The Board of Trustees provides strategic direction and oversight for the Active Partnerships charitable company and comprises a diverse team with six members drawn from Active Partnerships and four from other sectors, all appointed for the value they bring to our work.
Doug has held the post as a Local Authority Chief Executive for the past 17 years, serving three different Councils, most recently for the London Borough of Bromley. In these roles he has developed extensive competencies, skills, knowledge and experience working in this challenging, political environment. Previously his roles have been Director of Community Services, Director of Health & Recreation; starting his Local Authority career in Sports Centre Management.
Doug’s first and committed passion has always been sport, starting his career teaching in the east-end of Glasgow and coaching a variety of sports at his local sports centre. In his wider community role, more recently he coached the Bromley Handball Squads for the London Youth Games. Doug is particularly driven by the contribution that sport makes to the social, physical and mental wellbeing of children and young people.
On a personal level, Doug is very keen on personal fitness, regularly cycling to work and when work commitments allow, he enjoys a round of golf.
Start Date: April 2018
Finish date: March 2021
Dick has over 45 years’ experience specialising in public relations for public sector services.
He started his career in local government, then joined the electricity industry before becoming Director of Public Affairs at Scotland Yard for the Metropolitan Police Service.
In addition to managing numerous high profile national events and incidents he provided communication advice overseas to the police services in Greece, South Africa and the Caribbean in the run up to the Athens Olympics in 2004, the Cricket World Cup in 2007 and the Football World Cup in 2010.
He now operates part-time as an independent communication consultant and trustee for several charities and chairs the Kent and Medway Active Partnership.
He was President of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations in 1992 and was awarded the OBE in 2006 for services to policing following the London bombings that took place the previous year.
Having been a keen footballer in his younger days he now enjoys playing tennis, bowls and sailing.
Start Date: May 2020
Finish date: June 2023
Amanda is a chartered accountant with over 20 years experience working with professional services firm, PwC. During this time, she worked in both the UK and Singapore, and towards the end of her career, specialised in Internal Audit and Risk Management.
In more recent years, she has established a portfolio of non-executive director roles, primarily within the sport and physical activity sector, and she aims to bring her audit, risk and governance experience to those organisations. In particular, she is a Trustee and Senior Independent Director of Active Oxfordshire, and she also sits on the Board of Chinnor Rugby Football Club, who operate in the third tier of national rugby and run a semi professional first team.
Amanda is a very keen sportswoman and regularly plays and watches a variety of sports, including hockey, cricket, golf and more recently open water swimming! She is particularly passionate about getting girls and women active and involved in sport.
Start date: May 2020
Finish date: June 2023
Nigel has a long and a successful involvement with Active Partnerships from both his executive and his non-executive roles. He is CE of a large Active Partnership and a former NGB lead for the network, leading and chairing a national group of Active Partnership managers involved in NGB work.
He is also a non-executive Board member and Chair of Governance with the Yorkshire Netball Association and Chairman of Oldham Community Leisure – an Industrial and Provident Society operating nine leisure facilities on behalf of Oldham Council.
Nigel brings a strong track record in the sector coupled with experience of strategy development and governance within a number of related organisations. He is also an accredited sports tutor and tennis coach.
Nigel is looking forward to joining the Active Partnership national board. “Through increased insight into changing customer needs and new national strategies we are entering into a new phase of how the sector supports people to take part in sport and Active Partnerships have an important and unique role in this. I want to do what I can to support Active Partnerships in their development by being a member of the Active Partnership national board.”
Start Date: 7 September 2016
Finish Date: March 2020
Sue began her career as a teacher of Italian and French. She then moved into education administration and took on responsibilities ranging from school place planning and school improvement to the development of special educational needs provision and early years’ places. Following this she took up a post in the Department for Education, working on a number of national initiatives, such as Asset Management Plans and school targets. She returned to local authority work as a Director of Education and then Director of Children and Young People’s Services. Sue now runs her own education consultancy business.
She is particularly passionate about all children and young people having opportunities to achieve the very best outcomes. The importance of the very early years of childhood and the development of our young people’s emotional intelligence and resilience are areas of specific interest. Sue is also a champion of the importance of physical activity and sport in young people’s physical and emotional development and she has just been appointed Chair of LEAP.
Start date: April 2018
Finish date: March 2021
Mike is Director of Public Health (DPH) for Leicestershire County Council and Rutland County Council being appointed to the post in February 2014. Mike has worked in public health since the early 90’s in a number of public health intelligence, r&d development, manager and consultant roles for both the NHS and academia.
Mike moved to the East Midlands in 2005. Before that he spent most of his career working across Greater Manchester and Merseyside. Mike is the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) Council representative for the East Midlands and represents the Faculty of Public Health on the Independent Advisory Panel for Data Release (IADPR) of Public Health England. Mike’s public health interest lies in the health improvement capability of asset-based community development approaches, moving public health from a focus on disease and illness to one that recognises the context in which people live their lives.
