Currently chaired by Marc Woods, the Board holds a wealth of experience from within and outside of the sector. Elected trustees are CIMSPA members voted for by full members to sit on the Board. Appointed trustees are recruited for their specialist knowledge, skills and experience aligned to the needs of the Board. The Board meets at least four times per calendar year and the meeting minutes are publicly available here.
Board of Trustees
The Board of Trustees (the Board) is the ultimate decision-making body within CIMSPA. It is responsible for setting the strategy of the organisation and for providing exemplary leadership in line with legal and regulatory frameworks.
Chair
Marc Woods
Marc Woods is a board advisor and gold medal winning Paralympian who has created and delivered leadership, behavioural and communication strategies and development programmes for a range of organisations working with senior executives in 32 different countries and 100 different nationalities. Marc’s background is integral to his helping organisations perform to the best of their ability, in an ever-disruptive world. He competed internationally as a swimmer for 17 years, winning 12 medals from five Paralympic Games. Over time he became recognised for his ability to get the best from himself and the teams he was part of. Particularly interested in the attributes, behaviours and values that individuals bring to organisations to balance ‘positive disruption’ and ‘fit’, he is co-author of Beyond the Call and the Coomber-Woods Discretionary Effort tool.
Additional responsibilities with CIMSPA
Elected Trustees
Dr Jon Argent FCIMSPA (Chartered)
Jon has over 35 years experience in sports and leisure management starting his career as a leisure assistant and working through various roles including Chief Executive. He is a member of the Moving Communities Board and has previously been a Director of CLUK and Chairman of Social Enterprise West Midlands.
Jon has a professional Doctorate from the University of Birmingham and an MBA. He lives in Herefordshire with his family.
Additional responsibilities with CIMSPA
Lorna Brooks
Lorna is Director and Founder of Freedom Activities CIC providing inclusive sports and physical activity sessions in the community. She also works as a personal trainer and has been actively involved in the physical activity sector for the last 15 years. Lorna has both a BA (Hons) in Sports Development and Coaching and more recently gained an MSc in Adapted Sports.
She is passionate about creating opportunities for people of any ability to be active together within a safe and fun environment. Through her work, Lorna has gained many years of experience helping people from a variety of backgrounds including those with long-term health issues and disabilities.
Lorna also sits on the board of Every Body Moves, a programme within ParalympicsGB, as a lived experience advisory board member.
Tracy Levy
As a Group Exercise Practitioner with 24 years of teaching experience, Tracy has a wealth of experience working within the industry as an exercise teacher, trustee, company secretary and class participant.
In more recent years, Tracy was Chair of the Movement and Dance Division of the Sport and Recreation Alliance, in which she was instrumental in bringing key members of the sector together to produce key pieces of research that are now being used to show the impact that movement and dance is having within the sport and physical activity sector.
Tracy believes there is ‘something’ for everyone at all stages of life, and everyone should have the opportunity to experience good-quality physical activity.
Senior Independent Trustee
Manos Kapterian
Manos was appointed to the board in May 2018. He is the Chief Operating Officer at Saïd Business School and works closely with the Dean and the Board to shape and deliver the School’s strategic direction. He leads the School’s non-academic operations and the professional services which support the broad range of teaching, research and global facing activities of the Business School.
Manos is a member of both the School Board and the executive leadership team.
Before joining Saïd Business School, Manos had a 20-year career at Pearson, the world’s leading learning company where he held senior commercial, operational and transformation roles working in the UK and Internationally across the examination and publishing sides of the business.
He is passionate about the power of education and life-long learning in unlocking personal and professional growth.
Manos holds an MBA from University of Westminster and is a Fellow at the Chartered Management Institute.
Additional responsibilities with CIMSPA
Appointed Trustees
Joelle Conway
Joelle is a marketing and communications specialist, currently Chief Marketing Officer at myHealthSpecialist.com. Having worked across leisure, sport and healthcare for 20 years, she is passionate about implementing strategies that benefit the health and wellbeing of the people.
Additional responsibilities with CIMSPA
- Chair of the Disciplinary Committee
- Trustee with responsibility for Welfare & Safety
Jonathan Drakes
Jon is currently leading brand partnerships and marketing strategy for McLaren Racing. Prior to this he spent 9-years working with Fuse, Omnicom Media Group’s Sports & Entertainment marketing agency. Most recently he led Fuse’s business in Asia-Pacific, prior to which he was director of strategy in EMEA working with clients such as Renault, Vodafone, Volkswagen, HSBC, Johnnie Walker and Carlsberg.
Jon has also authored a book on the future impact of technology on sport; Merge Sport.
Additional responsibilities with CIMSPA
Adrian Gaveglia
Adrian is a CFO who specialises in scaling growth businesses across the Consumer, Tech and Media sectors. With over 20 years’ experience in Finance he is currently advising several fast growth businesses on their funding, growth strategies and business planning. Adrian is keen to bring this experience to help support CIMSPA’s growth plans and help implement its ambitious plans for its National Skills Academy.
Additional responsibilities with CIMSPA
- Treasurer
Elena Portas
Elena is a Strategy Consultant and Health Expert working for a global management consultancy in the sport and physical activity sector. She leads the organisations’ Health Practice which supports clients to better understand and harness the benefits of physical activity on population health.
She is passionate about supporting the next generation of young people to have better access to sport and physical activity, and to further their education and careers in the industry.
Additional responsibilities with CIMSPA
Rowena Samarasinhe
Rowena Samarasinhe is a Partner at niche sports, media and entertainment law firm Level. She is also Managing Director of GEN Sport, a full-service agency focusing on the provision of affordable and accessible legal and commercial consultancy services to organisations within the sports and physical activity sector.
She has an MBA in international sports management with over 12 years of dedicated experience in the sports industry – in football initially and then in athletics and other Olympic sports. In 2018, Legal 500 included Rowena in their “General Counsel Powerlist” recognising the most influential and innovative in-house lawyers around the world.
Additional responsibilities with CIMSPA
- Board Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Champion