Building diversity in sports boards

Lucy Simpson, Head of UK Board Practice, Perrett Laver
Shivani Smith, Senior Consultant, Global Non-Profit & Social Impact and Co-Chair, Equality Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Perrett Laver

Significant strides have been taken by sports bodies in recent years to improve their board composition and make them more reflective of society – but there remains much work to be done. In this session, Lucy and Shivani will outline the benefits to organisations of more diverse perspectives and will look at some of the challenges which the sector faces when addressing diversity. Our speakers will provide details of Perrett Laver’s work with Sport England to create and support a wider pool of board-ready candidates.

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Conference recordings

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Recording

About the speakers

Lucy Simpson

Lucy is Head of the UK Board practice at Perrett Laver. She leads on all non-executive board appointments across the Higher Education sector, Health sector, Sports sector, Global-Non-For-Profit sector and Arts and Culture sector at Perrett Laver. Lucy has advised on a number of Non-Executive and Chair appointments including for the following organisations: London Sport; Swim England; Foundation for FutureLondon; Oxfam GB; Unicef UK and the Universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh, Northumbria, Bedfordshire and Cardiff. She works alongside Imogen Sanders on the delivery of the UK Sport/Sport England initiative to diversify sports boards across the sector.

Lucy holds an MA (Hons) in Politics from the University of Exeter. She is a Governor and Member of the Finance Committee of Garratt Park (a Special Needs School in Earlsfield). She is passionate about advancing diversity on boards and a member of Perrett Laver's EDI team.

Shivani Smith

Shivani has worked in a range of non-profit specialist organisations and has worked with national and international charities on projects covering research, brand, fundraising, leadership development and CSR. She has experience of executive search for senior charity roles including Board and Executive positions for organisations across the UK including Unicef UK, Make-A-Wish, Christian Aid and Choose Love. Shivani also has extensive volunteering and governance experience and has served as a Trustee for StreetKids International, is former Chair of Khulisa, and is currently Co-Chair for The Advocacy Academy, a social justice charity. She has volunteered with the organising committee for #charitysowhite and has spoken on diversity related issues including inclusive recruitment, diversity on boards and the charity governance code.

Contact Shivani.