Investment in Sport & Activity

Freddie Waite

Investment Associate, Big Society Capital

Freddie joined Big Society Capital as an Investment Associate in August 2015. Since then he has worked on a number of projects and issue areas, spanning health & social care, financial inclusion, arts & sports, and is currently based in the Homes team. He joined BSC from Ernst & Young, where his experience spanned financial modelling, strategic analytics and business case planning, across a range of sectors including energy, FMCG and UK and international government. Freddie also has a background in web development and holds a master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Warwick.

Workshop Session 1 - The Manchester Suite

Using Social Investment to Enable Sports for Social Good

13:45 - 14:30

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

Mr Richard Arnold
Group Managing Director
Manchester United Football Club

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.

Mark Allman
Chair
Chief Cultural & Leisure Officers Association

$Nick Pontefract$

Nick Pontefract
Chief Operating Officer
Sport England

Judith Rasmussen
Strategic Lead in the North
Sport England

Judith had 15 years experience within Local Government before moving to Sport England in November 1997. Her Local Government experience was gained with Middlesbrough Borough Council within Community Leisure before moving to Wear Valley District Council as Assistant Manager of Spectrum Leisure Complex. Following a number of years in operational management, Judith became Assistant Director of Leisure and Marketing with the specific responsibility for Sports Development, events, Arts Development, Health and Fitness and Education and training. Throughout this time she was an active ILAM (now CIMSPA) member and chaired the region in the late 1990s. Judith joined Sport England in 1997 as a Senior Development Manager and was promoted to Regional Director in July 2000 through to the present time now as Strategic lead for Sport England in the North. During her time at Sport England Judith has been involved in the development of many areas of work for Sport England and role now covers the North of England leading the local Sport England teams and working with Local Authorities, County Sports Partnerships and key stakeholders to deliver Sport England’s strategy

Ben Ridehalgh
Head of Cycling and Walking Policy and Programmes, Sustainable Active Travel
Department for Transport

Ben Ridehalgh is Head of Cycling and Walking Policy and Programmes and has been at the Department for Transport for ten years following a move from HM Treasury.

Mark Lawrie
Deputy CEO
Street Games UK Ltd

StreetGames (www.streetgames.org) is an award-winning national sports charity launched in 2007. A national partner of Sport England and a national centre of expertise for developing sport in disadvantaged communities, the charity helps to make sport accessible to all young people, regardless of their income or social circumstances. It does this by supporting and establishing local projects around the UK that deliver doorstep sport, i.e. positive activities and sport provided to young people when they want it, where they want it and how they want it. Over 2.4 million attendances have already been generated by StreetGames projects. StreetGames’ ongoing work to change sport, communities and lives have been recognised by The Chief Medical Officer’s Public Health Awards, The Charity Awards, The Business Charity Awards and Beyond Sport. Additionally, in 2011, StreetGames’ Chief Executive Jane Ashworth was awarded an OBE for services to community sport. These commendations demonstrate StreetGames’ effectiveness in sport and the wider impact on crime, health and community development.

Dr Michael Brannan
Deputy National Lead for Adult Health and Wellbeing
Public Health England

Mike is Public Health England’s Adult Lifecourse Lead and was an author of the National physical activity framework, Everybody Active Every Day. He is an experienced policy expert and manager across the public, private, academic and voluntary sectors. With over ten years of experience as a public health professional at local, regional and national levels, he has held leadership roles on health inequalities, transport, sustainability, housing, employment, health and work and physical activity. He has sat on a number of national and regional advisory committees. Prior to entering public health, Mike had an eclectic background across the private, academic and voluntary sectors. He holds a Biochemistry PhD and a Chartered Institute of Marketing qualification.

Ms Shelley Alexander
BBC Lead on Women`s Sport
BBC Sport

Dr William Bird
MBE
Intelligent Health Limited

Dr William Bird MBE is a family GP who founded Intelligent Health to provide ways to integrate physical activity into health and wellbeing. He started his interest in physical activity when he set up the Health Walk and Green Gym programmes from his practice in Sonning Common in the mid-1990s. Through Intelligent Health, William has been commissioned by Cities in the UK and the EU, as well as by WHO in the Middle East, to help develop physical activity strategies. He was commissioned by Public Health England to write the nine e-learning modules on physical activity and health for BMJ e-Learning. William is a member of the Physical Activity Strategy Board for Public Health England and Wales. He is co-editor of the Oxford Textbook of Nature and Public Health and recently BBC Wildlife magazine voted him one of the top 30 influential conservationists in the UK. He sits on the boards of Get Berkshire Active and AOC Sport. In 2010 William was awarded the MBE for services to promote physical activity and health. William is married with three grown-up children.

Leanne Norman
Senior Research Fellow
School Of Sport

Dr Leanne Norman is a senior research fellow in the School of Sport, Leeds Beckett University. Her research utilises a sociological lens to examine the culture of coaching to address gender equality within the profession. She also leads work around understanding the relationship between gender and occupational well-being for coaches, examining the influence of gender on the coach-athlete relationship, and analysing the impact of components of coach education on coaching practices and relations. Leanne has written for a number of academic textbooks and has published widely in academic journals. She also works as a consultant with a variety of sporting organisations to improve diversity within their coaching and athletic workforce.

Steven Pleasant
Chief Executive
Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council

Steven is Chief Executive at Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council, the Head of the Paid Service and Interim Accountable Officer for Tameside and Glossop CCG. He has an MSc from Cranfield Institute of Technology and in his early career worked as a town planner after graduating as a Master of Civic Design from Liverpool University. Steven led the organisation working with its partners in being awarded the 'Local Innovation Award for Building Economic Resilience', the only local authority in the country to receive this award. Steven was lead officer for the North West Centre of Excellence for 3 years and took a leading role in the development of the Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (RIEP). He is now the chair of iNetwork which has been successfully supporting public service improvement and transformation across the North West region for the last 11 years. Steven is the lead Chief Executive on behalf of the Combined Authority for Health and Wellbeing and for Asylum, Refugees and Migration. He jointly chairs the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Commissioning Board and acts as the lead Chief Executive for the North West for Adult Social Care Sector led improvement. He is the Chair of the North West Regional Asylum Steering Group, which governs the work of the North West Regional Strategic Migration Partnership, and has recently been honoured with an MBE in recognition of this work. Steven was pleased to see many of the projects he has led over the last few years come together, leading to Tameside Council achieving LGC's Council of the Year award 2016.

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.

Camilla Parke
Strategy and Market Development Associate
Big Society Capital

Camilla’s current focus is supporting greater participation by individuals and communities in social investment. She also works on engaging corporates in social investment. Before joining Big Society Capital, Camilla participated in the social enterprise leadership programme On Purpose. Prior to this, she worked in the Innovation Lab at Nesta, and spent a number of years as a consultant advising clients on stra ...

Freddie Waite
Investment Associate
Big Society Capital

Ms Anna Thompson
Assistant Editor
BBC

Justine Blomeley
Local Government Relationship Manager
Sport England

After qualifying as a teacher, Justine spent 10 years teaching secondary Physical Education with a leading role in Health Education for 11 to 16-year-old pupils. Following a move to Children's Services within the Local Authority in Blackpool, Justine worked as the PE and School Sport Consultant with an overview of all 40 schools, primary, secondary and special. In this role, strong links were developed working with both sports development and health through a broad range of initiatives and projects, over a 10 year period. In July 2013 Justine joined Sport England as the Relationship Manager for Local Government covering the North West of England. In this role, she works with Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Lancashire to better position Sport and Physical Activity.

Speaker Profiles

Freddie Waite

Investment Associate, Big Society Capital