The Board

Director Status – Independent
Appointment date – 19 September 2015

Committee membership – Nominations Committee, Remuneration Committee

Netball Region based in – West Midlands

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.

She was previously Chief Executive of ITNET plc, a Birmingham based IT and Business Services company and the first female President of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce in 2009 as well as setting up the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Enterprise Partnership Board in 2010/11.

Director Status – Senior Independent Director
Appointment date – 28 January 2020
Committee membership – Nominations Committee (Chair)
Netball Region based in – London & South East

Jennifer has risen quickly to the top as a dynamic communicator, having been talent-spotted for rapid promotion at every company she has worked for.

Jennifer’s former career as a championship 400m runner and hurdler for England was early evidence of her drive and determination. She was on the Board of Trustees of Working Families, one of the UK’s leading work-life balance charities and she was formally Chair of Governors for a primary school.

She has recently joined the London Stock Exchange Group as Head of Communications, Data & Analytics and D&I. Prior to that she has held roles at GSK, focused on using a communications strategic lens to review and support their inclusion and diversity agenda, alongside a number of other special projects. And also as Director of Internal Communications, Experience & Sustainability at Direct Line Group. As part of the Group’s Strategic Leadership Team, she was responsible for developing the Group’s internal communications strategy, including employee engagement as well as developing and executing a new corporate social responsibility strategy. She is also a prominent diversity and inclusion specialist, advocating for diversity and inclusion pan-industry and has been instrumental in introducing and setting D&I strategies within various organisations.

Director Status – Independent Director
Appointment date – 17 September 2016

Committee membership – Audit & Risk Committee (Chair), Nominations Committee
Netball Region based in – West Midlands

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.

Director Status – Independent
Appointment date – 24 November 2022
Netball Region based in – East Midlands

Committee membership – Integrity & Clinical Governance Management Group (Chair)

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.

Director Status – Co-opted
Appointment date – 16 September 2023

Committee membership – Audit & Risk Committee
Netball Region based in – London & South East

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.

Jill has played netball since the age of 11 for school, university and in local leagues. She continues to play socially and now enjoys umpiring as well as playing.

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Netball has always been an important part of my life and I am delighted to be joining the Board at such an exciting time for England Netball. I am looking forward to using my skills and experience to contribute to the ongoing success of the sport and to playing my part in its future development.

Director Status – Nominated
Appointment date – 16 September 2023

Committee membership – N/A
Netball Region based in – West Midlands

Claire joined the England Netball Board in September 2023 from the membership vote.  She started playing netball at age nine initially at school and club levels before representing Birmingham County and playing at a Regional level.  Her commitment to the sport continued through university where she served as Netball Club Captain.  Even though no longer playing herself, she can generally be found courtside supporting both of her daughters who are in the early stages of their own netball journeys within the West Midlands region.

Claire is a qualified Chartered Accountant with 20+ years experience.  She currently works as Director of Group Finance at Stonegate Group, the largest pub company in the UK, where she leads a team of over 100 professionals in providing critical day-to-day support through the delivery of accurate, timely and structured information, within a robust control environment.  She plays a key role in all corporate re-structuring and managing external relationships with HMRC, auditors, lawyers, banks and the private equity investors supporting the business.

Director Status – Nominated
Appointment date – 16 September 2023

Committee membership – N/A
Netball Region based in – South West

Director Status – Independent
Appointment date – 16 September 2023

Committee membership – Remuneration Committee
Netball Region based in – London & South East

David has spent the last seven years as Chief Operating Officer at the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and prior to this, oversaw the strategy, insights, HR, integrity and public policy teams as the ECB’s Chief Strategy Officer.

Before joining the ECB, David held a number of senior roles at Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, including Director of Policy and Chief Advisor to the CEO.  He was also seconded into Government in 2009 as a Director of the Digital Britain Report, which examined the transformational nature of digital technologies and the policy responses needed as a result.

A qualified lawyer who specialised in competition and media law before joining Ofcom. He is currently also a member of the Sport England Board.

Director Status – Nominated
Appointment date – 28 March 2018

Committee membership – Remuneration Committee, Regional Chairs Forum (Chair)

Netball Region based in – North East

Clare became a nominated non-executive director at England Netball in March 2018. She also currently sits on the organisation’s Nominations Committee, as well as Chairing the Regional Chairs’ Forum as the Board representative.

She has played netball since secondary school, and her playing career includes stints representing her province at the South African National Championships in 2001, competing for both Loughborough and Northumbria universities in BUSA (now BUCS), playing in the inaugural year of the Netball Superleague in 2005-2006, and more recently at YWCA Bury and Riverside.

Clare qualified as a commercial lawyer in 2008 before moving to work in the sport and physical activity sector in Manchester. She is currently the Chief Executive of Rise, the Active Partnership working across Northumberland and Tyne & Wear.

Director Status – Independent
Appointment date – 16 September 2023

Committee membership – Remuneration Committee (Chair), Nominations Committee
Netball Region based in – London & South East

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.

Director Status – Independent
Appointment date – 18 September 2022

Committee membership – N/A
Netball Region based in – London & South East

David has spent the last ten years working as a Board advisor to a portfolio of high-growth companies within the sport, media and technology sectors and the previous twenty years working in senior brand marketing and commercial television roles. He is currently Chair at FUSE, part of the Omnicom award-winning marketing agency, and alongside being a Director at England Netball he is also Board Advisor to Twenty First Group, Immersive Gym and a Member of the Stakeholder Board at British Canoeing.

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.
Through her leadership and influence netball has supported the overall growth of women’s sport, helping to address the gender inequality gap and inactivity levels in traditionally hard to reach population groups.

Netball Region based in – London & South East

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.