The Board & Subcommittees

Denise Lewis OBE

President

Denise began her athletics career with Birchfield Harriers in Birmingham and is now regarded as one of England’s greatest-ever sportswomen. Denise is a huge advocate for the importance of the Commonwealth Games in an athlete’s career path, having won two Commonwealth gold medals at the 1994 Victoria and 1998 Kuala Lumpur Games. She went on to win gold at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and was awarded an OBE. In 2011, Denise was inducted into the England Athletics Hall Of Fame.

Denise joined the board in 2016 and plans to use her vast and influential experience at the highest level to inspire the next generation of athletes.

Ian Metcalfe

Chairman

A double Cambridge Rugby Blue, Ian is the former managing partner of Wragge & Co, one of the UK's leading law firms. He previously played rugby for Sale and Moseley, captaining the latter between 1985 and 1987. He toured New Zealand with England in 1985, playing three times on that tour and also represented the Barbarians four times.

Ian joined the RFU Council in 2006 and has held senior roles since 2007, chairing the Professional Game Board and serving on the Boards of the RFU and of ER 2015, the organising body for the 2015 Rugby World Cup. He has a wide interest in a variety of sports and served on the Committee of Warwickshire County Cricket Club for 23 years, before being made an Honorary Life Member in 2013. He is also a Vice President of Moseley Rugby Club.

Jenny Ashmore

Non-Executive Director

Jenny joined the Board in April 2015, having previously been the Chief Marketing Officer of SSE through the sponsorship of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Now she works across different sectors, as a NED and consultant with a focus on marketing strategy, innovative propositions and the implications of digital marketing/sales/products/customer service.

Jenny’s commercial and marketing a career spans consumer goods, media and oil/utilities, including award-winning work on global brands such as Pampers and Mars brands such as M&Ms.; As President of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, she sees the marketers and marketing work across the UK and 42 other countries, and she is also Chair for Girl Guides Trading.

Simon Ball

Non-Executive Director

Simon, a Non-executive director at the Allied Irish Bank Group and Chairman of Anchura Group, brings more than 30 years of financial strategy experience to the Board.

Amongst other roles he has served as Deputy Chairman Cable and Wireless Communications, Finance Director at 3i Group plc, Director General (finance) at the Department for Constitutional Affairs (now the Ministry of Justice), Finance Director at Robert Fleming Holdings and Chief Operating Officer (UK) of Dresdner Kleinwort Benson (now part of Commerzbank AG).

Delia Bushell

Non-Executive Director

Delia Bushell is a media executive with over 20 years’ experience in media, sport, telecoms and strategy consulting. For the past three years she was Managing Director of BT Sport & BT TV, leading BT’s Sport channels, its PayTV platform and the acquisition of premium sports, entertainment & movie rights.

Prior to this, Delia spent 14 years at Sky in a variety of different role, including as Chief Commercial Officer of Sky Italia, Director of Broadband & Telephony for Sky UK, as Managing Director for Sky Ireland, and as Commercial Director for Sky Networks. Before joining Sky, she spent four years as a strategy consultant and at Pearson plc, and she holds an MA in Modern History and an MPhil in International Relations from Oxford University. She has three daughters and is passionate about encouraging female participation in sport.

Alex Danson MBE

Non-Executive Director

Alex is a current England and Great Britain hockey player with over 235 caps, and an Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth medallist. She has been a member of the squad for 15 years and has extensive experience at multi-sport events.

Combining an Open University degree with full time training Alex's passion also lies with the education of young people through the power of PE and School sport. She is a senior athlete mentor with the Youth Sport Trust working to engage, motivate and inspire young people all over the country through the Sky Sports Living for Sport Initiative.

Alex was part of a body of athletes that helped support and form the GB woman's first centralised program in 2009 and is a member of the Leadership group in the squad. Ambitious, hardworking and methodical she aspires to bring the insight of athletes from every Commonwealth Sport, ensuring the athlete’s voice is represented and opportunities are there for all to perform at their best. 

Ali Jawad MBE

Non-Executive Director

Ali Jawad, 29, was born in Beruit and spent the first six months of his life in the Lebanon before moving to Tottenham where he grew up.  As well as being a world level para-powerlifter Ali also competed as an international judoka early in his sporting journey.

Ali’s career highlights include bronze medals at the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games, becoming world champion in 2014 and winning a silver medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympics Games.

Away from sport Ali is a high profile ambassador for the charity Crohns and Colitis UK. 

Dawn Newbery

Non-Executive Director

Dawn joined the Board in May 2015 bringing with her over 20 years para sport experience and leading teams at six Paralympic Games (Barcelona 1992 to London 2012).

Dawn has worked with five World Number 1’s (senior and youth) and travelled extensively on the ITF wheelchair tennis circuit as coaching and management staff (men, women, juniors) from small development competitions through the ITF Grand Slam Events.

Since 2008 Dawn has worked with the GB wheelchair fencing programme and GB Goalball (the Paralympic Team Sport for the visually impaired). Dawn brings a unique blend of skills to the Board and in a multi-sport background clearly thrives.

Chris Simpson

Non-Executive Director

Chris joined the board in July 2014, as the chair of Commonwealth Games England’s Audit and Finance Committee. Chris, a Chartered Accountant, started his career with Price Waterhouse in both the UK and USA before moving into general management. For 30 years he held Chief Executive roles in several well-respected large international manufacturing businesses. Recently, he has been a senior advisor in the public sector and currently holds non-executive roles with several high-growth companies in the renewable energy and leisure sectors.

Chris brings a wealth of expertise in general and financial management across a wide range of market sectors and a strong understanding of cash management and good governance.

Dame Caroline Spelman MP

Non-Executive Director

Dame Caroline Spelman comes to Commonwealth Games England with an impressive history as a politician and public servant. She spent her early career with the National Farmers Union and was first elected as the Member of Parliament for the Meriden Constituency in 1997. She has served the West Midlands constituency for over 20 years.

Dame Caroline has held varied and prominent Ministerial positions, including serving as Secretary of State for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

Dame Caroline is passionate about sports. She is a former junior athlete in the discus throw and county hockey player and continues to play hockey with the Lords and Common’s team. Her eldest son is a professional rugby player for Bedford and her youngest son has been living in Australia. Her husband, Mark, is a former non-executive director of Sport England and currently sits on the board of Harlequins Rugby Football Club.

Nigel Walker

Non-Executive Director

Nigel is the National Director of the English Institute of Sport and was appointed to the Commonwealth Games England board in October 2014.

Nigel, a former international athlete and rugby player, oversees the sports science and medical services to Team England athletes as part of his role at the English Institute of Sport and will advise the board on all performance issues.

Nigel served as board member of UK Sport between 2006 and 2010 and was Head of Sport between 2001 and 2006 at BBC Wales before being promoted to the board as Head of Change and Internal Communications, leaving that role in 2010 to take up his current position.

Paul Blanchard

Chief Executive

Paul has 25 years’ experience in the sports industry. He has worked in Cricket at The Oval, in Premier League and Scottish Football and also the NFL in Europe.

Most recently he was CEO at Harlequins Rugby League and prior to joining Commonwealth Games England was CEO at The Surrey Sports Park, an elite athlete training and event venue based at The University of Surrey.

He has also served on the Advisory Board of British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) and was Chair of The County Sports Partnership, Active Surrey.

Paul joined Commonwealth Games England in August 2015.