Like many people, sport is an important part of my life. In the past I was a keen water skier and competed nationally and internationally for over 10 years.
To give something back, I have been a committee member of British Water Ski and Wakeboard for over 15 years. My three sons are all sports enthusiasts and I spend weekends fully involved with organisation, administration and occasionally coaching.
However, where I suppose I am more fortunate than many is that sport is also a major part of my professional life as well. Whilst being a Board member of a busy accountancy practice with a broad portfolio of clients, I also lead the firm’s sports practice.
In particular, I am heavily involved with the National Governing Bodies of many sports – including 14 of the summer Olympic sports who represent about £192m of the £261m performance funding. As well as dealing with the organisations in respect of their audit and tax compliance, I am regularly in touch with them on a variety of day to day financial matters and we even host a few events for the sector throughout the year – educational seminars and the like.
So it was with great interest that I considered a new and exciting opportunity that combined a personal passion for sport with a professional and business role. Sport Taekwondo (STUK), dealing only with the Olympic aspects of the sport, were recruiting an independent Chairman – to improve the governance of the organisation, to increase the level of business skills at Board level and to drive the acquisition of further grants and commercial funding.
Whilst recognising the huge time commitment that it would take – during both business hours and family time (way beyond the nominal fee associated with the role), and having consulted with various clients to check that they did not perceive any conflict (actually, they felt it would further enhance our understanding of the issues that they face) I sought the views of my partners who are pretty serious about our people contributing to the broader business community as part of our corporate social responsibility commitment.
With London 2012 just around the corner it was felt to be just too good an opportunity to turn down. So it was with both great pride and more than a little trepidation that I accepted the role of Chairman of STUK. I hope to be able to share my experiences – where they offer insights to others in similar roles – in future blog posts.
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