“WST is an indefatigable powerhouse who have invaded every area of women’s sport, in a good way, to make it more functional, better funded, more visible. Their energy and will power is astonishing. They have made a difference.”
Sue Mott, Sports Journalist
Charity Number 1153429
Our people
CEO & Co-founder
Trustee (Chair)
Trustee (Treasurer)
Trustee
Trustee
Trustee
Trustee
Trustee
Trustee
Trustee
Accounts
(P/T)
Research Manager (P/T)
Head of PR & Comms
(P/T)
Charity Number 1153429
The Women’s Sport Trust was founded by Tammy Parlour MBE and Jo Bostock MBE in October 2012 following the London Olympics and Paralympics. We are a leading UK charity focused on using the power of sport to accelerate gender equality and stimulate social change.
The charity is run by a small operational team and a committed board of trustees. Our staff structure follows an on-demand model, meaning all our work is strictly freelance/contract enabling us to use our resources in a streamlined and economical way. This structure also enables us to adapt and evolve as the industry itself does.
We are an independent voice working with the industry to make lasting change. We talk to the people and organisations who have the power to reshape the sporting landscape. We are influencers who stimulate real change for women’s sport. Everyone who works with us is passionate about women’s sport and keen to support Women’s Sport Trust in realising its full impact as an entrepreneurial, collaborative, and action-focused charity.
Click on the individual tabs to read more about our people.
CEO & Co-founder
Tammy Parlour MBE co-founded Women’s Sport Trust in 2012 and leads the organisation as CEO.
Tammy’s role involves working with leaders from across sport, media and business to understand how to practically raise visibility, increase impact and create a stronger women’s sport ecosystem. She was awarded an MBE in the New Year 2019 Honours List for services to gender equality in sport.
Tammy is a Master in the Korean martial art of Hapkido, having practiced for over 40 years. She set up her own Hapkido and meditation school in the early 90’s and still coaches regularly. Tammy holds an MSc in Strength & Conditioning, and post-graduate study into Applied Sport Psychology.
With an interest in women’s football, she also volunteers as a Board Director for her local team – AFC Wimbledon Women FC – and sits on The FA Women’s National League Board as a Club Representative. @Tammy_Parlour.
NB. The CEO remains on the Board of Trustees as ex-officio.
Trustee (Chair)
Suzy works with senior leaders across the public, private, education and third sectors to solve some of the most complex social issues of our time. She is a specialist in inclusion and diversity and is widely recognised for her pragmatic and thoughtful approach to what is often emotive and messy.
In addition to her role as Managing Director at The Red Plate, Suzy also holds a variety of board-level roles. She is a trustee at the Women’s Sport Trust and a member of the advisory board at Foundervine and the creative agency Improper. Suzy was also a Non-Executive Director in the UK government for 7 years.
Mind the Inclusion Gap, her first book, summarises decades of learning about inclusion, and is part of her personal mission to create a more equitable and fairer society by helping others gain the confidence and knowledge they need to take impactful action.
Joined WST Board of Trustees : July 2013
Chair : Oct 2024 to present
Trustee (Treasurer)
Ben became a Trustee in 2020 and as Board Treasurer oversees our financial affairs ensuring we operate within legal, constitutional and accepted accounting practice.
Award-winning business leader working at the cross-section of technology, sport and entertainment. Ben began his career in the film business (Cold Mountain, 28 Days Later, Hannibal, Entrapment) and then moved into digital media (BBC, The Times) – with a passion for powerful storytelling the common thread which runs throughout. In 2015, He co-founded the award-winning immersive tech company, Laduma and, in his role as CEO, led a fantastic team of industry pioneers and rising stars as they raised angel investment and worked with clients such as Microsoft, Samsung, the NFL, NBA, Universal, Marriott and Unilever. In 2019, he was offered the opportunity to become president of the group which Laduma belongs to and now oversees eight businesses on four continents. He’s a well travelled keynote speaker having been invited to speak at the likes of WebSummit, World Travel Market, ITB, Digital Hollywood, ProMax, Leaders and Soccerex among others.
