Women’s Sports Alliance [WSA] has announced its new advisory board after pulling together leading experts from across the sports industry to grow women’s sport and push gender equality.
The united expertise and dedication of the Advisory Board members reinforces WSA’s commitment to advance the careers of female athletes and drive impactful change across all sports.
Leading the Advisory Board is Phil Benton, whose 27 years of experience include Vice President of Sales for UK and Ireland at adidas North Europe. He brings a wealth of knowledge in grassroots sports and brand strategies and has been a crucial part of WSA for more than a year.
Joining the WSA Advisory Board is Clementine Painter, Sustainability Lead for adidas Europe and the driving force behind the Breaking Barriers initiative who brings more than 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, management and purpose in different industries. Lucynda Davies also joins following a decade with JD Group Plc as Brand Relationship Director and a further decade as European Sales Director at Nike, where Davies was Senior Account Manager on the global brand’s women’s division.
Donna Stelling joins from Melbourne, Australia, as the Founder and International Sports Advisor of Sports and Culture Collective while Clare Bennie brings invaluable marketing experience as the Group PR and Partnership Lead at Wiggle and Chain Reaction. Jane Cowmeadow, an expert in commercial sports management, is the founder of JCCM Ltd, manager of Jess Ennis-Hill and co-founder and Director of Partnerships for Jennis. Through her work with Jessica Ennis-Hill and Jennis, Jane is changing the world of women’s hormonal health by giving millions of women the hormone intelligence and tools to improve their health and body literacy.
International hockey coach Dr Amanda Partington, who is currently senior lecturer in sports at UA92, offers her expertise in sports education and an understanding of elite athletes after coaching during two Commonwealth Games cycles, in Delhi 2010 and Glasgow 2014. Her professional attributes include developing, designing and delivering initiatives throughout all levels of sport and organisations with proven results. Jon Buckthorp also joins the Advisory Board and brings a wealth of experience in technology-based businesses as Commercial Director at Differentiated former Global Field Marketing Leader at Vodafone. Buckthorp’s strategic acumen will help the WSA Advisory Board’s mission of driving innovation and growth in women’s sport.
Jordan Guard, WSA Founder and Managing Director, said: “The Women’s Sports Alliance is delighted to announce our new advisory board, which includes some of the innovative trend setters across women’s sport in the past two decades. It’s a real honour to be working with Phil Benton and the wealth of experience and expertise he’s helped bring to the board cannot be underestimated. The WSA Advisory Board includes individuals who have not only helped shaped the growth of women’s sport but all sport, no matter the gender. It’s a proud moment for me and the WSA and we look forward to continuing to push the boundaries of women’s sport by supporting existing top-flight athletes and the aspiring professionals of the next generation.”
