Edition number 12; dateline 27 August 2010


Who’s whom

These people are hoping they have made a winning choice:

South African Kelly Fairweather is to succeed the retiring Christophe Troendle as the new chief executive of the International Hockey Federation (FIH); one of the victims of the Pmpgenesis collapse, Marcus Kingwell, has fallen on his feet at the Sports, Leisure and Culture Consultancy where his experience as project director, strategic planner and facilitator – and doubtless his contact book – will prove useful; Sport Taekwondo UK has added non-executive members to its board, with Jeremy Beard becoming chairman and Marc Hope of sports marketing agency Fast Track also joining; head of service at Norfolk’s  museums and archeology service, Vanessa Trevelyan, will become president of the Museums Association in October; equipment supplier Precor has promoted Steve Shaw to the sales post of senior group account manager with Jo Headington stepping up to become group account manager; the team at Derbyshire Sport has been enriched by the appointments of Edwina Archer as funding officer and James Cook as disability sport officer; Swimming Australia has appointed Graeme Stephenson as general manager for aquatic strategy, a new role which hopes to improve access to lane space for Australia’s high-performance swimmers and coaches; and at the CCPR James MacDougall has been appointed as head of policy.

Who’s looking for whom

And these are hoping they don’t pick a loser :

Liverpool FC is looking to fill the role of membership product manager with the remit to “retain and monetise supporters”; Greenwich Leisure Limited seem to need lifeguards all over Greater London with a salary ceiling of £17,838; in St Albans Leisure Connection are after someone to be their Special Olympics coordinator; the good people at Rounders England are advertising for a regional officer to deliver their national plan and “We're not talking about vague development ambitions” in the West Midlands; “not funded or controlled by government” with “no political interests” and “completely dependent upon commercial sponsorship and fundraising income”, the British Olympic Association finds itself in need of a £90,000 per annum business development director; somebody called Luke is advertising for “sports specialists” to coach sport in primary schools and he says “a broad range of badges/qualifications” is no more than “desirable”; and Roger Draper at the Lawn Tennis Association thinks he needs a services hub assistant, whatever that might be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Spotlight: Brian Leonard

What is your current position?
The new – and first – chief executive of Sporta, which of course is the national association representing social enterprises in culture and leisure.

What will be your biggest challenge over the next twelve months?
Ensuring that I deliver value for members by making the best case for the interests of their organisations and communities to the governments and others who will influence this; by helping development of the potential for member organisations to contribute even more fully in support of the needs of their communities and customers; and by strengthening other services which members want to get from Sporta.

Which job within sport and leisure sector would you most like to do?
This one. Because Sporta members have a huge set of skills and other assets which are going to be even more valuable in the period ahead; they actually run major enterprises at the heart of the communities, serving the wellbeing of the widest possible range of people. Our members can be even stronger by being connected within the national and regional networks which Sporta provides.

Who or what has inspired you in your career?
Although I started out working for a private company, I've spent the great majority of my career in the government sector, with a couple of years out on secondments, including one in America. What has always been most inspirational to me is to work with talented people who get good things done while keeping the respect of everyone they deal with (well, nearly everyone!) and enjoying themselves too. There are a handful of people I can think of who have really been inspirational in this way and they haven't all been the ones with high status. Wouldn't it be nice to be like them.  

What advice would you offer to a young person entering the industry?
Think about the big picture of what is going on, otherwise it can be like playing chess without being able to see the whole board. Talk and listen to people and make friends. Don't eat too many doughnuts.

Which single thing could improve the sector?
I haven't found that out yet. It may have something to do with having its importance more fully recognised and having an even greater sense of innovation

What could the sector do without?
I'm not sure yet. Any tendency to complacency maybe, which I imagine is always a risk as what the sector does is so obviously valuable. And fewer doughnuts?

Where do you hope to be in ten years time?
Eating lotuses but this is probably a vain hope. My father worked till he was 84 and my brother is still working at 76. Somehow we missed the trick of relaxing easily. 

 

 

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