Board and Executive Leadership Team

His report, Made to Move, published in December 2017, set out a 15-step plan to transform how people get around in the city region. The plan has evolved into a £1.5 billion plan to create a world-class cycling and walking network with the first 100 miles of high-quality routes now being created.

In May 2021, Chris was appointed in an expanded role as Greater Manchester’s first ever Transport Commissioner, tasked with accelerating the delivery of the Bee Network – a fully integrated, city region-wide transport system.

He is one of the UK’s most prominent cycling and walking advocates and has been policy adviser to British Cycling since 2012.  

Chris launched his own range of bikes, BOARDMAN Bikes, in 2007 and is company chairman. He also worked as head of research and development for the Great Britain Cycling Team from 2004 to 2012, including at the 2008 Beijing Games where the Olympic team won eight gold medals. 

He was appointed Chair of Sport England in July 2021.

A digital thought-leader and globally-recognised community builder, Mel leads an ambitious team with a vision to empower all women to enjoy the life-changing benefits of being active, as well as tackling stubborn exercise inequalities through an innovative community playbook and pressure-free ethos based on movement, not performance.

A graduate in sport and exercise sciences, much of Mel’s career has involved creating experiences that positively impact how people engage with sport and physical activity – starting out on a fast track programme for a global health and fitness group before moving into sports marketing, designing in-stadia experiences for international track and field events, before founding This Mum Runs in 2014.

Mel is a Fellow of the Facebook Community Leadership Programme, recognised as one of the 16 most impactful community leaders in the world, listed in the Sunday Times’ 100 British Disrupter Brands and a recipient of the Women’s Sport Trust 'Grassroots Gamechanger' award.

Prior to that, she held director roles in advice firms, providers and insurance companies. She is a qualified actuary. Michelle holds non-executive positions at Fidelity International Holdings, Just Group Plc, Lloyds Banking Group Pension Trustees Ltd and PensionBee Group Plc.

She is passionate about helping people make more of their money and sees lots of parallels between motivating people to budget and take part in physical activity.

As an urbanist, she has worked in the UK, the USA, Africa and Asia delivering a variety of major programmes, and has won multiple awards for this work.

Currently a senior public servant in regional government, Natalie is proud to lead a team committed to improving the lives of Londoners through housing delivery, specialist and supported housing services, and housing policy.

An experienced board member, she has had the privilege of serving charities working across housing, homelessness and international development.

The leadership, energy and collaborative spirit Natalie brings to all her work she believes was built through her sporting escapades.

She had the pleasure of playing – and coaching – football, rugby league and rugby union to respectable levels.

As well as having the scars to show for her sporting experience, it has also given her a deep understanding of the immense benefits of exercise to individuals and communities.

Natalie joined the board in August 2023 for a three-year term.

Currently director of Active Essex, one of the largest Active Partnerships in England, Jason also heads up the delivery of the Essex Local Delivery Pilot, one of 12 LDPs that form part of a ground-breaking £100m programme funded by us to increase population levels of physical inactivity in deprived areas.

Jason is a high-level strategic thinker and operator, and is competent at building trusted relationships with a wide range of agencies. He has a strong track record in Essex of adopting a whole system and place-based approach to drive up physical activity levels at scale.

He consistently demonstrates exemplary behaviour and ethics, and ensures Active Essex operates to the highest standards of governance.

Jason also co-founded the successful charity ‘Active Essex Foundation’, is a serving trustee and has represented Great Britain at national and international level as a sprinter.

He has over 20 years’ experience in strategy, creative development, commercial, public relations and behaviour change.

He is the founder of Planet League, a platform that mobilises sports fans to live greener and has partnered with Premier League, NFL, NBA, and NHL teams.

Tom is also one of the founders of the annual Green Football Weekend campaign and has worked with many professional athletes to drive leadership in sustainability and sport.

Earlier in his career he founded Boost, a digital platform to get young people more physically active and has worked in the digital innovation sector.

Tom has taught management and entrepreneurship at UCL, he is trustee of Nottingham Forest Community Trust and entered the BIMA Class of 2025, which recognises individuals who are shaping the future of Britain’s digital industry.

Tom was appointed in September 2025 for a three-year term.

Vaughan was the CEO at Climate Impact Partners and is an advisor to a number of businesses and private equity companies interested in the carbon markets.

He has over 20 years’ experience in the charity sector and is currently chair of New Philanthropy Capital and the Oversight Trust (dormant assets for public good).

He is also a keen triathlete and is representing GB (age group) in the world championships.

Vaughan was appointed in September 2025 for a three-year term.

Prior to this, he oversaw the strategy, insights, HR, integrity and public policy teams as ECB’s Chief Strategy Officer.

Before joining ECB, David held a number of senior roles at Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, including director of policy and chief advisor to its CEO.  He was also seconded into Government in 2009 as a director of the Digital Britain Report, which examined the transformational nature of digital technologies and the policy responses needed as a result.

A qualified lawyer who specialised in competition and media law before joining Ofcom, David is a keen sports fan who enjoys cricket and golf as well as following West Ham United.

He joined the Sport England Board on 28 October, 2019.

She is currently the managing director of the Women’s Rugby World Cup England 2025, a landmark event for women’s sport.

Prior to this, Sarah was the CEO of the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon, USA, and her career spans various roles across Olympic and Commonwealth Games, as well as cricket and hockey World Cups.

