Andy Reed OBE – Chair

Andy is the chair of the Sport and Recreation Alliance. With a very strong background in the sector he served arguably the UK’s sportiest constituency – Loughborough – with distinction for 13 years.

As an MP he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Kate Hoey while she was Sports Minister and also introduced the 10 Minute Rule Bill for Community Amateur Sports Club legislation as well as chairing various sports committees in parliament – including the CCPRs own Sports Caucus.

Now director of his own company, he leads his local county sports partnership, is chair of the voice of sports volunteers (SSPV) and of the BBL Foundation, as well as a board member of Special Olympics GB and Sports Chaplaincy UK.

He also sits on the board of International Aid agency World Vision UK. Andy continues to turn out for his beloved Birstall Rugby Club where he has played for the last 25 years.

He was awarded the OBE in 2012 for services to sport and the community.

Howard Wells OBE – Senior Director

Howard has spent 39 years in sport and recreation management. He has been chief executive of six different organisations since the age of 37 and set up four from the outset.

Howard was the first chief executive of UK Sport and spent 15 years in Hong Kong up to 1996.

As a former senior coach of the FA, Howard also played and coached at Wycombe Wanderers FC. He has been a Member of the Saudi-British MoU Group on sports development since 1996.

He is currently a FIFA match commissioner. Most recently between 2005 and 2008 he was CEO of the Irish FA, when he was also a member of the International Football Association board.

Howard is also a visiting lecturer at Bucks New University.

Outside sport he is chair of the Universal Flood and Pest Control Co Ltd. Howard was also a school governor for 19 years, 13 at Shaton College, Hong Kong and six at his old school, Ashlyns School, Berkhamsted.

Howard was elected to the Sport and Recreation Alliance board in 2000 and was chair from 2001 to 2005. He was awarded an OBE in the 2013 New Year Honours List.

Mike Power OBE – Director of Finance

Mike is the former Chief Operating Officer (COO) in London's successful bid for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and subsequently COO for the first two years of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG).

He is also a non-executive director of British Swimming and also Brentford FC (Lionel Road).

Mike is also an occasional lecturer at the Said Business School at Oxford University and supervises Masters students at the LSE, his alma mater.

Mike's professional background is in finance and general management and is a qualified chartered management accountant.

Prior to his involvement in the sporting world, he rose to be a divisional president at the Procter & Gamble Company. As such, Mike brings a wealth of sport and commercial experience to this voluntary position.

John Bell

John has had a highly distinguished career in sport development and administration and is a consultant in sport and culture for Local Government.

He was director of leisure and community services for Knowsley Council on Merseyside from 1992-2006 and then head of culture for the London Borough of Newham until 2007.

He is the current chair of Merseyside Sports Partnership board and was a member of the North West Sports board for three years. He is the chair of Karate England.

Nick Bunting

Nick is the current chief executive of the Motor Sports Association.

Previously Nick was the head of public affairs & planning, funding and resources at the Rugby Football Union (RFU). Through his work at the RFU he generated external investment into grassroots sport in excess of £200m to fund facility and grassroots development – enabling thousands of young people to benefit.

Nick has a wealth of experience in business within the sports and not for profit sector where he has run, been responsible for, or been on the board/executive committee of more than 10 companies.

For many years, Nick has been a director, company secretary and chairman of the Finance Committee at sportscoachUK, the body charged with the development of the standards and the profession of sports coaching in the UK.

He was also a trustee and director of sports charity the Rugby Football Foundation (RFF) and a member of the East Midlands Regional Sports Board where he has the portfolio responsibility for the sports system in the East Midlands. He was also the chair the Regional Sports Partnership.

Delivering on his personal commitment to the delivery of sport in the East Midlands, Nick also chaired the Northamptonshire County Sports Partnership (CSP) – NSport – which brings together the sports development teams of the nine local authorities, the various national governing bodies and clubs associations in Northamptonshire along with other interested bodies such as the primary care trusts and the two development corporations in the county.

