ENGLAND NETBALL - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Chairman of Audit & Risk Committee
- Chartered Accountant
Annmarie Wallis is a qualified chartered accountant with 25+ year experience in senior Finance roles across both the private and not for profit sectors. She is currently Director of Finance at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, a high profile Arts charity based in Birmingham. Annmarie has been involved in netball since the age of 7 - playing for school, county, university and Birmingham League teams. Now retired from playing she continues to be involved in netball in the West Midlands, umpiring in senior, little league and back to netball leagues. Annmarie joined the Board of England Netball in 2016, she is the Chair of the Finance & Audit Committee.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Director of G - Labs
Bridget Blow is currently a Director of G-Labs and the Chair of England Netball. Her previous Non-Executive roles have included Chairman of GTP3, Chair of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Deputy Chair of the Coventry Building Society, Chairman of Harvard International plc and Non-executive Director of the Bank of England.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director of Netball Super League
Claire joined England Netball in June 2023 with 15 years' experience working across the sports and marketing sectors. Previously the Group Chief Executive Officer for Netball Scotland and NSL Club Strathclyde Sirens, Claire has been instrumental in transforming netball in Scotland, setting new standards for the sport and delivering industry-leading results. Specialising in commercial strategy, brand, marketing, and partnership acquisition and activation, her remit as the NSL's first-ever Managing Director sees her work closely with the NSL clubs to strategically leverage the status and reputation of the domestic league, and take it to new heights of visibility and influence.
Job Titles:
- Director Status - Independent
Job Titles:
- Director of Performance
- Performance Director
David joined England Netball in Winter 2020, having enjoyed a highly successful 12-year tenure as Performance Director of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) where he was responsible for developing the systems, programmes, people and pathways that identified and prepared players for the England team.
During his time as Performance Director, the England team won the 2019 Cricket World Cup and the 2010 World Twenty20 competition and were ranked number one in the world in all formats of the game.
David, who has also worked as a High Performance Consultant for the likes of UK Sport, British Canoeing, and British Weightlifting, has a wealth of experience in the elite sporting landscape and is passionate about the potential success of netball on the road to the next Commonwealth Games and Netball World Cup.
He works closely with Vitality Roses Head Coach Jess Thirlby and Vitality Netball Superleague clubs to continue to build on the successes of recent years and to support the development of world leading performance environments for the sport.
Job Titles:
- Director of Finance & Corporate Resources
Emma joined England Netball as Director of Finance & Corporate Resources in late 2017.
She joined as a finance professional with 15 years of experience and is a fully-qualified Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) accountant.
Emma, who graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 1994, spent four years in the medical sector as a National Financial Management Trainee with the NHS and a Deputy Finance Manager at Nottingham University Hospital.
In her two years with England Volleyball, Emma led in the strategic and operational financial performance at the national governing body, increased turnover, and introduced procurement strategy among other responsibilities.
She continued her time in sport with four years at the Football Association as a Finance Business Partner/Finance Manager where she was a key member of the Senior Management Team responsible for decision making, financial planning and analysis.
She joined England Netball in 2017 with a proven track record spanning all areas of financial management and has helped to sustain the national governing body through her effective decisions at a strategic level.
In August 2019, Fran succeeded Joanna Adams as the new Chief Executive Officer to lead England Netball into an exciting new era.
Joining England Netball in 2001, Fran has grown within the organisation, being appointed as Director of Development in 2010 and subsequently leading on the phenomenal growth in participation the sport has seen over the last nine years.
She has held a number of roles within the organisation and overseen a broad spectrum of areas including participation, capital investment, governance, competition and events, coaching, officiating, volunteering, talent and insight.
During her tenure, Fran's contribution has to date included: securing substantial investment from new commercial partners and the main government funding agencies, pioneering the Participant-Centred Approach, and driving the development of England Netball's highly successful ‘Your Game Your Way' strategy.
