Board and governance

AoC Sport’s board of directors is made up of college principals, AoC and AoC Sport senior management plus three independent directors. Its purpose is to shape the direction and priorities of the organisation.

Chair of AoC Sport:

• Jatinder Sharma CBE DL - Chair, Principal and Chief Executive of Walsall College

Our board of directors are:

• Dr William Bird MBE – General Practitioner, and Chief Executive of Intelligent Health. William is a GP and CEO of Intelligent Health. He has been passionate about getting people more active since the mid-1990s when he set up Health Walks and the Green Gym from his practice near Reading. Intelligent Health aims to get whole towns and cities more active using gamification with a strong emphasis on reaching the more disadvantaged communities.
  William's enthusiasm about getting people connected to nature led the Independent on Sunday newspaper to vote him as one of the top 100 people in Britain to make people happy and BBC Wildlife magazine named him as one of the top 30 environmentalists in the UK. He was awarded the MBE in 2010 for services to physical activity and health.
  
• Peter Brophy – Director of Finance, Association of Colleges
  
• David Hughes CBE – Chief Executive, Association of Colleges
• Mark Locking – Principal and Chief Executive, Lincoln College Group
• Jo Maher - Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Sport at Loughborough University and Professor of Practice in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health
  Sciences. Jo has a BSc and MSc from Loughborough University, and studied Strategic Leadership at the University of Oxford. She is also a qualified teacher in Further Education from University of Derby.
  She spent 10 years practising as a Sports Psychologist, working with athletes across a range of sports from grassroots to Olympic standard. She has been a member of the FA Council since 2019 serving on the National Game Board and Chairing the Football Development Committee.
  After a 17 year career in Further Education, serving as a Principal and CEO for seven years at Boston College and Loughborough College respectively, she has now progressed to Loughborough University.
  
• Mark Ryan - Vice Principal – Curriculum
  Mark is the Vice Principal – Curriculum across RNN College Group. Mark has strategic responsibility for all curriculum areas along with day-day oversight of all curriculum and learning within the group, leading to student/customer success. Mark works with Directors of the College Group to ensure that the curriculum is high performing and meeting the needs of the students and stakeholders.
  Mark started his educational career as a Sports Lecturer, before progressing into educational management and overseeing many areas of curriculum, sub contracts, projects, higher education, apprenticeships and commercial. Mark is extremely passionate about curriculum, transforming lives and collaborating to ensure every student and community is supported.
  Mark is Chair of the English College Football Association (ECFA) and within the role is a member of the Association of Colleges Sport Board. Mark supports the work of the ECFA ensuring strategy is aligned to the Football Assocation and the FE members and stakeholders.
  
• Vanessa Varvas – Chief Marketing Officer, University of East London.
  
  Vanessa has had experience in transforming organisations, developing and implementing strategic plans in established and start-up environments and extensive international experience with a global outlook and managing a matrix of key stakeholders.
  
  She is a member of Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR Accredited Practitioner) and Institute of Directors (IoD). In addition, she has an MSc in Chinese Language, Business and International Relations from the University of Sheffield, a PG Diploma in Public Relations from CIPR and a BSc degree in Criminal Justice and Political Science from the University of Guelph, Canada.
  
  Vanessa is a keen advocate for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and the power of physical activity and sport. She is also the Executive Sponsor for the UEL LGBTQ+ staff network.

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