Our Board

Marc Woods
Marc represented Great Britain as a swimmer for 17 years, winning 12 Paralympic medals from five Games and a further 21 from either World or European Championships. Marc has held world records for 200m, 400m, 1500m Freestyle, as well as being part of the team that held the world record for 4 x 100m Freestyle. He now runs his own business delivering conference speeches and training to corporations around the world such as IBM, Pfizer and LV. He has also written two books: ‘Personal Best’ and ‘Where do all the Paperclips Go?’ and is occasionally called upon to do commentary for the BBC. Additionally he is a founding member of the British Athletes Council, an ambassador for CANSA (South Africa’s Cancer Charity), a trustee for the Teenage Cancer Trust and patron of the Bone Cancer Research Trust.

Paul Dickenson
Paul is a television sports and events commentator and has worked on every Olympic Games for the BBC since 1988 covering Athletics and many other summer and winter sports. His broadcasting portfolio also includes World Cup Rugby, World’s Strongest Man, Superstars, Blue Peter, The Lord Mayor’s Show and the Teaching Awards. A former Olympic Athlete, British record holder and GB team Captain, he chaired the International Athlete’s Club during the 1980’s and was a National Athletics Coach. A former school teacher, he is still actively involved with coaching and now combines his television work with Media and Presentation Skills Training and Facilitation within the corporate sector. He was appointed Governor of SportsAid in 2003 and Director of the Youth Sport Trust in 2007.

Rod Thorpe
Rod trained as a Physical Education teacher. After four years teaching he returned to Loughborough College as a lecturer, training teachers. In his final six years of a 35-year career at Loughborough University he was appointed Director of Sports Development. He contributed to the development of National Sports Leaders programmes and was one of the first NCF (now sports coach UK) tutors writing workshop material. He was central in the development of Teaching Games for Understanding – an approach being used internationally by PE teachers and he subsequently adapted the ideas for coaches. Rod has been associated with us since we began. He was the University’s negotiator in setting us up in the Sir John Beckwith Building and developing the Sport Park concept, now home to the Youth Sport Trust. As author of Playsport, he was instrumental in the development of two of our original programmes TOP Play and TOP Sport. Following retirement, Rod continues to work with teachers and coaches, both in the UK and overseas.

Shirley Pearce CBE
Shirley has been the Vice-Chancellor of Loughborough University since January 2006. She is on the HEFCE Board, the CASE Europe Board, the Youth Sport Trust and the Universities & Colleges Employers Association Board, and she chairs the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme. Shirley is a member of the HEFCE Board Strategic Advisory Committee for Enterprise and Skills Strategy, the HEFCE Matched Funding Scheme for Voluntary Giving Advisory Group, the Council for Industry and Higher Education, the Universities UK Employability, Business & Industry Policy Committee, Longer Term Strategy Group and Sustainable Development Task Group. She was previously Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of East Anglia responsible for the health and professional schools, where she led the successful bid for a new medical school for the East of England. Prior to that Shirley held an academic post in Psychology at University College London. She was also Deputy Chair of the Healthcare Commission until 2007. Shirley was awarded the CBE in 2005 for services to education in the NHS.

Thelma Probert
Over a 38-year period Thelma worked in six schools across Birmingham in a variety of roles, including a 12-year period as a Headteacher of an inner-city school. This was an exciting time for Thelma as during her tenure the school became a Sports College. In 2002 she was awarded an OBE, which she regards as a tribute to the school and the community which she was privileged to serve. Following retirement in 2004, Thelma has remained involved in education. She works part-time as a Headteacher Consultant with Sandwell LA, and more recently as a School Improvement Partner for six Birmingham schools. She is a Governor of a Science College and a Board member of a Sixth Form College.

Vanessa Wiseman
Vanessa has had an extensive career in the inner London education service, holding a variety of posts in schools and in Local Authority advisory work. She has been a member of a number of Government Advisory bodies including the National Advisory Group on SEN, the Children and Young People’s Unit Advisory Group and the Implementation Group for the Governments Sports strategy, ‘A Sporting Future for All’. Vanessa was Headteacher of Langdon Secondary School from 1992 until summer 2009. Langdon has been a Sports College since 1998 and is also a training school. Vanessa is now an adviser for the DCSF's London Challenge, having played a part in its work since its inception. She contributes to programmes for the National College and a wide range of other education organisations and schools. Students from Vanessa’s school formed the main part of the ambassadors group that went to Singapore to promote the Olympic bid. Vanessa has contributed to a wide range of our initiatives and has been a longstanding member of the Board. Vanessa was awarded a CBE in 2009 for services to education.

Viscount Mackintosh of Halifax
Viscount Mackintosh is a founding Trustee of the Youth Sport Trust having been involved since its inception in 1994. He is Treasurer of the Trust and Chairman of the Audit Committee. He was educated at The Leys School, Cambridge and Oriel College, Oxford where he gained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1984 and has been a partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers (and its previous firm of Pricewaterhouse) since 1992 where he specialises in advising on Private Client Tax. He sat in House of Lords between 1980-1999. He is interested in all sports but these days his main participation is in cricket and golf.