SPORTS BUSINESS AWARDS 2020 WINNERS REVEALED.
Watch the Winners Ceremony and see the 2020 Champions being announced.
Why the Sports Business Awards?
Celebrate with your team
Being an award-winner is a powerful motivator to inspire you and your colleagues to keep up the great work!
Enhance your reputation
Appending an independently judged third-party badge of excellence is a sure-fire shortcut to emphasising your merit to colleagues, clients, bosses & stakeholders.
Generate positive headlines
Spread the good news - everyone loves a success story and winning an award is a great publicity hook for social and traditional media efforts
Aspire to Better Practice
Winner or not - seeing what others do for their products is an irreplacable source of tried & tested award-worthy ideas!
Our 2020 Judges
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Roger Black MBE
European, Commonwealth, and World Championship Gold Medalist
Roger Black MBE
European, Commonwealth, and World Championship Gold MedalistFor fourteen years Roger represented Great Britain at the highest level in the world of athletics, both as an individual 400 metre runner and as a member of the 4×400 metre relay team, winning fifteen major Championship medals including European, Commonwealth, and World Championship Gold medals.
His greatest achievement was winning the Olympic 400 metre Silver medal in 1996 and he is particularly admired for his triumphs over adversity, successfully overcoming several serious injuries and set backs throughout his career.
Roger has been British Men’s Team Captain and was awarded the M.B.E. in 1992.
Roger is also partner of BackleyBlack with Steve Backley and owner of Roger Black Fitness.
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Duncan Goodhew MBE
Youth Sport Trust & Olympic Gold and Bronze Medallist
Duncan Goodhew MBE
Youth Sport Trust & Olympic Gold and Bronze MedallistDuncan’s Olympic success taught him the value of breaking the status quo and sparked a lifelong belief in the massive benefits of sport and its unique positive impact on peoples live – a belief Duncan has worked tirelessly to promote throughout his business life.
Duncan is a Director and one of the Founders of Limelight Sports Group, a market sector leader in the Active World, and is Chairman of Premier Education Group PLC., which is also a market leader in its sectors in the Active World and School Improvement and Training sectors.
In addition, Duncan is the President of Swimathon (whose swimmers have raised in excess of £50m for 33 charities), a Trustee of the first ever organisation, SportsAid, to achieve charitable status for sport, Co-Founder and VP of Youth Sport Trust, board member of Youth Sport Trust International and Founding Chairman of the Millfield Foundation
What you may not know about Duncan
After retiring from competitive swimming, he was selected by the British Bobsleigh Association to represent Great Britain at the 1981 European Championships in the 2 and 4 Man Bobsleigh.
Duncan was Deputy Mayor of the London 2012 Olympic Village. He was also one of The Seven Sporting Legends who carried the torch in the Opening Ceremony at London 2012 Olympic Games, passing the torch on to the next generation of sports men and women who lit the Olympic Cauldron.
Duncan is a winner of the Royal Humane Society Award for administering a lifesaving intervention.
Duncan says
“A good day is a one swim day: A great day is a two swim day!”
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Karen Pickering MBE
Commonwealth & World Champion Swimmer
Karen Pickering MBE
Commonwealth & World Champion SwimmerDuring a 20 year international swimming career Karen won 35 major championship medals and 38 National titles despite breaking her back in a car accident in 1996. She was 4 times World champion, broke 2 World Records and competed at 4 consecutive Olympic Games.Karen retired from competitive swimming in 2005 & as well as well as being the Swimming Development Officer at Ardingly College she now commentates for the BBC and is a non-Exec Director for Sport England.
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Nigel Walker OBE
National Director, English Institute of Sport
Nigel Walker OBE
National Director, English Institute of SportA former international athlete and rugby player who has transferred the determination, focus and hard work required to succeed in the sporting arena to life after to become a successful leader and motivator in his post competitive career. Experienced in building teams to work collaboratively to achieve clearly defined objectives in the most effective and efficient manner possible. Well networked and regarded across a range of industries and highly successful in identifying and implementing change programmes to increase performance and impact. Nigel was awarded the OBE for services to elite sport in June 2019.
Served on the UK Sport board for four years (2006-2010) chairing the Major Events Panel and serving on the Audit Committee. He is currently a Commonwealth Games England board member (Since 2015).
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Tove Okunniwa
Chief Executive - Sport London
Tove Okunniwa
Chief Executive - Sport LondonTove is CEO of London Sport, a non-profit organisation dedicated to making London the most active city in the world, supported by Sport England and the Mayor of London. She has a background in strategic marketing and content creation, with extensive experience in both commercial and non-profit sectors. Previously she led two successful sport and entertainment marketing agencies – WPP owned MEC Access and Havas Sports & Entertainment – advising clients such as Barclays, Coca-Cola, Visa, Danone, Lloyds Bank, Marriott, Specsavers, Nintendo and Morrisons among many others. Prior to this Tove spent 10 years at the BBC in senior brand marketing roles, including Head of Marketing at BBC Sport where she led a successful repositioning of the brand.
She is Deputy Chairwoman of England Boxing and a Trustee of Catch 22, a leading social business.
Our 2020 Judges
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Adrian Christy
Chief Executive, Badminton England
Adrian Christy
Chief Executive, Badminton EnglandAdrian has been Chief Executive of Badminton England since 2006 and is leading the organisation through a vision for badminton to be one of the nation’s most popular sports and to consistently win World, Olympic and Paralympic medals.
Adrian is driving a journey of modernisation and self-sustainability at Badminton England, transforming the business through technology, customer acquisition, fan engagement and organisational efficiency. He is a bold, recognised and innovative leader with proven achievement; someone who makes things happen and leads by example.
Under Adrian’s leadership, Badminton England has secured the greatest level of commercial investment in the history of the organisation, seen the Yonex All England Open Championships be included among the three badminton ‘Majors’ on the World Tour, demonstrated great vision and creativity through the launch of the first professional badminton league in the UK.
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Charlie Wylie
Managing Partner of Sport & Entertainment, MKTG
Charlie Wylie
Managing Partner of Sport & Entertainment, MKTGCharlie is Managing Partner of Sport & Entertainment at MKTG, an industry leading lifestyle marketing agency.
Charlie is a partnership and brand engagement expert with years of experience in building, managing and delivering integrated partnership and sponsorship solutions for clients. Recently he has focused on creating large scale global partnerships for FMCG and B2B brands, helping to deliver game-changing business value for brands through sport.
Outside of work Charlie is a huge sport fan and has become an expert in up-selling his former sporting glories. When not juggling work and family life he’s often to be found on a boat, or a bike or doing some form of adventure challenge.
