Our 2020 Judges

Cherry Alexander OBE

Major Events Director - British Athletics & Vice President, European Athletics

Cherry Alexander OBE
Major Events Director - British Athletics & Vice President, European Athletics

Since the 1980’s Cherry has built a reputation for dedicating herself to athletics, working with thousands of athletes and volunteers alike to ensure athletics events across the length and breadth of the country run smoothly.

Alexander’s first job at Nike UK was working under the leadership of Brendan Foster and organising the first years of the Great North Run.

Cherry has been involved in athletics for over 37 years, and has been instrumental in the success of British Athletics Major Events over the last two decades, working across a multitude of domestic and international competitions. She played a significant part in the athletics competition delivery during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Cherry received an MBE at the end of that year for services to sport and is a previous winner of the Sunday Times Sportswomen of the year ‘Unsung Hero’ Award. Her biggest success has undoubtedly been in delivering numerous major events on British soil and in playing a leading role in the best-ever staging of the IAAF World Championships and World Para Athletics Championships in London in 2017.

In November 2017 Cherry was awarded the IAAF Woman of the Year title, and continued to deliver excellence for the world governing body helping ensure the successful staging of the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Birmingham in March 2018.
Philip Bernie

Head of BBC TV Sport

Philip Bernie
Head of BBC TV Sport

Philip Bernie is the Head of BBC TV Sport – responsible for all TV Sport output on the BBC.

Philip joined the BBC in 1984 as a Production Trainee after leaving university. He became an Assistant Producer on Grandstand, later becoming Editor of Football Focus and then Match Of The Day. He has also been Assistant Editor and then Editor of Grandstand.

He was Editor of Sports Personality Of The Year from 1999 to 2005, during which time he won a Royal Television Society Award for the show.

He was Editor on the Olympic Games from 1992 to 2004, and on the Commonwealth Games from 1994 to 2002.

He was Editor of the World Cup in 1990 and 1994 as well as Euro 96, and was Executive Producer of the World Cup in 2002.

He was Editor of Wimbledon from 2003 to 2007 and founding Editor of both the BBC One series On Side and the BBC Two series Match Of The Day 2.

Prior to his current role, Philip was Head of Programmes and Planning in BBC TV Sport from 2005 to 2007 and then Head of TV Sport Editorial from 2007 to 2009.

Before joining TV Sport in 1987, Philip worked in various areas of the BBC including spending a year in Radio Sport and a year at the Breakfast Time TV programme.
Nick Bitel

Chairman - Sport England

Nick Bitel
Chairman - Sport England

Nick Bitel has been the Chief Executive of the London Marathon Events since July 1995 which, as well as staging the iconic London Marathon, also puts on the world’s largest cycling festival, RideLondon.

Since 2013 Nick has also been the Chair of Sport England and continues to act as consultant at Kerman & Co Solicitors.

As a lawyer, he has represented a number of leading sports events and organisations including The Wimbledon Championships, Ryder Cup, PGA European Tour, UEFA, Rugby Football Union and the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Nick is also currently a Board Member of UK Sport and was previously a Board Member of the London Legacy Development Corporation.

He is a previous Chair of the Sports Rights Owners Coalition and of the British Association for Sport and Law.
Roger Black MBE

European, Commonwealth, and World Championship Gold Medalist

Roger Black MBE
European, Commonwealth, and World Championship Gold Medalist

For 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.
Paul Blanchard

CEO - Commonwealth Games England

Paul Blanchard
CEO - Commonwealth Games England

Paul Blanchard is the Chief Executive of Commonwealth Games England, the organisation responsible for leading and managing the participation of Team England at the Commonwealth Games and Commonwealth Youth Games. The next Commonwealth Games in 2022 will be hosted in Birmingham.

With a career spanning more than 25 years in the sports industry, Paul has extensive experience of working for some of the country’s best known organisations, including the Scottish Premier League, the NFL, Southampton FC, Harlequins Rugby League and The Oval. Prior to joining Commonwealth Games England, Paul was the Chief Executive of the Surrey Sports Park, an elite training and event facility based at the University of Surrey. He was also Chair of Active Surrey, the county sports partnership.
Clare Briegal

CEO - International Netball Federation

Clare Briegal
CEO - International Netball Federation

Clare Briegal is Chief Executive Officer of the International Netball Federation (the International Governing Body for the sport of Netball). She was appointed in April 2014 and since then has driven the development and implementation of the Federation’s strategic plan. Clare is a strong believer in the power of netball to empower its participants, particularly women and girls. She, and her team at the Secretariat, work with the INF Member Associations to develop the sport internationally and grow its profile.