Di Ellis CBE

Di Ellis has been chairman of British Rowing since 1989. In addition she is the rowing representative on the National Olympic Committee, a member of the British Rowing Executive Committee, is a member of the BOA board, represents the BOA on the Confederation of British Sport and is chairman of their Staffing and Remuneration Panel.

Di rowed for Great Britain and coxed for England, was previously GB Team Manager, was an active umpire and the first female steward of Henley Royal Regatta.

Di has been a director and honorary member of the Sport and Recreation Alliance since 2000 and is its representative on the board of Sports Resolutions.

She is also a member of the staffing and remuneration committee of the Alliance, chairing the committee since 2001. Di has been deputy chairman of the organisation since 19 July 2005 and has been re-elected.

Pauline Harrison

Pauline is an independent consultant who combines a powerful mix of passion and experience to help manage and facilitate change to people, systems and structures.

Having first trained as a physical education teacher Pauline then moved into coaching and worked for national governing bodies of sport for 20 years, with roles including director of coaching and performance director, culminating in the position of chief executive at England Netball.

Pauline's consultancy work has included executive coaching, strategy development, leadership development, workforce training, conference planning and she has led reviews of governance and modernisation in various sports organisations.

In addition to her consultancy, Pauline has held number of non-executive positions with different sporting organisations and has been on the board of directors of the Sport and Recreation Alliance since 2003 and is formerly a trustee of Sports Leaders UK.

Peter King CBE

Peter was chief executive of British Cycling from February 1997 until December 2008 and now has an on-going role as an executive director.

Peter is qualified as a fellow in both the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. He is also a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and a global management accountant.

He became chair of England Athletics in 2012 and recently commenced a temporary assignment as interim CEO of British Fencing. Peter joined the Board of Sport Wales in 2012 and in recent years he has undertaken high level assignments for the sports of Boxing, Modern Pentathlon and Shooting. Peter is a Trustee of the Herne Hill Velodrome Trust and of the London Marathon Charitable Trust.

Peter was made a CBE in 2008 in recognition of his services to cycling having previously been awarded one of the sport’s highest accolades, the Bidlake Trophy, in 2007. He was inducted into cycling’s Hall of Fame in 2010.
 

John Boyd

John Boyd has been the joint chief executive officer of BaseballSoftball UK, where he was previously the operations and communications manager, since 2004.

Through this role John has extensive sports development, administration and strategic experience including the implementation of three four-year strategic plans as funded by Sport England.

John represented the Great Britain Baseball team for a number of years and was also previously a member of the National Olympic Committee (2001–2008) and part of the British Olympic Association’s Athlete Commission (2001–2006).

John also has extensive experience of running a grassroots sports club having established and, for 16 years, run a youth baseball club, increasing its size from one team to over 250 members. In his spare time, John is also a tennis and running enthusiast.

Jane Bateman

Jane Bateman joins the Alliance’s board having worked extensively in sport for 23 years. Jane is currently the head of international relations at The FA, where she has worked in various roles since 1998.

During her time with The FA, Jane has gained extensive experience working with governments, charities and NGO’s as well as working in management roles for both the 2006 and 2018 World Cup Bids.

Before joining The FA, Jane held positions organising corporate golf events for blue chip clients, and was the events manager for Bobby Charlton International, where she supported Sir Bobby in his role as ambassador to the Japan 2002 World Cup bid.

Richard Yule

Richard was elected to the Sport and Recreation Alliance board of directors in July 2005 for a two-year term and again in 2007.

He graduated with a BEd Hons in Physical Education from Strathclyde University and gained a Diploma in French Language from La Sorbonne, Paris. He has taught and lectured in PE and worked in sports development roles in the City of Glasgow and the Scottish Sports Council.

Eight-times Scottish table tennis champion, he has travelled the world representing Scotland at world, European and Commonwealth championships (a record 285 times).

A former national coach in Scotland and Ireland he has been chief executive of the English Table Tennis Association since 1995.