Ian McGeechan OBE, Chairman
Ian McGeechan was educated at Moore Grange, Allerton Moor and Carnegie College of Physical Education. He was a schoolteacher for 22 years before joining Scottish Life in 1990 in their marketing department and subsequently becoming Head of Training.
He made his rugby debut for Yorkshire Colts in 1965 and for Yorkshire County XV in 1966. His first Scotland trial was in 1968 and his debut was a standoff v New Zealand at Murrayfield in December 1972. In total Ian won 32 caps for Scotland – 12 at centre, 12 at standoff, with a total of nine games as captain. He scored a total of 21 points for Scotland, toured with the British Lions to South Africa in 1974 and in 1977 to New Zealand playing all eight tests.
He toured with the British Lions as coach in 1989 to Australia, 1993 to New Zealand and 1997 to South Africa. He was the assistant Scotland coach to Derrick Grant from 1986-88 (including the inaugural Rugby World Cup in New Zealand in 1987). Ian was Scotland coach from 1988-1993 and during that period Scotland completed the Grand Slam in 1990, toured New Zealand and came fourth in the rugby World Cup. He joined Scotland as Head Coach in 1999 from Northampton Saints after having won the Allied Dunbar Premiership coach of the season in 1998-99.
Ian has been given many awards. In 1990 he was awarded the OBE, he has a Hon Masters Degree in the Arts from the University of Nottingham and doctorate from Leeds Met University; he was awarded the Mussabini Medal from sports coach UK for his services to coaching; the Pat Marshall award; the Millennium Award from sportscotland in 2000; he was entered into the sports coach UK Hall of Fame in 2001 and appointed Chairman of sports coach UK in April 2005. In December 2003, Ian took up the post of Director of Rugby of the Scottish Rugby Union after Jim Telfer retired but 18 months later was back in hands on coaching as Director of Rugby with London Wasps.
Derek Taylor, Vice Chair
Derek has been the Chairman of the Coachwise (sports coach UK's trading subsidiary) Board of Directors since 1996.
He retired as a Director of the Halifax Building Society in 1996 and served as a Director of a professional football club for 19 years. He was also Chairman of the Yorkshire region of the Lord's Taverners, the recognised official charity for cricket, for eight years.
Nick Bunting
He represented the Home Unions on the International Rugby Board Referee Technical Committee on the development of referee, touch judge and assessor training and development products and represented England on the European Rugby Referee Committee as well as presenting on refereeing matters at the International Rugby Board's annual conferences on the game. Currently, Nick is the Head of Planning, Funding and Resources for the Rugby Football Union and Chair of the Finance Committee of sports coach UK. Other positions held include the membership of the East Midlands Regional Sports Board, Chair of the Northamptonshire County Sports Partnership, Chair of Sports Officials UK and a trustee of the Rugby Football Foundation.
Heather Crouch
Heather Crouch is a former National Coach for Netball and Dyson Award winner. Currently she is Vice Chair of England Netball as well as a Director on the Regional Sports Board for the South West.
Joslyn Hoyte-Smith
Joslyn is an Olympic and Commonwealth medallist, a former lecturer in sport studies and has been involved in high performance for over 10 years. She now works as Athlete Support Manager for the English Institute of Sport.
Tim Lewis
Tim is a seasoned International Manager with over 25 years of senior executive experience in the Financial Services, Retailing and Distribution Industries. He has been the Chief Information Officer for Dairy Farm International Group, a large multi-national retailer with over 2,100 supermarkets, convenience and drug stored across 12 countries.
He was previously the Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer of the largest payment transaction processor to exist in Europe, Managing Director of a financial service business and, most recently, a Divisional Director of MAIN Consultants.
Tim has been a Nonexecutive Director of Coachwise Ltd for over 13 years.
Richard Palmer CBE, M.ed, FRSA
Trained as a teacher at Trinity College, Carmarthen, Richard began his career at the Coronation School, Pembroke Dock becoming Head of the Physical Education Department at Windsor Grammar School. He moved into sports management in 1964 becoming Secretary of the Universities Athletic Union and later Secretary General of British Universities Sports Federation. In 1975 he was appointed Deputy Secretary General of the British Olympic Association and Secretary General in 1977, a position he held for 20 years until his retirement in 1997. During that time he was Deputy Chef de Mission for the Winter and Summer Games of 1976 and Chef de Mission for the Winter and Summer Games of 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996. In addition he was Chef de Mission of England’s Commonwealth Games Teams in 1972, 1982 and 1986.
For many years he was President of the ANOC Commission for the Olympic Games and served on the ANOC Executive Board for three (four yearly) terms. He was Vice President of the European Olympic Committee and remains an Honorary Vice President of that body.
He was a member of the IOC’s Marketing Commission from 1982-1995 and served on the IOC’s Co-ordination Commission for the Games of Atlanta, Sydney and Athens. He is co-author of the IOC Olympic Village Guide.
As far as Olympic Solidarity is concerned he first became involved in 1976 organising the first Solidarity Sports Administration Course at the University of Sussex that year. Later in 1987 he helped set up the Sports Administration Programme and administered it for many years. In 2001 he helped Olympic Solidarity establish its management programme and is still involved as an advisor.
He has been involved in the MEMOS programme since 2000 acting as a tutor as well as lecturing on a number of topics.
Dick Palmer was awarded an OBE in 1987 and CBE in 2006, receiving the Olympic Order in 1998, the ANOC Prix de Merit in 1990, the JL Manning Award (British Sports Writers) in 1996 and the Emlyn Jones Award (British Institute of Sports Administration) in 2003. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1998.
He remains an Executive Vice President of the British Olympic Association and a Director of the British Olympic Foundation as well as sports coach UK. (Chairing the Corporate Governance & Risk Management Committee).
He was Technical Director of the London 2012 Olympic Bid and was awarded a CBE for his work in that regard.
Bev Smith
Bev is a former international gymnast, coach and technical official. She has taught PE, worked as a Technical Development Officer for Welsh Gymnastics and as the Sports Development Manager for the City of Cardiff. She is currently a senior lecturer in Sports Development and Coaching at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff.
In addition to her day job Bev serves as Chair of the National Association for Sports Development and is a non-Executive Director of Welsh Gymnastics Ltd and sports coach UK.
Mark Taylor
Mark heads the Compliance Regulatory Affairs and Resources Department for Goldman Sachs in London. He also leads the firm's compliance effort for Russia and the Middle East. He was named managing director in 2007. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs in 1998, Mark was Head of Compliance for Hambros Bank Limited.
Earlier in his career, he worked at the Financial Services Authority (FSA), where he helped establish the Transaction Monitoring Unit. Mark is a director of the sports coach UK Group Board and chair of it's Risk and Governance Committee.
Andy Worthington MBE
Andy has held a number of roles throughout his career including being a physical education teacher, working for the Scottish Sports Council and local government in Scotland and England. He was director of leisure services and tourism for the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral for 14 years and served as senior advisor to the AMA/LGA on Leisure and Tourism issues as well as a member of the Policy Action Team 10 that looked at the role of Sport and the Arts in counteracting Social Exclusion. He was also Chair of the Chief Cultural and Leisure Officers Association from 1999 – 2001. Andy also chaired the Coaching Task Force whose recommendations influenced the government to agree to allocate £28 million to radically overhaul the preparation and employment of coaches throughout the country.
He has been a board member of Sport England and the Sport England Lottery Panel and was formerly the Chief Executive of the Institute of Leisure and Amenity Management. Andy currently chairs the North West Sports board and is on the board of sports coach UK and has been awarded an MBE for services to Sport Administration (in his role as Chief Executive of ILAM).