She has worked with multiple international and national sports governing bodies across a range of sports globally.

She firmly believes in the positive impact that sports can have on individuals and communities and actively supports work to reduce the dropout rates of teenage girls, helping them benefit both physically and mentally through staying engaged.

Passionate about all sports, she is an England representative in the Masters age group for 10km and as a qualified athletics coach who regularly volunteers at her local club.

Sarah was appointed in September 2025 for a three-year term.

Her main policy interests are sport, education and culture. She works for HENI, an art technology company, and sits on the Sport Honours Committee and the Board of the Football Foundation. 

An evangelist for the value of grassroots sport, Elena has been involved in setting up, running and volunteering at several clubs across different sports. She is a qualified boxing coach and weightlifting technical official. 

She has boxed for England and is a football Blue, an enthusiastic cricketer and a West Ham fan. 

She is in her second term as chair the Athletes’ Commission for the British Paralympic Association and is an active member of the international Paralympic movement.

Having worked in public health for more than 14 years at local, regional and national level she is very interested in the role physical activity can play in the prevention health agenda and how the sport and health sectors can work closely together.

Helene grew up in a vocational schooling, through both Elmhurst and Royal Ballet School, and sees physical activity in its widest sense.

She has worked on many local initiatives to increase physical activity in general, and in targeted populations.

She has been involved in national and international policy/guidance writing on both sport and health agendas, including as both a public health and expert member of NICE committees and as a member of the International Advisory Board of the World Academy of Sport.

Helene has a portfolio career and is an experienced non-executive director, having worked with organisations covering international and domestic sport.

She firmly believes in the huge benefit of sport and physical activity at a grassroots level to the wider health outcomes of both individuals and communities.

As chief executive of HM Land Registry, he successfully led the organisation through the unprecedented challenge of Covid-19, before rebuilding capacity and capability after many years of under-investment. 

He has accelerated HM Land Registry’s transformation into a much more modern, digital and customer-focused organisation, built around its groundbreaking Strategy 2022+, which is helping to drive the development of a world-leading property market in England and Wales. 

Simon joined the Home Office in 1997 and held several positions across police, criminal justice and immigration policy, before becoming chief of staff for the UK Border Agency (UKBA) in 2005.

In 2008, Simon became UKBA’s first regional director for the Americas, based in Washington DC.

Simon returned to the UK in 2012 and became UK Visas and Immigration’s international director and later director of visas and citizenship. His responsibilities included oversight of all visitor, tourist, work, study and citizenship routes, as well as the immigration sponsorship system.

He also set up the EU Settlement Scheme for European citizens residing in the UK, which was successfully launched in 2019.

Simon is a passionate sports fan and an ardent supporter of Nottingham Forest. He still plays five-a-side football every week and has also taken up padel, as well as making sure his three school-age children have similar opportunities to play sport and keep active.

She joined Sport England in 2022 from the Trussell Trust, where she was Director of Participation. Jeanette's also held a variety of senior roles for the Greater London Authority, including Head of Community Engagement and Assistant Director for Communities and Social Policy.

She's also a former Director of the African Diaspora Dance Association (ADDA) and strategic consultant for clients including Arts Council England, Creative Lives and BBC Arts. 

She joined Sport England in 2022 from the University of Warwick, where she was Director of Sport & Active Communities and has a strong career history working in communities and sport.

Previous roles include Director of Sport and Culture at Wakefield Council and Coventry City Council, where she headed up their sports team.

She chairs the British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) Physical Activity & Health Board and represents the Higher and Further Education sectors on ukactive’s Membership Council.

She has a rich knowledge or risk and contract management, strong commercial acumen and  positive track record of driving and implementing innovation.

Her previous positions include finance director to London North Eastern Railway, a non-executive director at Kettering General Hospital and five years in BT Plc supporting governance, risk and operational change.

She brings to Sport England a track record of financial and operational transformation, experience of working in a range of government arms-length bodies, a commercial portfolio built across large complex blue chip entities and a passionate commitment to using corporate resources well to deliver real improvements to communities.

At DCMS, he held a number of roles, including Head of Arts, Principal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State, Head of Sport and, most recently, leading the government's work to support Birmingham's successful bid to host the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Nick was also a board member of Yorkshire 2019 Ltd, the organising committee for the 2019 UCI Road World Championships, having also been involved in the bid.

He has represented Sport England as a Board Director of both the Football Foundation and UK Coaching.

Phil’s team manages long term investments of several hundred millions in various sporting bodies, and giving the subsequent advice to achieve results. The ultimate aims are to grow the number of people regularly engaged in sport, while maximising international and domestic sporting success and helping the sport sector to become more productive, sustainable and responsible.

Within these aims, Phil leads the organisation’s work in talent development and performance, club and workforce development, volunteering and coaching, equality and diversity and improved governance. 

Phil joined Sport England in 2008 from The Football Association, where his professional career started after Euro ‘96 as the General Secretary of the County FA in Manchester.

His football career took him through various roles in the game before becoming The FA’s Head of Policy and Public Affairs, responsible for football industry policy in relation to Government in both the UK and international bodies.

He began his career as a regional newspaper journalist with Southern Newspapers and, prior to his role at the Association of British Insurers, he’s been director of communications and then chief operating officer of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, deputy director of communications at the Department for Work and Pensions and head of strategic communications at the BBC. 

Ben is responsible for our digital output, media and external relations, as well as our campaigns, partnerships and digital innovation work.