Joined WST Board of Trustees : Sept 2020
Trustee
Chris has almost 20 years of experience in the sports industry working for the Premier League, International Cricket Council, BBC Sport and Nielsen Sports, before launching his own digital sports business in 2018 – C J Hurst Consultancy – which provides strategic advice to companies across the sports industry.
As BBC Sport’s first dedicated social media editor, he developed and delivered a strategy focused on growing BBC’s social media reach and engaging younger audiences. In his role as Digital Development Editor for BBC Sport’s award-winning interactive services, Chris oversaw the editorial development plans for the Rio Olympics that was used by 102 million unique browsers across the globe. Chris also sits on the board of the Rugby Football League.
Joined WST Board of Trustees : Nov 2017
Trustee
Russell has 20+ years of experience at some of the biggest brands and rights holders in their respective industries and worked most recently as
Commercial & Marketing Director at the English & Wales Cricket Board (ECB). He is also a NED at BUCS which is an organisation that engages the next generation of leaders, team players and sports enthusiasts.
Russell runs his own consultancy focused on supporting commercial outcomes in and around the Sports Industry.
Trustee
Patrick is the Head of the UK & Europe business at Portas Consultancy and leads all of their work in the region. Patrick is also the global lead for football, rugby and women’s sport.
Over the past 15 years, he has advised major national and international sports organisations and leaders of multinational corporations in the UK, Europe, Middle East and America on some of their biggest and most complex challenges.
Patrick holds a first class MChem from Durham University and previously worked at Accenture.
Trustee
Since retiring in 2015, Ugo Monye has gone on to become one of the most respected voices in world rugby. The one-club-man began his career at Harlequins in 2002, going on to make 237 appearances for the club, scoring 87 tries and winning a Premiership Title in the process.
His club performances soon earned him International recognition, making his England debut in 2008, and after featuring heavily in England’s 2009 Six Nations squad, he was awarded a place on the 2009 British and Irish Lions
Tour of South Africa, on which he scored a crucial length of the field try in the final Test, which has gone on to become an iconic image in Lions history. Retiring in 2015, ITV and BT Sport were quick to take him up on his informed and charismatic on screen offering, where he has gone on to work on their Rugby World Cup and Gallagher Premiership coverage for the past 5 seasons.
Launching his Podcast with the BBC in 2017, and a columnist in the Guardian, Ugo is one of the most sought after voices in the rugby media landscape. 2021 has been a breakthrough year for Ugo, being named as a new Team Captain on the BBC’s Question of Sport, and as a contestant in 2021’s Strictly Come Dancing.
In recent times, Ugo has stepped up to tackle issues such as diversity in rugby, the BLM movement in the UK and the funding and growth of the women’s game.
Joined WST Board of Trustees : July 2021
Trustee
Stef Reid, MBE, is a British Paralympic long jumper and sprinter. She is a World Champion, four-time Paralympian, triple Paralympic medallist, and five-time world record holder. Stef has a degree in biochemistry, and her adventures off the track include acting, modelling (including being the first amputee to walk the London Fashion Week catwalk!), and serving as Vice President for The Leprosy Mission UK. Stef has also served as Vice President of the UK Athletics Members Council, member of the London 2017 board, and member of the British Paralympic Committee Athlete’s Council.
Stef was born in New Zealand to a Scottish father and English mother, grew up in Toronto, and moved to Dallas, Texas with her Canadian husband all before settling back in the UK in 2013. Stef’s talent and passion for sport were spotted early, and at 12 she was already dreaming of playing rugby on the world stage. But at 15, Stef was involved in a boating accident and suffered severe propeller lacerations. Her life was saved but her right foot was damaged beyond repair and amputated.
Stef’s focus shifted from her sports to her studies, and she graduated as valedictorian earning a full academic scholarship to Queen’s University in Canada to study biochemistry. While at Queen’s, Stef joined the university athletics team just to see how fast she could still run. Upon graduation, Stef put her plans of medical school on hold and decided to give her childhood dream of being a professional athlete one last chance!
After a glittering 18 year Paralympic career, Stef announced her retirement from elite sport in June 2022, but very much enjoys the amateur sport scene through Park Run, figure skating, and triathlon. Stef now works as a broadcaster, high performance speaker, and executive coach and is always up for a new adventure!
