Board of Trustees

Marc Woods

Marc Woods is a board advisor and gold medal winning Paralympian who has created and delivered leadership, behavioural and communication strategies and development programmes for a range of organisations working with senior executives in 32 different countries and 100 different nationalities. Marc’s background is integral to his helping organisations perform to the best of their ability, in an ever-disruptive world. He competed internationally as a swimmer for 17 years, winning 12 medals from five Paralympic Games. Over time he became recognised for his ability to get the best from himself and the teams he was part of. Particularly interested in the attributes, behaviours and values that individuals bring to organisations to balance ‘positive disruption’ and ‘fit’, he is co-author of Beyond the Call and the Coomber-Woods Discretionary Effort tool.

Additional responsibilities with CIMSPA

• Chair of the Nominations Committee

Manos Kapterian

Manos was appointed to the board in May 2018. He is the Chief Operating Officer at Saïd Business School and works closely with the Dean and the Board to shape and deliver the School’s strategic direction. He leads the School’s non-academic operations and the professional services which support the broad range of teaching, research and global facing activities of the Business School.

Manos is a member of both the School Board and the executive leadership team.

Before joining Saïd Business School, Manos had a 20-year career at Pearson, the world’s leading learning company where he held senior commercial, operational and transformation roles working in the UK and Internationally across the examination and publishing sides of the business.

He is passionate about the power of education and life-long learning in unlocking personal and professional growth.

Manos holds an MBA from University of Westminster and is a Fellow at the Chartered Management Institute.

Additional responsibilities with CIMSPA

• Chair of the Membership Committee

Lorna Brooks

Lorna is Director and Founder of Freedom Activities CIC providing inclusive sports and physical activity sessions in the community. She also works as a personal trainer and has been actively involved in the physical activity sector for the last 15 years. Lorna has both a BA (Hons) in Sports Development and Coaching and more recently gained an MSc in Adapted Sports.

She is passionate about creating opportunities for people of any ability to be active together within a safe and fun environment. Through her work, Lorna has gained many years of experience helping people from a variety of backgrounds including those with long-term health issues and disabilities.

Lorna also sits on the board of Every Body Moves, a programme within ParalympicsGB, as a lived experience advisory board member.

Alicia Gayle

A group exercise practitioner for over seven years, Alicia has gained a wealth of challenging and rewarding experience working with individuals of all age groups and abilities, assisting them in initiating or maintaining a healthy, active lifestyle tailored to their specific needs.

Throughout her career, Alicia has always championed the value of connecting with fellow professionals and building support networks where collaborative learning and expertise can be shared with her peers. Alicia is a committed advocate of the positive impact that health and wellness programmes can have on the professionals who deliver them and the communities that they serve.

She plans to continue nurturing a culture of health and wellbeing in the sector as an elected trustee, focussing on forming new partnerships with health-related organisations and empowering community-based professionals to broaden the scope of their delivery.

Tracy Levy

As a Group Exercise Practitioner with 24 years of teaching experience, Tracy has a wealth of experience working within the industry as an exercise teacher, trustee, company secretary and class participant.

In more recent years, Tracy was Chair of the Movement and Dance Division of the Sport and Recreation Alliance, in which she was instrumental in bringing key members of the sector together to produce key pieces of research that are now being used to show the impact that movement and dance is having within the sport and physical activity sector. 

Tracy believes there is ‘something’ for everyone at all stages of life, and everyone should have the opportunity to experience good-quality physical activity.

Joelle Conway

Joelle is a marketing and communications specialist, currently Chief Marketing Officer at myHealthSpecialist.com. Having worked across leisure, sport and healthcare for 20 years, she is passionate about implementing strategies that benefit the health and wellbeing of the people.

Additional responsibilities with CIMSPA

• Chair of the Disciplinary Committee
• Trustee with responsibility for Welfare & Safety

Jonathan Drakes

Jon is currently leading brand partnerships and marketing strategy for McLaren Racing. Prior to this he spent 9-years working with Fuse, Omnicom Media Group’s Sports & Entertainment marketing agency. Most recently he led Fuse’s business in Asia-Pacific, prior to which he was director of strategy in EMEA working with clients such as Renault, Vodafone, Volkswagen, HSBC, Johnnie Walker and Carlsberg.

Jon has also authored a book on the future impact of technology on sport; Merge Sport.

Adrian Gaveglia

Adrian is a CFO who specialises in scaling growth businesses across the Consumer, Tech and Media sectors. With over 20 years’ experience in Finance he is currently advising several fast growth businesses on their funding, growth strategies and business planning. Adrian is keen to bring this experience to help support CIMSPA’s growth plans and help implement its ambitious plans for its National Skills Academy.

Additional responsibilities with CIMSPA

• Treasurer
• Chair of the Audit and Probity Committee

Elena Portas

Elena is a Strategy Consultant and Health Expert working for a global management consultancy in the sport and physical activity sector. She leads the organisations’ Health Practice which supports clients to better understand and harness the benefits of physical activity on population health.

She is passionate about supporting the next generation of young people to have better access to sport and physical activity, and to further their education and careers in the industry.

Additional responsibilities with CIMSPA

• Youth Panel Advisor

Donna Fraser OBE OLY

Donna Fraser OBE OLY has over 20 years’ experience as an international athlete and successful businessperson.

Following an impressive athletics career, representing Team GB at four Olympic Games, Donna took on leadership roles with a range of organisations.

In 2021 Donna was awarded an OBE in the New Years Honours which acknowledged her outstanding contributions to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion. In 2022, Donna was named World Athletics’ Woman of the Year.

Donna is a non-executive director and EDI Board Champion for the Commonwealth Games England and is now Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for the Professional Cricketers’ Association.

Gavin Stewart

Gavin Stewart has extensive experience in the financial services sector including 27 years working for financial services regulators.

Prior to his financial services career, Gavin competed internationally as a rower, participating in two Olympic Games.

Gavin has also worked in sports administration and been Chair of the BOA Athletes’ Commission and UK Sport’s Lottery Panel.

Gavin is also a writer having published a novel and numerous blogs and articles on financial services and regulation.