Board Members

He oversaw a period during which the sport won three Olympic and two Paralympic medals at Tokyo 2020 and hosted the 2019 Taekwondo World Championships in Manchester. Prior to that, he had held advisory roles at both UK Sport and the British Olympic Association, and will bring his experience and knowledge from these positions to the UK Sports Institute.

As well as his role as the National Director of the UK Sports Institute, Matt is the Board lead for Safeguarding.

Matt is the Chair of Two Circles, a data-driven sports marketing agency which works with some of the world’s biggest sports organisations. Matt co-founded Two Circles in 2011, and led the company’s growth to become one of the leading agencies in the country, including winning the coveted title of Sport Industry Awards Agency of the Year in 2017.

Subsequently he spent ten years with MAN Truck and Bus (part of the VW group), latterly as Finance Director.

Emma’s portfolio of roles include being a member of the Board of The National Lottery Community Fund, the Senior Independent Director at the British Paralympic Association (BPA), a BPA-nominated Trustee at the National Paralympic Heritage Fund, a Board member of The Boat Race Company Limited, a member of the NCVO Advisory Council and a member of the Investment Committee of Sporting Capital.

Until May 2019, Emma was Chief Executive of the Sport and Recreation Alliance and prior to that had more than 10 years’ experience in the senior civil service, working across three central government departments. Emma was a Deputy Director in the Cabinet Office with responsibility for social policy and legislation and then Deputy Ambassador in the British Embassy in Madrid.

She was also Private Secretary to the Prime Minister and then led the Olympic and Paralympic Legacy Unit set up to support Lord Coe as the Prime Minister’s Olympic and Paralympic Legacy Ambassador post-London 2012. Emma spent her early career as an officer in the British Army.

Previously, he served as Chief Executive Officer at British Rowing between 2015 and 2021, having been the first Chief Executive of the UK’s national anti-doping organisation, UK Anti-Doping (UKAD).

He has worked in sport for more than 20 years, starting his career as Sport Services Manager for Paralympics, New Zealand, after completing a Bachelor of Science in Sport (Science and Administration) degree at Nottingham Trent University in 1991.

Andy went on to take the role of Director of Drug Free Sport at UK Sport, and he was Chairman of the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) Taskforce to determine whether the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) had met the conditions for reinstatement following its suspension from the IPC before the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

Anna competed in rowing at the Beijing and London Olympics, winning first a bronze, and then a gold in the double sculls alongside Dame Katherine Grainger. Her academic background is in science, with a PhD in applied mathematics.

She is a former McKinsey Consultant with a particular interest in digital and analytics projects, and sports performance projects. She has two boys and lives on a small farm.

She has worked in a variety of sports including Gymnastics, Boxing, Taekwondo and Tennis, and held the role of Medical Officer for Team GB at three Olympic Games.

In professional football, Cowie was appointed as the first ever doctor to the England women’s football team and was Head of Medicine and Sports Science at two Premier League clubs. She is now the Head of Medicine at the Football Association.

A former Partner for Accenture, he has also been the UK and North America CEO for Capco, and between 2016 and 2018 was Managing Partner for IBM Global Business Services, in North America.

His most recent employers have been Capita, and now NCR, where he is Executive VP for Professional Services.

She joined from the Football Association, where she headed up the Performance Insight team, having previously worked with UK Sport as Head of Performance Pathways and also led sports science and nutrition programmes at Saracens RFC.

She holds a PhD in Sport Science from Durham University and has also been Programme Leader for Sports Science at the London Metropolitan University.

Those roles have covered development functions (NCF / England Hockey), performance roles (Scottish Institute of Sport establishment / England Netball PD), executive remits (CEO Scottish Athletics / Strategy Director & Interim CEO UKA), and Non-Executive Director roles (Commonwealth Games England & Scotland, Scottish Cycling, British Cycling).

Nigel has led British Curling since 2019 in the combined CEO/PD remit of Executive Performance Director, and in that capacity was Curling Team Leader for the 2022 Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Nigel joined the UKSI Board in January 2024.

Currently serving as the Finance Director at the Rugby Football Union, she also holds positions as a Trustee of the Rugby Football Foundation and a Director at Rugby Care Limited.

During the initial stages of her career, Sarah successfully obtained her Chartered Accountant qualification at PwC and undertook roles at Vodafone Australia.

Sarah joined the UKSI Board in January 2024.

Lisa is currently Head of Planning and Performance Management at the Houses of Parliament Restoration Programme.

This is the first year that the UKSI has been a Host Board as part of the nationwide Boardroom Apprentice scheme.