After nearly a decade of service to CIMSPA and the workforce of the sector, Marc Woods has completed his tenure as Chair of the Board of Trustees, having served the maximum term possible.
A former gold medal winning Paralympian, Marc was appointed to the role in December 2017 and has overseen huge changes in the organisation since his arrival, with staff numbers more than doubling in size, as well as helping to steer the organisation through previously unnavigated waters during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Having competed internationally as a swimmer for 17 years, winning 12 medals from five Paralympic Games, Marc became recognised internationally for his ability to get the best from himself and the teams he was part of, and this was no different at CIMSPA, as CIMSPA CEO Tara Dillon testified:
“The single most important relationship any CEO can have is with their chair. You have to be aligned, you have to have some synergy and you have to be able to challenge with radical candor. The relationship has to be watertight but not cosy. And Marc’s presence, his commitment to the role and the sector’s workforce has been second to none.”
“As a complex organisation, CIMSPA was moving through start-up and scale-up, to establishing itself when Marc joined. To have that level of support and guidance, and that knowledge and experience that he’s brought has been fundamental in terms of guiding CIMSPA to where it is now.”
Going on to talk about the experience and skillset that Marc brought during the COVID-19 lockdowns and how his status as an ex-Para athlete has had on supporting various projects and partnerships over the period of his tenure, including playing a significant role in supporting the work that CIMSPA has undertaken in relation to workforce governance, Tara added:
“Nobody expected a global pandemic. All bets were off. I can’t think of a better person to have their hand on the tiller during that process than Marc. The organisation needed to pivot massively on behalf of the sector workforce. We could have gone into freefall but we responded very quickly. This was down to his support and his presence.
“As somebody who knows grassroots and high-performance sport in equal measure, his strength of feeling around preventing people from harm within our sector has been unwavering, so the timing of him arriving in the chair role has been perfect, but we took him on for exactly those reasons.”
Everyone at CIMSPA would like to thank Marc for his outstanding work, his professionalism and his friendship throughout his tenure and wish him well in all his future endeavours.
As Marc’s tenure as chair comes to a close, CIMSPA will welcome Trevor Pearce as chair at the start of 2026.