Edition number 13; dateline 1 October 2010
Who’s whom
As the first leaves of autumn start to fall, the following individuals are fluttering down onto pastures new:
With John Steele having left UK Sport for pastures new, chief operating officer Liz Nicholl has beaten off a reportedly excellent field to take the post of chief executive; one of the victims of the Pmpgenesis collapse, Marcus Kingwell, having fallen on his feet at the Sports, Leisure and Culture consultancy [see People passim] has now been appointed temporary chief executive at the troubled Institute for Sport, Parks and Leisure; Sport Structures Recruitment has added Gary Katzler to its board; the CCPR are pleased to welcome new head of policy James MacDougall to their fold; Dennis Hone has been appointed chief executive elect (sic) of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), where he will replace David Higgins, who will be leaving in February next year to take up the post of chief executive at Network Rail; the International Rugby Board have recruited two female ambassadors, New Zealand wing Carla Hohepa and Canadian flyer and Olympic bobsleigh champion Heather Moyse, to help front up their Keep Rugby Clean campaign; the world’s leading – possibly only – professional sailing series, the ISAF World Match Racing Tour, has named Matthew Strachan as their new sales director as they continue to implement an ambitious development plan; health club operator Fitness First Australia (FFA) has announced that Grant Twible has been named director of fitness; Swansea’s LC leisure complex has confirmed the appointment of Rachel Tobin – area manager of the Afan Lido in Port Talbot – as its new waterpark manager; and Sport England have finally appointed some new board members who you probably won’t have heard off even if we bothered to copy and paste their names from the agency’s website.
And these organisations are shaking the trees hoping not too many nuts fall out:
Sport Structures Recruitment are seeking a highly qualified recruitment director; the LTA are bucking the trend for austerity in all things and recruiting a £33,000 a year hospitality operations manager “to be an ambassador for the new vision of British tennis” not just serve canapés and drinks to corporate liggers; the good people at LOCOG are really beginning to recruit in earnest with services managers and/or technical operations managers being sought for archery, handball, beach volleyball, triathlon and swimming that we know of; the FA have hit on the idea of recruiting a number of Get Into Football managers to go into parks and on to plastic pitches and recruit – or more probably just count – over-16s and adults “at the grass roots” in a transparent bid to massage their participation statistics and help Sport England reach their legacy pledge of one million more people “active” before the Olympics, or whatever it was; if you are a multi-tasking, credible and articulate individual who knows clubs, coaching and volunteering inside out and are a warm and friendly people person into the bargain, Edinburgh Leisure will pay you nearly £27,000 a year to help them develop, well, clubs, coaches and volunteers; and Christine Double at PRO-ACTIVE South London is using a commercial recruitment company to help her find two new board members “to enable us to respond more effectively to the rapidly changing and challenging environment and associated economic and social pressures that will elicit”.
the people page
comings, goings, jobs and a personal spotlight
Spotlight: Sue Thiedeman
What is your current position?
Director of the London Cultural Improvement Programme
What will be your biggest challenge over the next twelve months?
Undoubtedly it is securing a future for the London Cultural Improvement Programme and for the other regional cultural improvement networks across the country. Local authorities have a tough time ahead and will have to adapt rapidly to a new funding environment. I think the support programmes like ours can provide will be invaluable in managing transformation on this scale.
Apart from your current post, which job within sport and leisure sector would you most like to do?
I have no idea. There must be some fabulous fun and easy job somewhere in our sector but I don’t have time to look for it. I’m too busy doing this one. I might have liked that job promoting the Australian Island for a year.
Who or what has inspired you in your career?
I have tremendous respect for Martyn Allison, the Local Government Association group national cultural advisor; he is an inspiration and a great support to all of us working in the improvement networks.
What advice would you offer to a young person entering the industry?
Take every opportunity to broaden your experience, which means getting involved in new and different things and putting your hand up when volunteers are needed to get involved. This is a fabulous sector with so many facets. There really is something for everyone what ever you want to achieve.
Which single thing could improve the sector?
Innovation will drive this sector forward and there has never been a better time for all those new ideas to be considered. In the present climate there will be a lot of opportunities and those new ideas might just see us through.
What could the sector do without?
Anyone who doesn’t give 100%.
Where do you hope to be in ten years time?
If I’m still on the planet it will be a bonus. I might like to think I’d finally got the work-life balance right by then but somehow I doubt it.