She leads the work of the Federation in relation to safeguarding and the protection of vulnerable adults and is on the Safeguarding Children in Sport Advisory Board.

Clare has a commercial background within the chemical industry and consumer durables sector. However, she has been actively involved in sport as an athlete, official and voluntary administrator since rowing at university. Clare is still competing as a master’s rower and is on the umpires’ panel for the Oxford & Cambridge Boat Race.

She was Deputy Chair and Non-Executive Director of Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS FT. Clare is a Governor of the Grange School Hartford, Cheshire and Chair of the Northwest Regional Rowing Council.

Clare has an MBA from Manchester Business School, an MA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and an MA in Biochemistry from Bryn Mawr College, USA.
Ben Calveley

Managing Director, British & Irish Lions

Ben Calveley
Managing Director, British & Irish Lions

Ben Calveley has been MD of Lions Rugby since November 2018 after serving 7 months as acting CEO of Six Nations Rugby and Lions Rugby on secondment from the RFU.
Prior to joining Lions Rugby, Calveley worked as Head of Strategy and Corporate Affairs for the RFU from June 2011 working on corporate strategy, policy, public affairs, international relations, project and risk management, fundraising and events.
He also worked for UK Sport from 2007 where he led a team advising all Olympic and Paralympic sports on how to increase their influence within the International Federations to which they affiliate. Calveley joined UK Sport from PMP, the sports consultancy, where he led the Football division and managed complex domestic and international sport projects involving multi-disciplinary teams including advising on how to develop grass root and elite sporting systems in a number of international markets.
Ben began professional life working in Merger and Acquisitions with Arthur Andersen and holds an MBA. He lives in Buckinghamshire with his wife and three young children.
Niels de Vos

Executive Director - 2021 IAAF World Athletics Championships

Niels de Vos
Executive Director - 2021 IAAF World Athletics Championships

Niels has nearly twenty years experience in the Sports Business, stretching back to 1999 when he joined the Organising Committee of the Manchester Commonwealth Games as Commercial Director, responsible for ticketing, broadcast, marketing and the cultural festival. The huge success of 2002 is popularly seen as a watershed moment for the UK, leading to an unrivalled few decades of hosting many of the world’s biggest events, including London 2012.

After a stint as CEO of Premiership Rugby Club Sale Sharks, whom he guided to the Championship Trophy in 2006, Niels joined UK Athletics. In his ten years there he oversaw a dramatic upturn in the results of the GB team, including record medal performances in both Olympic and Paralympics, with the GB team now a regular top 5 performer on the global stage making it one of our most successful sports. Niels also instigated an aggressive plan to bid for, and run, international events as a means to drive revenue and awareness in the UK. Since 2007 UKA has hosted 2 European indoor championships, one world indoor championships, 2 world half marathons, the European team championships and, in 2017, the first ever joint hosting of the IAAF and IPC World Athletics Championships.

In Sept 2017 Niels left UKA to set up FABRIC GROUP Ltd – a specialist consultancy advising businesses, federations, cities and governments invest in their communities through sport, the arts and charity. He is currently retained by the Board of USA 2021 World Atheltics Championships to provide strategic planning advice and Board assurance.
Jon Dutton

Chief Executive - Rugby League World Cup 2021

Jon Dutton
Chief Executive - Rugby League World Cup 2021

Having led England’s successful bid to host the 2021 Rugby League World Cup, Jon was appointed Chief Executive of the tournament; leaving his position as Rugby Football League Director of Projects and People.