Trustee
Melissa has been in the advertising industry for 30 years, starting at Grey London before joining Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy in its infancy, and later becoming Managing Director. She was a co-founder of the creative agency, Now; was a Director of the women’s lifestyle platform, The Pool; and has long been a vocal supporter of gender equality.
She is now CEO of Dark Horses, a creative agency focused on sport, fitness and health. She has written extensively about how businesses need to more actively respond to the challenges of menopause and has created an open-source Menopause Policy for any business to adapt and use as their own. She is also a director of the not-for-profit organisation, Menopause Mandate.
Trustee
More than 25 years of agency integrated marketing experience with a focus on creating cultural ideas with a strong customer call to action. Developed innovative and large-scale activations, events and partnerships for leading global brands including Adidas, Samsung and Heineken.
Most recently part of the global senior leadership team within brand communications and marketing at Rivian. Working for a new brand allowed us to start with a blank page and my team built strategies for partnership identification and activation, customer events and consumer/influencer PR.
Previous experience included eight years as Managing Director of award-winning sports & entertainment agency Iris Culture.
Passionate about the power of sport for good I sit on the board of both the Women’s Sport Trust and Liverpool FC Foundation charities.
In my spare time you will also find me teaching drama to under 12’s.
Joined WST Board of Trustees : Nov 2017
Accounts
(P/T)
Alexis provides bookkeeping and reporting services to WST through her company, Able Accountancy Services Ltd.
Research Manager (P/T)
Emma has over 8 years’ experience in the sports industry, specifically in research and insights. From broadcaster Eurosport, to working with the ECB and Manchester United in her previous role at Futures Sport and Entertainment, Emma has experience delivering consumer and commercial insights to sports organisations.
In her previous role at Futures, Emma co-led the ongoing research project with the Women’s Sport Trust on the visibility of women’s sport in the UK media.
Emma currently works at Channel 4 in the Strategy and Consumer Insight team, sharing research to better understand viewers, including for flagship events such as the Paralympics.
Head of PR & Comms
(P/T)
With almost 25 years’ comms experience, Nicola has worked in sectors such as financial services, FMCG and retail. More recently she’s worked on driving awareness of the Women’s Ashes in England as well as the women’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
In her spare time, Nicola set up a women’s football team where 30 women aged 35 and over train and play together every week. She’d like you to know that her team won the Surrey FA League in their inaugural season of 2022-2023.
As a mum of two boys, Nicola is keen for them to grow up in a world where seeing and supporting women’s sport is the norm rather than the exception.
We are grateful to everyone who has been part of our Board of Trustees since we were founded in 2012 – each has helped to shape Women’s Sport Trust into what it is today.
Previous Trustees
- Jo Bostock MBE, Co-founder
- Amanda Hudson
- Claire Bennett
- Denise Yeats
- Donna Fraser OBE
- Emily Cushion
- Helen Newbery
- Jamie Brookes
- Jeanette Kwakye MBE
- Kate Dale
- Kate Dobinson
- Kate Hannon
- Liz Grant OBE
- Lynsey Hooper
- Michael Inpong
- Niccola Hutchinson-Pascal
- Nicola Waterworth
- Rebecca McNeil
- Rosalind Kirkland
- Sarah Odell
- Sasha Hoskins
- Sue Day MBE
- Sue Anstiss MBE
- Suzanne King
- Tim Cozze-Young
- Zarah Al-Kudcy
We’re also grateful to those who worked with us in non-Trustee roles and gave extensively to WST Projects, in our early years:
- Danielle Sellwood – Be-A-Game-Changer Awards
- Sue Mott – The Mixed Zone women’s sport digital magazine
- Anna Kessel MBE – The Blue Plaque Rebellion
Organisations in receipt of public funds must make their accounts and governance documents easily accessible on their website.
Governance Documents
Please see below for our independently examined financial statements for the last 7 years:
- Memorandum of Association 2023
- Special Resolution – 31st May 2023
Other links
Official Address and Registration Numbers
- Women’s Sport Trust, 75 Ravensbury Road, London SW18 4RX
- Companies House Reg Number 8521118
- Charity Number 1153429
- VAT Number 244 4669 88
