Sajid Javid appoints new members to the Board of UK Sport

The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport has appointed Nicky Roche and John Dowson to the Board of UK Sport. Nicky Roche has been appointed for a term of 3 years from 15 December 2014 to 14 December 2017. John Dowson has been appointed for a 3 year term from 16 March 2015 to 15 March 2018. UK Sport (UKSP) supports Britain’s best Olympic and Paralympic sports and athletes, co-ordinating the bids for and staging of major international sporting events in the UK. It invests around £100 million each year in high performance sport. UKSP is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport.

About Nicky Roche

Nicky Roche CBE is a Non-Executive Director of British Show Jumping, leading on finance for the Board as Chair of the Audit Group. She was Chief Executive of TdF Hub 2014 Ltd, the company established by the Government and UK Sport to co-ordinate the Grand Depart in Yorkshire and third stage from Cambridge to London of the 2014 Tour de France. She is a Trustee of the Care Leavers Foundation, which helps care leavers make the transition to independent living.

She was previously a Senior Civil Servant holding roles within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Home Office,until her retirement in March 2013. In 2007 Nicky took the role of Director of Operations, Government Olympic Executive, supporting Ministers on the operational side of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Alongside helping to ensure that the logistical delivery of the Games was met, as a member of the senior leadership team, Nicky also helped ensure the budget of £9.3bn was managed and outcomes were on time and to quality.

Prior to this Nicky held the post of Director of Sport and Main Board Member for the DCMS where she drove the implementation of the Government’s strategy on public participation in sport. In this role, Nicky helped secure over £500m public funding for Olympic and Paralympic sports in addition to leading for DCMS on the early Olympic construction programme and setting up the Olympic Lottery Distributor with a revenue raising target of £750m. Nicky was awarded a CBE for services to the staging of the London 2012 Games.

About John Dowson

John Dowson is a chartered management accountant. He became involved in Paralympic sport by joining the board of GB Boccia Federation (GBBF) in 2013 to establish their finance committee. He took over the chair of GBBF in June 2014.

He hails from Newcastle upon Tyne but moved south in the early 80s. Having worked in the manufacturing and retail sectors, he joined Coopers and Lybrand in 1985 and became a partner in 1991. He worked in corporate restructuring and privatisation projects all over the world in the telecoms and postal sectors where he became European Consulting Leader and Global Chairman, respectively.

A merger between Coopers and Lybrand and Price Waterhouse led to the formation of PwC in 1998 and Dowson joined the executive leadership team of the UK Consulting Business, where he worked with both government and private sector clients. In 2002 he co-led the development of PwC Consulting’s global strategy, leading to the acquisition of the business by IBM for $3.5bn in late 2002.

At IBM he moved from strategy to execution and led the global development of new business in intelligent transport systems. Amongst other things, he oversaw selling and executing the full build and operate contract for the congestion charging scheme in Stockholm.

He returned to PwC in 2007, where he became UK industry leader for the private sector, excluding financial services. He retired from the firm in 2012.

For further information about UK Sport, visit www.uksport.gov.uk