Mike is vice chair of Leicester-Shire and Rutland Sport (LRS). Whilst still keen on swimming, cycling and bouldering (injury permitting), Mike’s sporting career peaked early as a member of the 1983 Plymouth Schools Cricket league and knock-out cup double winning side. A dashing left handed number 3 batsman, with a crushing vulnerability to chasing the ball outside off stump, he remains available for an England call up.
Start Date: September 2019
Finish Date: August 2022
Ian is Founder and Chief Energy Officer at Energise.me.
Around 12 years ago, he went on a journey that transformed his life. He discovered that investing in himself both physically and mentally had a significant positive impact both personally and professionally. This took him from couch potato to a Team GB Ironman triathlete. It took the company he was CEO of from Good to Great.
He now describes himself as an Energy Coach, and energises other business leaders and their businesses. His mission is to energise 10 million people. He’s also a Dad of 3 fabulous girls and a husband and a foster parent.
He also holds Non-Executive Director positions with four other SME organisations.
He is a past President of Norfolk Chamber of Commerce, and originally trained as a Chartered Accountant.
Start date: September 2019
Finish date: August 2022
Adrian has been the CE of Lancashire SP (LSP) for over 10 years following an earlier career in local government where he held positions in community safety and youth offending. At LSP he has grown and established broad networks and partnership working with a wide range of stakeholders beyond the traditional sports and leisure organisations, including public health and third sector organisations (MIND, mental health trusts, Groundwork), housing associations and DCLG, the Home Office and the local Police Crime Commissioner, tourist bodies and other government bodies.
Adrian offers good experience of partnership and joint working at a regional level and a background in strategy development and implementation.
Adrian holds a number of non-executive roles, including Chair of the regional ASA, Chair of the NW CSP Group and Chair of Third Sector Lancashire.
Adrian is looking forward to joining the board, “I believe that Active Partnerships have the potential to make a more significant and wider contribution to health outcomes and the economy, I wanted through involvement with the Active Partnership national board to help shape the direction of travel and support the dialogue with national bodies to enable us to be seen as an invaluable strategic partner nationally and locally in achieving this goal”.
Start Date: 7 September 2016
Finish Date: March 2021
Marg is the Chief Executive of a social enterprise and leisure trust offering leisure and health services, including the largest ‘pay and play’ golfing operation in the UK with 16 sites across the Midlands and the South, and an award winning child weight management programme that extends nationally.
Marg joined Mytime Active from the international development charity, VSO, where she was Chief Executive, and combining this experience with an interim role at Volunteering England, she is committed to the importance and power of volunteering to build a stronger and healthier society.
Having qualified as an accountant early in her career, Marg brings financial and commercial skills from worked in a range of finance roles in the third sector, including as Finance Director of a large Housing Association and of the British Council.
Alongside her paid work, Marg has held a number of national and local non-executive positions with not-for-profit organisations, including Sporta (where she is currently the Treasurer), Akram Khan Dance Company and the Nationwide Foundation.
Margs motivation for joining the Active Partnership national board is “I really believe that we can get our communities healthier and happier by getting them more active – and that the Active Partnerships have big potential to make this a reality. It has to be local to make sense, and it has to be joined up nationally to make a difference. I am a personal admirer of the work that the Active Partnership has done for my nephew who has autism and complex needs. And I am excited by the Sport England strategy that emphasises the importance of broadening our reach. So I am really pleased to have the opportunity to join the Active Partnerships national board.”
Start Date: 7 September 2016
Finish Date: March 2020
Ali has enjoyed a career within leadership, organisational development, HR and Learning and Development for over 20 years. As a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD she is a passionate advocate of business improvement and developing high performing teams, with a genuine enthusiasm for any organisational approach which places people at the heart of its vision and strategy.
She has a strong background working in strategic people leadership roles, especially in commercial environments and has enjoyed developing her own successful management Consultancy business. She brings to the board extensive experience in effective strategic business planning, coaching and behaviour profiling as well as understanding governance arrangements and the development of effective Board ways of working. She thrives on helping organisations transform through developing its workforce and believes in the importance of understanding the style and strengths of the individual and teams.
Having worked within the sector for a relatively short time across a few years, Ali is hugely committed to helping Active Partnerships develop, learn and improve opportunities which drive the achievement of their goals. She has recently joined the Active Partnership Quest PMIF team and worked with West Midlands CSPs in helping design and align competency frameworks with their strategic plans.
On a personal note Ali firmly believes in the power of sport as a tool for changing lives. With a lifelong passion for any and all sports, Ali now enjoys, when limited time allows, her passion for rowing forged from University days. More and more she spends her time travelling the West Midlands helping her children play out their growing love of sport and being a side-line cheerleading Mum!
Ali says “my experiences within the sport and physical activity sector have inspired me; I’m excited to join the Board, and help reach and engage with the broader Active Partnership network, ensuring learning and skills improvement sits at the heart of their success in transforming lives through participation in sport and physical activity”.
Start Date: 20 Sept 2018
Finish Date: August 2020