how he would evaluate it.

“It’s a difficult question to answer. The evaluation is in the outcomes and I think coming out of what we saw in the play-off season, we would give ourselves a pretty high grade – whatever that is. We have a small and young team, but they consistently deliver week in, week out. It’s really a combination of shared learning and experiences,” Hill said.

Still, Hill said the organisation hasn’t reached its maximum potential and he desires to improve it for the next season and beyond.

“There are always areas that can be improved. Just general communication to the clubs, media, partners, etc. Our general approach with the clubs. What we know for sure is that not all clubs are equal, some clubs have more resources than others. The approach is to try and assist the clubs with a smaller amount of resources and personnel and upscale them to get them on at least level footing so that they can compete. Then the general advocacy to try and get more stakeholders involved ... to help with infrastructure development and human resources to ensure that the product ultimately gets better,” Hill expounded.

STRATEGIC GUIDANCE

Elevated by Professional Football Jamaica Ltd chairman, Christopher Williams, Hill said he was grateful for this opportunity and appreciated Williams’ guidance.

“He provides strategic guidance. He’s a very hands-on chairman ... He’s a big dreamer so there’s never something that’s out of his reach, to the extent that it might seem crazy for the average person. We need that element to keep us going, to push us in the directions that are unknown and break new horizons. Then there’s a group of directors who also help him pull the strategic weight of the organisation,” he said.

Williams said he realised Hill was the man for the job after a thorough process.

“To build the professional football industry required full-time focus and so we need the company to be properly staffed. The staff needed to be led by a competent CEO,” Williams said.

“We designed a job description and we invited individuals to apply. Owen applied, we went through an interview process and he was selected based on his competence, both his work experience and academic qualifications.”

He said so far he would give Hill a high rating for his performance.

“He’s very focused and diligent. Operation execution was good, accounting and finance oversight was good, relationship management was good,” Williams noted.

However, like Hill, Williams sees room for improvement.

“What we need to work on is marketing. Though it was good, sales need some strengthening and the critical sales are sponsorship sales, that’s still being driven largely by me, so we are working on transitioning those relations over to Owen,” he said.