Sport England

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Who are our board members?

Rauf Mirza

Our chair - June 2006 to December 2008
Rauf Mirza's appointment as chair of the West Midlands Regional Sports Board was confirmed in an announcement made by the DCMS in June 2006.
His background is as a pharmaceutical consultant and he is also an active member of a number of key bodies in his home county of Staffordshire. Badminton and cricket are his chosen sports and he has competed at good standards in both.

Board members - in post when the Board ceased to operate on 31 December 2008

David Green (appointed January 2005) - David is the Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive of University College Worcester, and he is an economist and banking and international finance expert. David provides a link to the universities in our region; he is a member of the Investment Sub Group and also liaises with the Sports Partnership Herefordshire and Worcestershire (CSP). The regional plan outcomes of interest to David are: benefiting the economy and improving education.

John James (appointed September 2006) - John resigned as Chairman of South Birmingham College in April 2007 and is now concentrating on his public sector and voluntary sector workloads, which includes a position on the board of the Solihull Care Trust and Chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital's Get-a-Head charity. He has had a long career in the business sector, both private and public. John’s expertise is to be used in the area of economic development and the role sport can play to achieve this. He will also provide us with a link to the further education sector. The regional plan outcomes of interest to John are: benefiting the economy and improving education.

Julie Robson (appointed June 2007) - Julie is the Regional Skills Director, Birmingham and Solihull Learning & Skills Council. She will support the RSB and regional Sport England team in the area of workforce development. The regional plan outcome of direct interest is yet to be confirmed with Julie.

Michelle Stott (appointed June 2007) - Michelle is the Head of nxo sport & leisure, a company that provides marketing support across a variety of organisations, many of which are sports related. She will assist with valuable knowledge to both the Board and regional team around marketing and promoting methods as we work to raise the profile of sport in the West Midlands. The regional plan outcome of direct interest is yet to be confirmed with Michelle.

Mike Wright (appointed June 2007) - Mike is the Retail Strategy and Customer Service Director of Jaguar and Land Rover. He will bring to the Board his considerable commercial experience, especially in the field of commercial sponsorship. The regional plan outcome of direct interest is yet to be confirmed with Mike.

Philip Calcutt (appointed January 2005) - Philip runs his own marketing and project management company and brings to the board his many years of experience in this area of work. He is currently Chair of the Investment Sub Group. The other key areas where Philip supports the board and regional office are: major events and tourism, marketing and public relations and liaison with regional agencies. The area of the regional plan where he has a key interest is benefiting the economy.

Rachel Pavlou (appointed December 2003 and the term extended for a further 3 years in 2006) - Rachel was recently been appointed to the position of National Development Manager (women and girls) within the Football Association (FA), having formerly held a regional post within the FA. She has a wide knowledge of regional sports development and offers her expertise to link with our work with regional national governing body representatives. Her main interests in the outcomes in regional plan are improving performance and increasing participation.

Rauf Mirza, Chair (appointed May 2006) – Rauf heads up his own pharmaceutical consultancy and has a background in senior pharmaceutical management. He has a strong background of work within the BME community within Staffordshire, both at business, local strategic and community sport levels. He is a keen sportsman reaching high standards in both badminton and cricket. Rauf provides the executive direction for the board with its key outcome of increasing the number of people taking part in sport and physical recreation in the region. He is our key spokesperson and the regional representative on the main Sport England Board. He meets regularly with fellow RSB chairs and Derek Mapp, Chair of Sport England.

Ron Odunaiya (appointed September 2006) - Ron currently holds the position of Corporate Director for Community Services with the Borough of Telford and Wrekin. Previously he has held a number of senior posts within local authorities, both in the West Midlands and other parts of the country, and has competed and coached at national and international level within sport. The area of interest Ron will focus on is community safety and the role sport can play. The outcome in the regional plan of key interest to him is therefore safer and stronger communities.

Trudi Elliott, Deputy Chair (appointed December 2003 and the term extended for a further 3 years in 2006) - Trudi was appointed to the post of Regional Director of Government Office for the West Midlands, moving from her position as Chief Executive of the West Midlands Regional Assembly, in April 2006. Trudi has a vast knowledge of regional agency work and supports the board and regional office in the areas of: London 2012, regional agencies liaison and the Investment Sub Group. Trudi, as Deputy Chair, has an interest across all outcomes in the regional plan for sport.

RSB Adviser
In addition to the above board members Rob Sykes, Chief Executive of Worcestershire County Council, has joined the team in capacity of an adviser. Rob will provide the board with a strong link with local government and report on the current issues facing authorities in the region.

Resignations
2008
Rashmi Shukla (appointed December 2004) - Rashmi left the RSB at the beginning of April, after being our key adviser on health matters in relation to sport for over 3 years. Dr Shukla will still be a key contact of ours in her role as Director of Public Health for the West Midlands. We thank her for the contribution she made to the work of the regional team and the Board over her period of office.

David Collyer (appointed January 2005) - David left the RSB at the end of January, after giving 3 years valuable service; informing the regional team on matters relating to the voluntary sector and regeneration. We wish David well in his continued work for these sectors and thank him for his contribution to the regional work of Sport England.

2007
Rick Bailey (appointed December 2003) - Rick left the RSB in December, after giving 4 years of tremendous support to the work of both the regional office and the Board. His knowledge and enthusiasm will be missed. We wish him well for the future and know that he will still be a strong voice to support sport in the West Midlands.

Karen Bradford (appointed April 2005) - Karen also left the RSB in December, as she has moved from the region to take up a new post in the east of England. Her experience in local authority sports provision will be missed on the Board. We wish her well for the future and again know that she will be working for sport in the community.

More information from our board
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