Meet the speakers

Colin is a Sport Developer in the Sport Culture & Integrity team at Sport Northern Ireland.

He is responsible for managing the delivery of the Sports Governance Academy initiative from a Northern Ireland perspective, by working in partnership with The Chartered Governance Institute and the Home Nations Sports Councils.

Jeanette Bain-Burnett is Executive Director for Policy and Integrity at Sport England, where she leads a team focused on thought leadership on key policy issues in sport and physical activity, as well as ensuring integrity and inclusiveness are central to the experiences of people participation in sport and movement across the nation.

Jack is Head of Public Policy and Business Lead for Sustainability at the LTA, the national governing body for tennis in Britain, and has worked at the organisation for nearly four years. As well as leading on all policy and public affairs work for the LTA, he helped develop, and now supports delivery of, the organisation’s first ever Environmental Sustainability plan, which was published earlier this year.

As Programme Manager for the Sports Governance Academy, Craig is responsible for delivering its services, knowledge base and research output and for liaising with Sport England, the Programme Board, Advisory Group and all the SGA's stakeholders.

Claire Beney works for Active Devon as a Director of Strategic Relationships, a co-produced role with Sport England integrating local systems work with national strategy. As the strategic lead for the areas of Torbay and Plymouth she works closely with colleagues in Active Devon and external partners to make changes to systems to support more people to get active locally.

Rosie has been Head of Clubs at Sport England since 2017 and leads the Club Matters programme which provides support, guidance and learning for volunteers who organise community sport and the professional workforce who work with them. 

Lorna is a partnership manager at sportscotland and supports the area of sports governance. She is responsible for co-ordinating the working group that is reviewing the Scottish Governing Body (SGB) governance Framework, she managers the Scottish SGB development audit program and works with several SGBs acting as the main point of contact, coordinating all support and investment from sportscotland to those bodies.

Arran Coggan is the Director of Participation for Archery GB. He is responsible for leading the strategic development of organisational ambitions aimed at membership, workforce and progression of archers.

Head of Integrity at UK Sport, with a wide remit for wellbeing and conduct in the High-Performance System. Also advised: the FA on grievance and conduct issues for players coaches and officials; Ulster Rugby on organisational values and culture; the ECB on increasing diversity of match officials; and Sport Ireland on its Culture Enhancement Programme.

Neil is the Governance, Ethics, and Integrity Lead at Sport Wales. He leads the development of effective governance and leadership in sport partners for Sport Wales and works with partners to ensure that public funding is maximised to impact on the Vision for Sport in Wales. Neil is also responsible for anti-doping within the organisation and ethics, and integrity.

Emma is Senior Governance Advisor at UK Sport. During her time at UK Sport, Emma has been an instrumental member in drafting the Code for Sports Governance (2015/16) and then led on its Tier 3 (highest level) review in 2021. The Code sets out the levels of transparency, diversity and inclusion, accountability and integrity that are required from those organisations who are in receipt of UK Government and National Lottery funding from UK Sport.

Katie is a partner in the Safeguarding Unit at London law firm Farrer & Co. Her expertise spans safeguarding, education and employment law. She draws upon a decade of litigation experience in private practice as a barrister and advises sports organisations, schools and education business on all issues involving children, parents and staff.

A passionate equality expert, Lindsay has worked in the sport sector for almost 20 years. Currently Head of Equality in the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) team at Sport England she plays a role in delivering Sport England’s 10-year strategy, Uniting the Movement; contributing to the delivery of a step change in our understanding of the audiences that matter to us, the issues that impact on them and how they should be addressed so that this leads to greater diversity, inclusion and positive engagement in sport and activity.

In sport, Mike’s world leading research at Loughborough University has involved senior leaders across world sport, including those leading performance at London 2012, Rio 2016 & Tokyo 2020 for Team GB, Para GB, leaders at The FA, RFU, ECB and others in the USA, Canada, Australia & NZ sport systems. Examining what is needed from leaders to sustain high performance in today’s fast moving sport environment, has enabled Mike to identify approaches to leadership, focused on purpose, developing thriving cultures and growing the capacity of individuals and teams to sustainably lead high performance.

Joy is Head of Governance (Support) at Sport England and is responsible for managing the delivery of the Sports Governance Academy initiative by working in partnership with The Chartered Governance Institute.

Trixie is the Senior Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Adviser at UK Sport where she provides technical leadership on EDI matters in sport, advising internally and across the UK high-performance sports system.

As Director of Children and Young People, Jayne has a wide remit of work which includes responsibly for leading Sport England’s work on safeguarding and welfare.

Spencer is Director of Strategy at CIMSPA (Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport & Physical Activity) where he leads on Education standards and Regulation, Partnerships (Education/Employers/System Partners), and Workforce Governance.

Rob Morini is Head of Sporting System at UK Sport, where he leads the agenda for growing a thriving sporting system. This includes driving and supporting Governance, Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI), wider Organisational Health in National Governing Bodies and system development.

Kristen is currently Head of Volunteering at Sport England and has held that role for five years. She has led their national Volunteering Fund and worked on developing insight and projects to explore new approaches to increasing diversity and innovation in sport and physical activity volunteering.

Chris leads the implementation of The Football Association’s Code of Governance for County FAs. He has extensive senior leadership experience as a former Chief Executive, Director and Company Secretary. With this combination of experience, he was the natural lead for regional governance reform at The FA.

Russell Seymour is a pioneer in Sustainability and Sport in the UK. With an academic background (with degrees in Ecology, Environmental Sciences and Biodiversity Management) Russell started work in the sports sector through a convoluted career path. He soon realised that the sport sector had significant environmental impacts, was being impacted by environmental changes and, importantly, had an opportunity to raise awareness as a trusted, non-partisan ambassador by using the powerful influence of sport on participants and fans.

Savita is a Case Manager at Sport Resolutions. She has extensive experience working in safeguarding, child protection and case management in sport having previously worked in two English national governing bodies (specifically tennis and most recently football) and a Premier League football club.

Lynsey is Strategic Lead, Governance at Sport England.

Soon after joining the organisation seven years ago Lynsey was tasked with developing and implementing the Code for Sports Governance with governance colleagues at UK Sport. The Code set world leading standards for governance in sport and has effected significant change within the sport and physical activity sector in England and the UK.

Georgina was appointed as CEO of British Fencing in 2014 following a successful fencing career during which she won several Commonwealth medals for Scotland including individual gold in 2014 and competed for Great Britain at numerous World and European Championships.