A sports management graduate with over 20 years’ experience in the sports industry. Jon has previously worked for the PGA European Golf Tour, Manchester FA (with a secondment to UEFA) and ran his own sports consultancy company. Jon was the Operations Director for Rugby League World Cup 2013, Director of Readiness for the Tour de France Grand Depart in 2014 and Tournament Director for the Ladbrokes Four Nations tournament in 2016. In 2017 Jon was the International Federation Tournament Commissioner for the Rugby League World Cup in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

Jon is also a member of UK Sports Major Events Panel, a specialist advisory body. Its main purpose is to represent the interests of UK Sport by making major event investment recommendations to the UK Sport Board.
Mark England OBE

Director of Sports Services - Team GB

Mark England OBE
Director of Sports Services - Team GB

Mark is one of Great Britain’s leading sports administrators having been involved in sport in the UK for 35 years. Mark has had senior positions with Sport England where he was Assistant Director of the National Centres; and a number of local authorities including the City of Glasgow, where he was Race Director of the Great Scottish Run for 4 years.

Mark has been employed at the British Olympic Association since 2001 as their Director of Sport Services, during which time he has transformed the BOA’s services to National Governing Bodies and athletes and has attended 9 Olympic/Olympic Winter Games in a senior capacity. As Chef de Mission for Team GB at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Mark steered Team GB to their most successful performance for over a century when Team GB became the first ever nation to win more medals after hosting a home Olympic Games. He has been retained as Chef de Mission for Team GB at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and by Team England in a similar capacity for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022.

He sits as an expert advisor on the International Olympic Committee Coordination Commission for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and is a Board member of Surrey Sports Park.

Mark was awarded an OBE in 2016 for Services to Sport
Duncan Goodhew MBE

Youth Sport Trust & Olympic Gold and Bronze Medallist

Duncan Goodhew MBE
Youth Sport Trust & Olympic Gold and Bronze Medallist

Duncan’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!”
David Gower OBE

England Cricket Captain, Broadcaster and Journalist

David Gower OBE
England Cricket Captain, Broadcaster and Journalist
Colin Jackson OBE

World, Commonwealth and European Champion Hurdler

Colin Jackson OBE
World, Commonwealth and European Champion Hurdler

Before retiring in 2003, Colin Jackson was an outdoor World Record holder for 13 years and still holds the World Indoor 60m Hurdles title. Bursting onto the scene, setting a European junior record of 13.44 in 1986, Colin ranked in the world top 10 for 16 years, and for the last 7 of his career, he was never out of the top 3.

Colin has been an integral part of the BBC Athletics coverage since the Athens Olympics, covering every major event, including the London 2012 Olympics and most recently the Rio Olympics. Since retiring from athletics, Colin has expanded his role in TV by co-hosting the BBC1 live morning show Sunday Life, as well as dazzling us all with his dancing skills on Strictly Come Dancing. More recently Colin has appeared on ITV1′s Dancing on Ice Goes Gold, the BBC’s 24 Hours in the Past and ITV’s Drive, alongside the likes of Louis Walsh, Johnny Vegas and Ella Eyre.

2013 saw Colin launch his own mass participation event, Go Dad Run, to raise awareness of men’s health issues. After the success of the inaugural event, the last four years have seen the race expand to venues nationwide and to date, thousands of men have come together to help the cause. Colin has also joined forces with the Wings for Life World Run campaign, as an Ambassador and Global Race Director.
Chester King

CEO - British Esports Association

Chester King
CEO - British Esports Association

Chester is the founder and CEO of the British Esports Association, the national body for esports in the UK. The Chair is Andy Payne, OBE and Vice-Chair is The Rt. Hon Ed Vaizey MP (former Minister of Culture).

The UK Government (The Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP) gave authority for it to be established in January 2016. It is an independent, not-for-profit, organisation whose main aims are to help develop the UK’s grassroots esports scene and provide an infrastructure to nurture future British talent.

British Esports started the UK’s national schools esports championships in 2018 competing in: League of Legends, Overwatch and Rocket League. British Esports is supporting esports education in schools. www.britishesports.org

Chester spoke at the inaugural International Olympics Committee’s Esports Forum in Lausanne in July 2018. He was appointed a member of the IOC’s ‘Esports and Gaming Liaison Group’ in January 2019 (the only person from the UK).
Tove Okunniwa

