Why Sports Conference 2017

Barry Horne

Chief Executive, Activity Alliance

Barry Horne has been Chief Executive of the English Federation of Disability Sport in May 2010. EFDS is the National charity promoting and enabling more disabled people to become active in sport across England and has a simple vision: "Disabled People are active for life". Barry’s former role was as a Corporate Director in a large City Council but he has worked in a range of roles including as Chief Executive of the East Midlands Regional Assembly and Regional Local Government Association. His first seven years were in the community and voluntary sector and he is delighted to be heading up a National charity with such a vital role to play. Barry is a passionate advocate for the powerful role which sport and physical activity can play in improving disabled people’s lives and changing attitudes in society. Barry is a keen and regular tennis player and cyclist.

Afternoon Plenary Session 1

Engaging Less Active People

14:00 - 14:15

Peter Fitzboydon
CEO
London Sport

Peter Fitzboydon, Chief Executive, London Sport Peter Fitzboydon is the Chief Executive of London Sport, the organisation set up by the Mayor of London and Sport England to make London the most physically active city in the world. As a part of this mission, London Sport has set the ambitious target of getting 1,000,000 people more physically active by 2020. Prior to becoming London Sport’s first permanent Chief Executive in 2014, Peter spent ten years at the Football Foundation – the UK’s largest sports charity – working up to the position of Chief Operating Officer. He has specific expertise in several areas, including data and digital technology as well as impact and performance measurement, and was also the creator of Upshot – one of the leading impact monitoring software products for the Third Sector.

Dr Justin Varney
National Lead for Adult Health and Wellbeing
Public Health England

Dr Justin Varney is the National Lead for Adult Health and Wellbeing at Public Health England. His portfolio of work includes physical activity, work, worklessness and health, prevention of domestic violence and lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans health inequalities. He has previously led work in the organisation on older people, end of life and internal staff wellbeing. Prior to specialising in public health medicine, Justin trained in general practice and has a broad range of experience across both primary and secondary care. He spent the six years prior to PHE working in primarily in East London working across local government and the National Health Service on issues such as childhood obesity, immunisation and public/private partnerships for health improvement. Dr Varney has a special interest in the public health of minority and marginalised communities with an emphasis on lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans communities and the homeless. He is a board member of the Corporate Alliance Against Domestic Violence and a member of the Board of the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine.

Cllr Ian Stephens
Chairman - LGA Culture, Tourism & Sport Board
Local Government Association

David Kreyling
Managing Director
Creative Sport and Leisure

David Kreyling, Managing Director of Creative Sport & Leisure, which specialises in Apprenticeships, Traineeships and work-based learning within the Active Leisure, Learning and Well-being Sector. David has over 14 years’ experience in commercial development, training, further education and change management. He is also a Chief Officer and Committee Member of the Essex Provider Network and a Trustee/Director of Castle View Academy Trust. He has a passion to bridge the gap between FE Colleges and Independent Training Providers as he has worked on both sides. He understands the challenges and risks of both types of organisations, especially in the current climate. David strongly believes that an employer-led skills training approach will enable people to compete for skilled jobs in the future.

Jeni Tennison
Chief Executive
Open Data Institute

Jeni Tennison is the CEO of the Open Data Institute. She gained her PhD from the University of Nottingham then worked as an independent consultant, specialising in open data publishing and consumption, before joining the ODI in 2012. Jeni was awarded an OBE for services to technology and open data in the 2014 New Years Honours. Before joining the ODI, Jeni was the technical architect and lead developer for legislation.gov.uk. She worked on the early linked data work on data.gov.uk, including helping to engineer new standards for publishing statistics as linked data. She continues her work within the UK's public sector as a member of the Open Standards Board. Jeni also works on international web standards. She was appointed to serve on the W3C's Technical Architecture Group from 2011 to 2015 and in 2014 she started to co-chair the W£C's CSV on the Web Working Group. She alsi sits on the Advisort Boards for Open Contracting Partnership and the Data Transparency Lab.

Mike Diaper
Exec Director Children, Young People and Tackling Inactivity
Sport England

Mike joined Sport England in November 2006 and heads the Community Sport Directorate. His directorate is focused on: Getting more children active by investing in school sport through the Primary School Sport Premium. Encouraging and keeping people exercising by investing in local sport. Supporting underprivileged young people to get active through programmes like Get on Track, delivered by the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust and Greenhouse's sports programme Working with colleges and universities to create more opportunities for 16 - 25-year-olds to play sport. Leading our youth programmes, including satellite clubs and Sportivate. Tackling inactivity by getting people into sport and exercise. Making sure investment in sport continues by working to influence local authorities and partners' policies. Mike joined Sport England from central government where he worked across the Departments for Education and Skills and for Culture, Media and Sport, leading the PE, School Sport and Club Links strategy. During this time he also helped forge international school links between schools in Manchester and Omsk in Siberia where he still volunteers. He was awarded an OBE in the 2007 Queen's Birthday Honours for service to school sport.

