John Alder, English Institute of Sport – Head of Performance Pathways

John is a people development practitioner whose life mission is to help individuals, teams and organisations flourish while promoting culture-driven leadership. A former junior international rugby player, John has worked with Professional, Olympic, and Paralympic leaders and coaches from five continents, including a three-year stint with the New Zealand rugby league team, the ‘Kiwis’. John is currently the Head of Performance Pathways at UK Sport / English Institute of Sport (EIS), leading a team of talented practitioners tasked with supporting the development of people, pathways, and systems to enhance the transition of athletes from talented juniors to world class international performers. He holds a PhD in High Performance Sport Management with a focus upon leadership, culture, and organisational change, and as a lifelong coach, John’s interest lies in the human side of sport, and how best we can support leaders and coaches to develop inspired and inspiring people. Follow John on Twitter @LeadCulturally.

Karen Findlay, Rugby Coach and Chief Inspector with the Metropolitan Police 

Karen Findlay is a Scottish rugby coach and former international player who played for the Scotland women’s national rugby union team. She coaches Harlequins Ladies who compete in the Women’s Premiership. She won 85 caps for Scotland and captained the side 52 times. She is a chief inspector with the Metropolitan Police.

Tim Hollingsworth OBE, Sport England – Chief Executive

For seven years, until November 2018, Tim was Chief Executive at the British Paralympic Association, the National Paralympic Committee for the United Kingdom. He has also served as Secretary General for ParalympicsGB at the PyeongChang 2018, Rio 2016, Sochi 2014 and London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Prior to that, Tim was first Director of Policy & Communications and then Chief Operating Officer at UK Sport. Previously, Tim worked for four years as a Director of a strategic communications consultancy, HBL Media, for two years as Head of Corporate Media and Internal Communications at Granada Media plc, and spent five years as Head of Media Relations at the Confederation of British Industry.

Tim is a Trustee of the Football Foundation and a Member of the International Paralympic Committee’s Paralympic Games Committee. He is a former Board Director of the Youth Sport Trust and the National Paralympic Heritage Trust. He holds Honorary Degrees from both Bath and Exeter University as well as a Masters Degree in Drama from Exeter. He received an OBE in the 2017 Queen’s New Year Honours List.

Prior to that, he had a decade’s worth of experience working in senior corporate communications roles – all of which builds an impressive CV that saw him awarded an OBE in 2017.

Paul Blanchard, Chief Executive at Commonwealth Games England

Commonwealth Games England (CGE) leads and manages the participation of the English team at the Commonwealth Games working closely with each sport’s National Governing Body, funding partner Sport England, and the Games’ Organising Committee.

England is one of only six countries to have taken part in every edition of the Commonwealth Games and Commonwealth Youth Games and, lying at the epicentre of what was once the British Empire, England occupies a uniquely close relationship to the Commonwealth Games.

CGE has been responsible for preparing and delivering the England Team at the Commonwealth Games and Commonwealth Youth Games since their inception in 1930.

The core purposes are to lead and manage the participation of the England Team at the Commonwealth Games and Commonwealth Youth Games; to help in delivering excellent performance environments; to represent England effectively within the CGF, and to raise the profile and reinforce the value, reputation and future of a great sporting event.