Chief Executive - Sport London

Tove Okunniwa
Chief Executive - Sport London

Tove 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.
Keith Pelley

CEO - The European Tour

Keith Pelley
CEO - The European Tour

On Monday August 3, 2015, Canadian Keith Pelley became the fourth Chief Executive in the history of The European Tour. Prior to joining The European Tour, he was President of Rogers Media in Toronto where he was responsible for leading the overall operations of the company’s diverse portfolio, including Television, Radio, Publishing, Digital Media, The Shopping Channel, subscription-based content services, Toronto Blue Jays, and Rogers Centre. Before that, he was Executive Vice-President of Strategic Planning at CTVglobemedia, President of Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium – which won a record seven awards for its coverage of Vancouver 2010 – President and CEO of the Toronto Argonauts Football Club, and President of The Sports Network in Canada, a company he first joined as an Editorial Assistant in 1986. He is a graduate of Ryerson University with a BA in Radio and Television Arts, and also received an ATCL diploma from Trinity College in London.
Karen Pickering MBE

Commonwealth & World Champion Swimmer

Karen Pickering MBE
Commonwealth & World Champion Swimmer

During 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.
Nick Pink

Chief Executive, England Hockey

Nick Pink
Chief Executive, England Hockey

Nick joined England Hockey as Chief Executive in November 2019, having held the same position with England Golf for the previous four years. Nick has a background in sports administration having worked for the International Cricket Council, UK Sport and the Youth Sport Trust.
Matthew Porter

CEO - Professional Darts Corporation

Matthew Porter
CEO - Professional Darts Corporation

Matthew Porter has been Chief Executive of the Professional Darts Corporation since January 2008, as well as a director of the PDC’s parent company, Matchroom Sport.

During that time, he has overseen the progress of the sport to unprecedented levels where it now pays out in excess of £14m prize money annually and has introduced a structure which provides a pathway from picking up a dart for the first time to being crowned World Champion, with the introduction of Development and Challenge Tours, as well as a World Series for elite players.

Porter was Chief Executive of Leyton Orient FC when the club was owned by Matchroom, as well as serving on the board of The Football League. In 2006 he was appointed as the youngest chief executive in English football by O’s chairman Barry Hearn, aged just 26. His appointment coincided with the Club’s promotion to League 1 and he oversaw their progression to an established side in the division which included narrowly missing out on promotion at the end of the 2013/14 season before the Club was sold.
Nigel Walker OBE

National Director, English Institute of Sport

Nigel Walker OBE
National Director, English Institute of Sport

A 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).
Sir Clive Woodward OBE

England Rugby World Cup 2003 Winning Coach

Sir Clive Woodward OBE
England Rugby World Cup 2003 Winning Coach

Sir Clive Woodward is the World Cup winning Head Coach who led England’s rugby players to World Cup glory in Australia in 2003. A former England International and British & Irish Lion himself, during Clive’s tenure as Head Coach England moved from 6th in the world to being the number one ranked team, winning every trophy an England team can win.

In 2006 Clive joined the British Olympic Association. As Team GB’s Director of Sport he worked in close partnership with key stakeholders in British Sport to support the national coaches and athletes at the Beijing & Vancouver Olympics as well as deliver Team GB’s most successful Olympic Games in the modern era at London 2012.

Clive is currently the Founder and Chairman of Hive Learning – an app which has digitised Clive’s coaching methods and is designed to help people learn better together in business and sport and is the Director of Sport for the APEX2100 International Ski Academy which aims to become the World’s Leading High-Performance Academy for young, aspiring athletes wanting to achieve their goals in Alpine Skiing.

Judging Information

The Sports Business Awards will be judged independently by an esteemed panel who possess a wealth of knowledge and experience between them.
The scoring will all be conducted online, without any reference to other scorers and based solely on the submission of the entrant. This will ensure the scores are unbiased and judges are not swayed by the opinions of other panel members.
Each entry will be scored by at least 4 judges in total. The organisers will collate the individual scores and use the average marks given to initially decide the finalists and ultimately to determine the award winners.
Where the average scores are so close that it is too difficult to determine a winner, then other judges will be asked to evaluate these entries as well in order to make a final decision.
The information provided to judges will be used solely for the purposes of assessing the entries. Potentially sensitive information will not be made public.
Judges will absent themselves from any discussions where they have a vested interest.
The judges’ decision is final, no correspondence will be entered into and no reasons given for decisions.
The shortlisted entrants will be announced in March 2020.
If you need help with your entry or require any clarification, please contact Katy Atkins on katy@r3events.co.uk or telephone 0208 788 3710.