She has also overseen 10 years of consistent and unparalleled growth in participation and membership, developing industry leading partnerships with organisations such as the Women's Institute and introducing market leading programmes such as Back to Netball, Walking Netball and the new U11 product Bee Netball.
Leading on the Vitality Netball World Cup legacy strategy, she successfully harnessed the impact of both the Commonwealth Games and Netball World Cup to inspire a nation of new netballers. 130,700 women started playing netball or more netball following the 2018 Commonwealth Games and this was bettered in 2019 with an incredible 160,000 women starting or playing more after the Netball World Cup.
Job Titles:
- Director of Netball Super League & Competitions
Ian has 15 years experience within the sport sector and 12 years specifically within sport event management. Having graduated from Sheffield Hallam University in 2004, he held several sport development roles at Local Authorities before being appointed as Sport Event Manager at Nottingham City Council in 2007.
In the five years at Nottingham City Council he supported the hosting of a wide programme of events in the city, ranging from international sporting competitions including the ICC T20 World Cup and the Women's Champions Trophy Hockey, to national and local events that inspired local residents to become more active.
Ian joined England Netball in 2012 as Community Competition and Events Manager, where he was responsible for the organisations national competitions and finals. In 2014, he assumed responsibility for the delivery of home internationals and during this time has significantly grown ticket sales and commercial return on these events.
In 2015, he was promoted on an interim basis to manage the competition and events team and oversee the entire portfolio of competition and events, as well as specifically manage the Netball Super League and this role was made permanent in 2016.
Ian was seconded to the Vitality Netball World Cup in August 2018 as Head of Sport Competition where he successfully oversaw all areas of the sport and competition including the management of teams, officials, technical officials, sport specific volunteers, anti doping, field of play, training and warm up venues and sport presentation.
Ian returned to England Netball in September 2019 and was successfully appointed into the newly created position of Director of Superleague and Competitions, where he is responsible for the strategic development and growth of the VNSL and competitions.
Job Titles:
- Coach
- Head
- Vitality Roses Head Coach
Vitality Roses Head Coach Jess Thirlby has been at the helm of the national side since July 2019 after an extensive playing and coaching career.
Jess' solid credentials stem from her 16-year record as an elite netballer and some 15 years as a netball coach.
Jess represented her country from 1991-2006 and, in 2006, she transitioned into senior coaching with the Celtic Dragons, having already coached at England U17 and U19 during 2004 and 2005.
She has held the position of England U21 Head and Assistant Coach during two World Youth Cups (Cook Islands 2009 and Glasgow 2013) and has worked as both an Assistant and Technical Coach with the senior England team (2013-15).
During her time at Team Bath, Jess consolidated her experience as an elite player to take on the role of Head Coach at the England Netball Intensive Netball Training Centre, which in turn led to her role as Director of Netball at Team Bath in 2008.
Jess was appointed following the Vitality Netball World Cup and is set to lead the Vitality Roses through the next four-year cycle, which includes the Commonwealth Games in 2022 and the Vitality Netball World Cup in 2023.
A former England international herself, representing her country at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Jess' first competitive action as Head Coach was a three-match test series victory over South Africa.
Jess Thirlby named as finalist at UK Coaching Awards 2023
Job Titles:
- Chartered Accountant
- Director Status - Co - Opted
Jill is a Chartered Accountant and has been a Partner at the professional services firm, PwC, for more than 10 years. Jill specialises in Governance, Risk and Compliance and has significant experience in helping clients to solve complex problems as well as developing talent in leadership roles. Her portfolio includes multinationals as well as not for profit and large private businesses and she has worked across a range of sectors. Jill's client roles have deepened her expertise in understanding and managing a wide range of risks from technology to people to regulation.
Job Titles:
- Honorary President
- President
Joan was appointed President in 2020. She has previously held a number of key positions at England Netball spending three years as Vice Chair and then five years as Chair.