Georgie Delaney
Managing Director
The Great Outdoor Gym Company

Georgie Delaney is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of The Great Outdoor Gym Company, (TGO) the UK pioneer of outdoor gyms. Georgie is responsible for advancing TGO's mission, which is to drive up physical activity, increase wellbeing and promote climate action - to solve health, wellbeing and sustainability challenges of communities worldwide. As the market leader, TGO has over 800 free to use outdoor gym installations, from London's Olympic Park to Sydney's Randwick coastal walk. Georgie is a social entrepreneur placing a higher value on social impact than company profit and she is a firm believer that ethical business can change the World. Her background is in design. In 2004, she qualified with a 1st Class Honours Degree in Industrial Design with Italian from University College London and Milan Politecnico, where her specialisms included city communications, product design, web design and park design. As an entrepreneur, Georgie applied these skills to designing the greenest, safest and strongest outdoor gyms in the World, which are made in Britain to rigorous safety and quality specifications. Before founding TGO in 2007, Georgie worked in Sport England's communications team, where she was involved in the national fitness campaign Everyday Sport and she supported projects including the Olympic legacy bid and online communication tools. Over the past 10 years, Georgie and the TGO Board have delivered many outdoor fitness innovations, including; Hundreds of partnerships with councils, schools, universities, health partners, employers and housing associations The intervention and roll out of TGO Green Gym technology, where users generate electricity as they work out Designing and installing for the United Nations at COP22 in Marrakech, the global climate change conference The design and national roll-out of adiZone outdoor fitness spaces, part of Adidas's sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympics Moving TGO product design and manufacturing from the Far East to the UK, to offer the greenest, safest and strongest outdoor gyms The development and implementation of outdoor gym safety standards

Barry Horne
Chief Executive
Activity Alliance

David Garrido
Presenter
Sky Sports

David is a sports broadcaster with more than 15 years' experience in the media industry. He studied Modern Languages at Oxford University where he soon got involved in student radio station Oxygen FM. David's first "break" was winning the BBC Talent competition, earning him a contract with BBC Sport. He spent most of his time there working for BBC Radio 1, covering major sporting events across the world such as World Cups and Champions League finals, tennis Grand Slams, Ashes series and Formula 1 Grand Prix, and David was also a reporter on the BBC's flagship football TV programmes, e.g. Match of the Day, Football Focus and Final Score. David moved to Sky in 2011, and soon became established in the presenting line-up of Sky Sports News HQ, including their coverage of Transfer Deadline Day. He has since become presenter of Spanish football on Sky Sports and also filmed his first documentary, "Gibraltar: No Rock Unturned", charting the fortunes of the overseas territory's football team as they joined the ranks of UEFA and played in European qualifiers. As a freelance event host, David has chaired many conferences for both London Sport and other clients. He is a Sheffield Wednesday fan."

Josef Baines
Sport and Inclusion Expert
London Sport

A sport and inclusion expert for London Sport, Josef's role is to influence and implement change from policy to delivery at strategic, development and political level. Josef has extensive experience and expertise in designing, implementing and managing high-quality bespoke products, projects and services for a range of high profile partners. Josef works across most areas, advising senior managers and leaders on key areas such as marketing and communications, project delivery, strategic and workforce development, community sports engagement and event management. Josef is a competitive men's eight rower and single sculls in his spare time after hanging up his rugby boots four years ago. He also does cross-country skiing and has been downhill skiing since he was two and a half years old.

Barry Kelly
Specialist Advisor - Physical Activity for Health
London Sport

With over 15 years' experience in the health sector, Barry Kelly is a specialist advisor on physical activity for health at London Sport. Barry has expertise in a range of areas including, planning and the built environment, air quality, transport, health commissioning, physical activity and lifestyle issues and health inequalities.

Lee Mason
Chief Executive
Active Partnerships

Lee Mason is the Chief Executive of the Active Partnership Network, the charitable body he helped establish to represent and support the nationwide network of County Sports Partnerships. The network aims to transform lives by growing grassroots sport and championing lifestyles. The role builds on Lee's time as Director of the County Sports Partnership in Buckinghamshire, which he helped create in 2000 and ran for over a decade. Lee has enjoyed a career in sports administration and development, with previous roles in Local Authorities and Governing Bodies. He has also held non-executive Board roles with English Federation of Disability Sport and currently with the Sport and Recreation Alliance and London Marathon Charitable Trust. Lee’s passion is using the power of sport to improve the lives of people and communities, whilst encouraging a social enterprise model to drive more sustainable and business-like approaches in sport. Lee is an MCC member and level 3 cricket coach and enjoys cycling, golf and a range of other sports alongside busy family life.

