Experience

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  British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS)

  • United Kingdom
  • Spectator Sports
  • 100 - 200 Employee

  • Director - BUCS Trading Limited

    • Oct 2017 - Present

    BUCS Trading Limited provides income to BUCS through commercial activities. Under the terms of its Articles of Association, the whole taxable profit made by the company is paid to the charity. In 2022-23, it turned over just under £0.5m and generated a pre-tax profit of £62k.

  • Chief Operating Officer

    • Aug 2019 - Jun 2024

    Responsibilities• Working with the CEO and Board to design and deliver strategic and operational objectives of a national sports charity, maximising effectiveness and efficiency..• Designing, delivering and overseeing financial operations of an organisation with a £6m turnover.• Leading teams to deliver: - Comprehensive financial management. - People/HR management and talent development of the workforce of 50 staff - Business operations, including communication, governance, IT infrastructure and legal services - The design and implementation of digital and engagement strategies to grow brand and revenue. - Commercial sponsorship acquisition and retention.• As Company Secretary, supporting the Board of Trustees, managing and attending Board meetings, producing the Annual Report and Accounts, and overseeing corporate governance and riskAchievements • Maintained fiscal control, operating within budget for six consecutive years, including during the pandemic.• Designed and delivered a suite of modern digital systems – new CRM, website and competition management mobile app for over 50 sports – improving efficiencies, delivering accurate relevant and clean data, and driving engagement and commercial revenue.• Built and grew a Digital and Engagement Team, raising the profile of the business significantly, increasing digital engagement fourfold and improving customer satisfaction.• Restructured the Business Services (HR, Governance, IT, Data etc.) and Finance functions, working with outsourced service providers to modernise processes and enhance risk management.• Led the design and delivery of new technology solutions, delivering improved efficiency and accessibility of information.• Oversaw commercial revenue growth from £140k to £260k pa in the year following the pandemic.• Recruited Non-executive Directors and established an Advisory Board of industry experts who steered and supported digital and commercial growth.

  • Company Secretary

    • Aug 2022 - Oct 2023

    • Supporting the Board of Trustees and Directors, managing and attending Board meetings, producing the Annual Report and Accounts, and ensuring corporate governance compliance.• Recruited Non-executive Directors and established an Advisory Board of industry experts who steered and supported digital and commercial growth.

• 

  NSE (National Student Esports)

  • Non Executive Director

    • Aug 2017 - Present

    As the official body of university esports in the UK, NSE has established itself as a key figure in the UK esports industry, with the most active grassroots gaming community in the country. NSE operates the British University Esports Championship powered by Intel, the official esports competition of British universities. In the 2022-23 academic year, the competition saw over 2,200 teams from 111 universities compete across several esports titles.The NSE community platform sees over 12,000 verified accounts created each year with a viewing total of 2 million pages annually.

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  British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS)

  • Head of Operations

    • Dec 2016 - Jul 2019

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  Upshot System

  • London, United Kingdom

  • CEO and Head of Product Development

    • May 2009 - Nov 2016
    • London, United Kingdom

    Responsibilities• Leading strategic and business planning, finance, marketing, sales and communications of an award-winning project management software platform that enables non-profit sporting organisations and their funders to evaluate and evidence the impact of their community work.• Using technology to deliver process improvements in clients and ensuring they were able to manage, monitor and evidence progress towards objectives on projects using sport for social change.• Managing the tech development team, translating requirements into functionality and ensuring product growth, delivering against key KPIs and strategic objectives, reporting to the Football Foundation Board.• Managing staff to ensure the successful implementation of the platform in client organisations and the ongoing satisfaction of those clients.• Member of the Football Foundation Senior Leadership Team.Achievements• Led the £1m project to design, build and implement Upshot, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) product that provides project management and evidence of impact for the non-profit sector.• Led a start-up company, and delivered an income generating, self-sustaining, software business from zero to a turnover of £500k pa over four years, with 700 user organisations.• Built, led and developed sales, implementation and support teams to embed Upshot into sporting organisations, helping them to bring clarity and robustness to their evidence of delivery, engagement and impact.

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  Football Foundation

  • United Kingdom
  • Spectator Sports
  • 200 - 300 Employee

  • Head of Business Performance

    • May 2007 - May 2009

    Responsibilities• Continuously improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the organisation, including assessing the value for money and impact of around £1bn of investment spent on community facilities and programmes that used sport to achieve societal goals.• Headed up the Performance Department, measuring and managing operational and financial performance of the Foundation’s £45m grant-giving operation; identifying and removing process inefficiencies.• Producing, managing and presenting complex management information through several media with a range of stakeholders.• Advising the CEO and senior management to embed performance management processes and systems, instilling an ethos of continuous improvement in the organisation to assist in increasing participation in sport and physical activity.Achievements• Established a performance management regime from scratch, implementing tools to measure, analyse and manage performance of the Football Foundation’s £45m pa grant-giving business.• Established and monitored process management competence in each business area through setting up performance indicators and targets and developing people, tools and processes required to achieve the targets to a benchmark standard.• Reduced the end-to-end time for the process of grant assessment from 42 weeks to 17 weeks.• Created bespoke and accessible financial and operational performance reporting systems, designed for multiple stakeholders, including Sport England, The FA, Premier League, Trustees, the CEO, Directors of Finance, Operations and Investment, middle management, and delivery staff.• Managed teams to deliver tools to provide management information to inform strategic direction, including www.pitchfinder.org.uk, the UK’s largest recourse of football facilities.

  • Investment Programme Manager

    • Sep 2004 - May 2007

    • Managed a portfolio grant-funded projects with a total value of £81m. This included: advising recipients of funding; assessing the merits of projects up to the value of £4m; making business cases; supporting and monitoring projects during delivery and liaising with funding partners and stakeholders.• Played a leading role in an organisation-wide process review, using a variety of diagnostic and process management tools to identify and deliver areas for improvement.

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  Commission for Racial Equality

  • London, United Kingdom

  • Grants Manager

    • Sep 2002 - Aug 2004
    • London, United Kingdom

    • Part of a team that implemented the modernisation of the £5m grant-making function when the organisation moved to an outcome-based funding model.• Assessed applications and monitoring data and designed and implemented a new reporting structure, linking outputs and outcomes to the CRE’s strategic goals.

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  International Training Services Limited

  • London, United Kingdom

  • Project Manager

    • Jan 1999 - Oct 2001
    • London, United Kingdom

    • Project management and evaluation of development projects for the Department for International Development, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the European Commission.• Tender, financial and contractual management on the above projects up to £1m.• Management of relationships with donors and stakeholders and the development of new partnerships and business.

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  Various

  • Spain

  • Language Teacher

    • Jul 1995 - Sep 1998
    • Spain

    • Two years in private language schools and one year self-employed, planning and delivering curricula and lessons to adults and children of varying abilities.• Preparation of students for Cambridge University foreign language examinations.• Attained Grade A in Cambridge University Certificate Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFLA)

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  University of Sheffield Union on Students

  • Sheffield, United Kingdom

  • Sports President

    • Jul 1994 - Jun 1995
    • Sheffield, United Kingdom

    • Strategic planning and development of student sport and leadership of a team of 12 overseeing 55 university clubs.• Member of the Leadership Team responsible for the overall operation of the business.• Responsibility for a budget of £1m.• Trustee and Company Director.