She also is no stranger to running competitions and having undertaken the herculean role of International Technical Delegate for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014 and Vitality Netball World Cup 2019 in Liverpool.
Her netballing credentials are extensive and this was recognised in the Queen's 90th birthday honours in 2016 where she received an MBE for her services to the game.
Katy joined the organisation in 2020 from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) where she held the role of Head of National Programmes.
During her time with the ECB, Katy spearheaded its first national programme designed for children; All Stars Cricket, which has seen 185,000 children engage with the game over three years, plus she secured £1.4m of Sport England funding and also successfully delivered a number of large scale innovative projects which led to her inclusion in the Financial Times' Rising Stars list.
Katy previously worked for England Netball for seven years in senior development roles such as National Coaching Manager and National Development Manager. During that period she spearheaded our flagship participation programme Back to Netball which she went on to see win the National Lottery Sports Project of the Year Award in 2012.
Job Titles:
- Director of Commercial and Marketing
Mark Foster joined England Netball in May 2023 from the Rugby Football League (RFL) where he held the role of Chief Commercial Officer. With more than 15 years' experience in commercial, marketing, digital and broadcast leadership within Rugby, Cricket and Football, Mark has an exceptional track record of commercial success and is responsible for driving revenue and audience growth across England Netball and Netball Super League properties through the building and fostering of authentic partnerships. Mark assumes overall responsibility for all commercial, marketing and communications functions at England Netball.
Job Titles:
- Performance Director at the LTA
Michael Bourne is Performance Director at the LTA since October 2020. He is responsible for the development and delivery of the LTA performance strategy inspiring and enabling players to reach their full potential, and has oversight of the Tennis and Wheelchair Tennis Player Pathways, Sport Science & Medicine, and Coach Education & Development functions.
Michael has extensive experience of elite performance programmes and player development from across a wide range of sports. Prior to the LTA, he spent 6 years at UK Sport where he held a number of senior roles overseeing investment into Olympic and Paralympic sports in the UK and supporting elite athlete preparations towards the Games.
His career has seen him in roles at British Shooting, English Institute of Sport, and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) where he was Head of Science and Medicine.
Job Titles:
- Director of Business Transformation & Company Secretary
Naomi is an experienced sport governance and project manager with a career of more than 10 years in the sport industry. She joined England Netball in 2011 at the start of her career and has progressed within the organisation working in a number of different roles within the competition, development and business areas of the organisation. This has allowed her to develop a broad and far-reaching knowledge of the sport of netball.
She has played a pivotal role in the development and implementation of England Netball's strategies over the last decade and worked closely with staff and volunteers to support the successful delivery of significant change management projects to enhance the success of the sport. Naomi became the Company Secretary for England Netball in 2017 and alongside this has overseen a number of areas within the organisation including governance, compliance, safeguarding, operations, technology, insight and equality & diversity.
She is passionate about the impact of sport on people's lives and taking an insight led approach to strategy in order to tailor and deliver exceptional experiences. Alongside her roles with England Netball, Naomi has provided insight consultancy support to a number of other sports organisations including Sport England, the RFL, British Canoeing and British Cycling. She is also currently the Vice Chair of Bath Recreation Ltd. a charitable organisation which owns and operates a number of recreational sites seeking to nurture positive lifestyles within the local community and a Trustee of the charity Active4Blood.
Job Titles:
- Director Status - Nominated
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Remuneration Committee
- Human Resources Professional
Tim Rolfe is a Human Resources professional with over 25 years of experience in senior HR roles. After working in HR consulting, latterly as a Director in EY's Human Capital practice, Tim held senior HR roles in RSA plc and Prudential plc, most recently as the Group Human Resources Director for Prudential plc. He currently runs his own independent HR consulting business, providing HR advisory services to financial services sector companies. He has sat on a number of subsidiary company Remuneration and Audit Committees as well as acting as a charity Trustee. Tim umpires in local senior and junior netball leagues.