Carl Benfield BEng (Hons) MSc CEng IMechE
Managing Director
Prescient Power Ltd

Carl spent 16 years in the army as an officer with Royal Engineers, giving him a wealth of leadership, operational and construction experience. After leaving the forces in 2007 he was Commercial Director for another renewable energy company, managing a large scale scientific study of solar PV with Ikea and Loughborough University, before establishing Prescient Power in 2009. He is married with four children ...

Liz Townsend
Head of UK Proposals
Hags SMP

Liz Townsend has 20 years' experience in designing outdoor recreation spaces, planning and ddelivering public consultation and user-led research. Liz is the Head of Proposals for HAGS, the UK's market leading designer, manufacturer and installer of outdoor play, sports and fitness equipment, park and urban furniture. At her finger-tips Liz has the best of both worlds; a team of talented professionals that design outstanding facilities for public and private sector clients, a broad range of products to meet the needs of all customers regardless of community challenges or budget and extensive practical experience of how design and planning for public recreation spaces really works in reality. The thing that Liz enjoys most about her role is threefold. Helping clients realise their dreams to improve people's lives. Seeing more children and young people engage into active play and seeing families engage in the facility in a way that we'd imagined from the design process.

Gary Denton
Managing Director
Icon Vocational Training Limited

Gary Denton is Managing Director of ICON Training, an award-winning, Grade 1 Ofsted, sport and leisure industry apprenticeship provider. Gary has more than 16 years of experience in the sector and started out as an apprentice Gym Instructor. He previously operated his own personal training business, worked as an Exercise Therapist in accident rehabilitation and has tutored, assessed and managed operations at a number of organisations, sharing his passion for education and the difference it can make to an individual and the workforce as a whole. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and consultant for an industry trailblazer.

Matt Delaney
Director and Co-Founder
The Great Outdoor Gym Company

Matt Delaney is a Co-Founder and Director of The Great Outdoor Gym Company, (TGO) the UK pioneer of outdoor gyms. TGO's mission is to drive up physical activity, increase wellbeing and promote climate action - creating sustainable active towns and cities across the UK and beyond. Since launching the first outdoor gyms in the UK in 2007, Matt has been instrumental in TGO's expansion across the UK and globally. There are now over 800 TGO installations in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South East Asia, South American and Australia, with Matt brokering partnershops across multiple territories. Matt has over 20 years' experience in the sports and leisure sector, including in his former role as Regional Director at Sport England, where he was responsible for raising levels of physical activity in the capital. He also led Sport England in the successful London 2012 Olympic bid. Matt has also worked at Chief Officer level in a London local authority. In his early career, he taught PE to pupils including Rio Ferdinand. Over the past 10 years, Matt and the TGO Board have delivered many outdoor fitness innovations including; Hundreds of partnerships with councils, schools, universities, health partners, employers and housing associations The invention and roll out of TGO Green Energy Gym technology, where users generate electricity as they work out Designing and installing for the United Nations at COP22 in Marrakech, the global climate change conference The design and national roll out of adiZone outdoor fitness spaces, part of Adidas's sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympic Games Moving TGO product design and manufacturing from teh Far East to the UK, to offer the greenest, safest and strongest outdoor gyms The development and implementation of outdoor gym safety standards

Helen Pallett
Director
Creative Sport & Leisure

Helen is an experienced Secondary PE teacher, with a wealth of experience within the school sports and physical activity sector. Having taught in primary and secondary schools, Helen progressed into leadership and gained regional and national recognition for her work in PE and PSHE. Helen left teaching to be the director of a training consultancy, designing and delivering a range of different courses. In her work for CSL Helen has developed and delivered a variety of different sport-related qualifications and is now employed as Training Project manager preparing CSL to deliver the new standards.

