David Hopkinson: 'The first job is to listen, and to really understand' | OneFootball

"So to be in there with probably 60 of us, at 7:30 in the morning, all in kits, with a couple of Guinness 0.0s for breakfast... it was awesome."

Hopkinson was in the Irish bar on 36th St. with his fiancée Chelsea, 21-year-old daughter Claire and her partner and a couple of friends, who were also in on the news that the man in the Magpies home shirt was the club's new Chief Executive Officer. It was a bit like "Undercover Boss, in some ways," he laughs. "But the higher up you go, the harder it is to actually understand what the fans are experiencing. You're in the private box, or you're entertaining so-and-so, right? So to be able to just get in the pub, put a shirt on and enjoy the match as a regular fan, and get that fan experience, even in New York, was amazing."

Hopkinson, 54, started work at St. James' Park on Friday. It is a significant move for the Canadian and his family. Chelsea, a Major League Baseball executive from Alberta, is crossing the Atlantic with him and they plan to marry in Newcastle next year. Claire is coming too, along with their "special furry son" - a three-year-old chiweenie called Lou. "I can't wait to hear Lou with a little accent," he jokes on a Teams call from his homeland. His other daughter, Miranda, is staying in Toronto for her final year of high school, but plans to fly over for the Champions League game against Barcelona later this month.

Time has afforded him a perspective on the impact his career - which has taken him from Canada to Madrid to New York and now Tyneside - has had on his family. He "can be a difficult assignment as a father sometimes," he says. "All dads want big things for their children, but the big things I've chosen to do take me away from home and that's different from what some other dads choose. But nothing gives that does not also take, so there are some costs to the way that I've conducted my career and my life. We're not often under the same roof, all of us. But they get it, they get me. They get that this is a passion of mine and a calling of mine, and they're unbelievably supportive of it.

"I'm getting into this with both feet. This is not some sort of transactional assignment for me. This is where I intend to make my home. This is the community I intend to represent on every stage imaginable. The CEO role has an ambassadorial component to it and I want to be a great ambassador for Newcastle United and ultimately for Newcastle. My intention is to become an adopted Geordie here, but you have to earn that."

Anonymity allowed Hopkinson to enjoy his early pints without the pressure of questions about transfers or club matters in that old haunt for United fans, but that will not remain the case for long. There is a new fanbase to meaningfully engage with and one which will expect answers of him. He is not a Geordie and he does not sound like one; his Canadian accent endures. So how do you go about wiring yourself into another sporting culture?

"You live and you learn," he replies. "This will be the third time I've done this. You do what I did the other night: a lot of looking. A lot of listening. A lot of watching. Understand the rituals, understand what the team represents to that community.

"Growing up, I knew what the Toronto Maple Leafs represented to Torontonians and Canadians - a founding hockey club in the NHL, the most important thing around the water cooler in Toronto, in Ontario. You go to Real Madrid - an iconic club that represents the values of that community and that society, in a lot of ways. You come to New York and you've got the New York Knicks, what they represent in basketball and the city of New York, and the values of city expressed through the values of the team. That's what makes the connection."

In his younger years, Hopkinson studied politics and philosophy at McGill University in Montreal. "I struggled at school," he says. "But I learned that I'm an active learner, not an academic." He explains, on a slight detour, that he's just finished reading Mustafa Suleyman's The Coming Wave. "But I got really tired of school. I got really frustrated, they got frustrated with me, and so we ended up parting ways without my degree."

It left him in a quandary. "I scared the hell out of myself. I looked at myself in the mirror at 22 years old and thought, 'uh oh - I think I'm in trouble here'." He started selling door-to-door - restaurant packages, golf packages, knives, "trinkets" - but felt unease at his trajectory. "There's a quote I read at the time: 'In life, you either need inspiration or desperation'," he recounts. "I found my motivation in desperation."

His first job in professional sports was not glamorous. He "carried boxes, answered the phones, sold tickets," but was grateful to work somewhere that he had a roof over his head and was warm in the winter. Eventually, he went to the company that became Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MSLE), working his way up to Chief Commercial Officer. Since then, he has plotted a career with "intentionality".

To him, that meant that "each team I worked for was the most important thing in that community. And the arena or stadium is situated in the centre of the city. I haven't worked for one where it was in a suburb, 15 miles from downtown. That is really important. Where ScotiaBank Arena is in Toronto, or where the Bernabeu is in Madrid, right on Castellana. Where Madison Square Garden is, the absolute heart of Manhattan. Where St. James' Park is in Newcastle. Location matters.

"What’s clear to me is how much the pride people in Newcastle have for their community is expressed as love for Newcastle United. That's awesome. That's energising. That's exciting. That's what matters. Not every team in every community can claim that."

In selecting new ventures, Hopkinson feels he has earned the right to be "choosy". He says he turned down other openings before accepting the Magpies' offer. "I wanted to go places that are magical," he says, "and it's hard to measure 'magical' on a spreadsheet." That drove his initial desire to leave Canada. "It's pretty beautiful here. I had a very nice role in Toronto and a very nice lifestyle. It wasn't enough. I wanted more. I want to live and see the world differently. And I just only wanted magical experiences, magical opportunities."

Real Madrid, who he joined as Head of Global Partnerships in 2018, seems pretty magical to most. He was not new to football - he had got his "beak wet" by being part of the launch of Toronto FC while at MLSE - but his interest had to become something deeper. "What I did learn in my time at Madrid was, look, you've got to listen. You've got to watch. You've got to learn. This is all about storytelling. Madrid, the Knicks, Newcastle - it's storytelling. And for me, it starts with story listening.

"I'm not in a position to tell any stories about Newcastle right now, but I'm sure in a position to do some story listening. Tell me about big Al, and what he means! Tell me about how this club got started! Along the way, you meet people who are going to have these kind of stories, about how their grandparents met at a match… I can't wait to hear them, and find out how the fabric of Newcastle United has been woven into the community of Newcastle."

After Real he moved to Madison Square Garden, overseeing business operations for teams including the New York Knicks and New York Rangers before becoming Sports President and Chief Operating Officer. There was huge allure there and to him, Newcastle United has the requisite magic too. But it is also unrealistic to expect to be showered in stardust upon walking into an organisation. How do you approach the reality and challenge of making aspects of a club a bit more magical than they may currently be?

"Business is hard - let's start there. Business is hard. Nobody's business is easy. I don't care if you're a roofer, a banker, a realtor - business is hard," he replies. "Work is hard. That's why they call it work, not play.

"We can be hard on problems, while we're soft on people. I am hard on problems, I'm hard on solving hard problems. The right way to deal with hard problems is with hard execution, hard analysis, rigorous strategy - but you need to do so in a way that is respectful of all the people working on those problems.

"I like to think I'm a decent negotiator but whenever I deal with a negotiation - buying a house, a sponsorship, whatever it is - we can disagree on certain aspects. We can have hard conversations about price or whatever it is. But we can do so in a way that we're still building our relationship, or actually strengthening our relationship through negotiation. I don't see negotiation as opposition. I want to be on the same side.

"We will work on problems together. We might need to work on a problem very hard, in a real rigorous, disciplined way. But we can do that in a warm and trusting way."

He continues. "You're going to hear me use the word 'alignment' an awful lot. Are we aligned on a say-do basis? Do we do what we say we're going to do? Is what we're trying to accomplish aligned with our personal values and skills? We've got to make sure that there's just no gap between what we believe and what we do, what we say and what do, who we are and how we behave."

Hopkinson says he has worked in environments where alignment has been prevalent, and has worked in some where it has not. Trust, he says, is crucial. "Nobody is going to follow a leader they don't trust. Trust is another one of those things that's very hard to measure, that doesn't tend to fit easily onto an Excel spreadsheet, but it's the most important element of leadership." How do you foster that? "One - be trustworthy. It sounds absurdly simple. But you've got to be worthy of trust. And two, bring your authentic self to work and allow others to bring their authentic selves to work, so we can see who we are, respect where everybody is on their personal journey, and connect as people.

"And bringing a real passion to listen is a job for day one. We will execute strategies - I assure you. We will grow - I have absolute confidence in that. But the first job is to listen, and to really understand what the story is that, one day, I'll be telling."

To relax, Hopkinson reads. His love of science fiction is shared with his daughter; they recently enjoyed Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary. He watches sports, lots of them, and he meditates. But his passion, really, is his work and this new role is tonic for him.

"I didn't get a degree, didn't get an MBA, didn't work at some consultancy. I didn't get parachuted in," he adds. "This has just been me going up the ladder. That's what gives me high confidence, whether it's going to Real Madrid with a great role, going to Madison Square Garden with a great role, or coming into Newcastle United with a great role. I've got lots to learn in this particular situation. But I've done it before, and I'll do it again. And we're gonna win."