Emma Boggis
Chief Executive
Sport and Recreation Alliance

Emma Boggis is Chief Executive of the Sport and Recreation Alliance, a role she took up in September 2014. The Sport and Recreation Alliance is the umbrella organisation for the governing and representative bodies of sport and recreation in the UK and represents 320 members – including The Football Association, the Rugby Football Union, UK Athletics, the Ramblers, British Rowing and the Royal Academy of Dance. The Alliance’s role, like every trade association, is to speak up on their members’ behalf, represent their views and provide them with services which make their lives easier. Emma is also a non-executive Director at the British Paralympic Association, a Trustee of the National Paralympic Heritage Trust and a member of the NCVO Advisory Council. Before joining the Alliance, Emma spent the majority of her career in the senior civil service. Latterly she was head of the Olympic and Paralympic Legacy Unit in the Cabinet Office, supporting Lord Coe in his role as the Prime Minister’s Legacy Ambassador. Emma’s previous roles have included Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and Deputy Head of Mission in the British Embassy in Madrid. Her early career started in the British Army where she had operational tours in Northern Ireland and Kosovo. Emma is a keen sportswoman – with a number of marathons and triathlons under her belt along with a few long-distance cycle rides.

Laura Matthews
Senior Insight and Policy Manager
Women In Sport

Laura leads in research and policy for Women in Sport. Women in Sport is the charity transforming sport for the benefit of every woman and girl in the UK. One of the key goals for the charity is to support women and girls to work and volunteer in sport, as well as to ensure more women and girls are active, and to increase the visibility of women’s sport. Laura joined Women in Sport in 2015 and has led on a wide variety of research projects including the recently published Beyond 30%, looking at gender diversity in senior leadership positions in sports organisations, as well as several projects working with sports providers including parkrun and British Gymnastics. Prior to working at Women in Sport, Laura worked for Action on Hearing Loss (previously RNID) on research and policy.

Geoff Thompson
Executive Chair MBE, FRSA, DL
The Youth Charter

Geoff Thompson was appointed to the GB Sports Council - now Sport England in 1990 following an outstanding career in competitive Karate. He was five times World Karate Champion from 1982 to 1986 and holder of over 50 national and international titles. As one of Britain’s most successful and celebrated sportsmen of the 80’s Geoff made a transition from tracksuit to lounge suit where he established himself as a sports politician and administrator. Geoff is one of the leading youth activists and experts in sports development and politics with over 25 years experience in the bidding and hosting and legacy of major games and the positive impact of sport and the arts in the social and human development of young people and communities. He is Founder and Executive Chair of the Youth Charter (www.youthcharter.co.uk), a UK registered charity and United Nations accredited Non-Governmental Organisation established in 1993.

Yvonne Harrison
Managing Director
Project `92

Yvonne was appointed as Managing Director of Project 92 in March 2018, after leading Greater Manchester Charity, GreaterSport, as their Chief Executive for four years. Having spent over fifteen years within the sport and physical activity landscape, Yvonne has a wealth of experience across the sector incorporating strategic development, relationship management, finance, business planning and communications. Yvonne has been a key driver to galvanize the Greater Manchester network to produce Greater Manchester Moving, the blueprint for physical activity and sport across the City Region, as Greater Manchester trailblazes with radical reform of the health and social care system through devolution and begins to implement Sport England’s local delivery pilot. Yvonne led GreaterSport to multiple awards, before leaving to embark on a new challenge, working with the ‘Class of 92’ across their sport and education portfolio, which includes the brand new University venture UA92 in Trafford. Yvonne joined the Board of Why Sports Media Group in 2017 following a positive working relationship with the Founders and recognising the contribution she could make through her experience and network. Yvonne is enjoying helping the social enterprise realise its objectives and ensuring customers of Why Sports experience great content, networking and cutting edge thinking through the series of conferences and panel debates delivered.

Steven Mann
Research Director
UK Active

Dr Steven Mann is Research Director at ukactive and lead researcher at the ukactive Research Institute. His research focuses upon the delivery, feasibility and effectiveness of physical activity promoting interventions delivered from within community environments. As part of this role, Steven has led on a number of large-scale evaluation and research studies and published articles providing exercise recommendations for use in the prevention and management of type two diabetes and cardiovascular disease. His research has been presented at the American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting, European College of Sports Science Annual Congress and the International Congress on Physical Activity and Public Health.

David Beardmore
Commercial Director
The Open Data Institute

David leads the ODI’s commercial, business development and marketing activities. His 20+ years in data-driven insight and marketing have seen him work with many leading brands in multiple sectors and countries. In addition to working for some of the largest players in the data world such as Experian, Callcredit and Telefonica, David also ran his own boutique data insight business, Thinkdata, for 5 years before its acquisition by Bertelsmann. David’s work is characterised by passion, pragmatism and a fierce determination to deliver measurable value to clients. He also loves to challenge the status quo in order to find better ways of doing things. Originally a classically trained musician, David has a Masters from Cambridge and an MBA in Marketing. Ever the optimist, he continues to hold a season ticket at Nottingham Forest.

Speaker Profiles

Barry Horne

Chief Executive, Activity Alliance