Consulting

Robert Datnow Managing Director & Co-Founder robert@thesportsconsultancy.com

Robert co-founded The Sports Consultancy in 2006 and is responsible for the growth of our rights holder, event consulting, host city, government and legal teams. Robert’s work focuses on enhancing commercial models and major event formats, gathering impact data, articulating returns on investment and selling hosting rights using state of the art due diligence tools, through our industry leading competitive tenders to iconic cities around the globe for some of the world’s most recognised events.

Robert also creates major event strategies, event calendars and manages major event bids for our city and government clients.

Robert also oversees the growth and development of our legal team and has created our regulated law firm The Sports Consultancy Legal and our independent Global Investigations service.

Robert trained at one of the world’s largest law-firms, Linklaters in the 1990s and qualified and practised there as a litigator for 4 years. He joined the British Olympic Association as its head of legal through the Sydney Olympic cycle and the early days of the London 2012 bid. Robert then became a partner at the international law firm Farrer & Co., where he worked in the firm’s commercial sports group (ranked no.1 in the UK for 5 consecutive years for its sponsorship work) advising sports rights holders and international federations.

Robert became global director of the Laureus Sport for Good foundation distributing commercial funding from founding patron brands to projects around the world using sport for social change.

Robert’s recent work includes advising the IAAF, the BIE (World Expo), the IOC, World Rugby, European Professional Club Rugby, the Volvo Ocean Race, the America’s Cup, the International Equestrian Federation and the city of Gothenburg, the regional government of Flanders and the city of London in relation to sporting and major entertainment events.

When Robert’s not running bids and event projects for major federations and governments, he’s out running the streets of north London, clocking up the middle distance training miles to scrape a few 10ths off his 800m time for the GB masters team.

Angus Buchanan Managing Director & Co-Founder angus@thesportsconsultancy.com

Angus has worked in the sports industry for over 25 years having successfully made the transition from professional sportsman to the one of the leading strategy consultants and commercial negotiators in the sector. During that time Angus and Robert have grown The Sports Consultancy from start up to 40 strong team and cemented the company’s position as one of the leading independent consultancies in sport and entertainment. Angus specialises on asset and event creation and the commercialisation of rights having worked with events ranging from Volvo Ocean Race generating over €200m revenues from new and existing rights revenues to the creation of new events like Ride London and leading on commercial work with rights holders such as FIBA, The America’s Cup, FEI, ICC, World Rugby.  Having trained as a lawyer and worked as an oil and gas litigator early in his career, Angus is well known as a creative and practical deal maker.

Matt Wilson Director, Consulting matt@thesportsconsultancy.com

Matt leads the Consulting team at The Sports Consultancy. He works with rights holders, cities and brands to optimise their events, commercial strategies, asset portfolios and hosting relationships. His rights holder and event clients include Formula 1, World Rugby, FIA, World Athletics, ICC, NFL, FIBA, FEI, The Ocean Race, European Professional Club Rugby, Formula E, Goodwood, BIE, The Ryder Cup, Rugby League World Cup 2021, Interkultur, Red Bull and Nitro World Games. His national, regional and city government clients include Mayor of London, Government of Abu Dhabi, Government of Oman, EventFlanders, Goteborg & Co, City of Manchester, City of Barcelona, Government of Dubai and London & Partners.

Prior to joining The Sports Consultancy, Matt spent 11 years with Deloitte, where he delivered transformation projects for some of their largest clients across Europe, North America and the Middle East. Matt also spent 2 years with LOCOG, the organising committee for London 2012, where he took a lead role in designing and delivering the operational readiness integration programme.

John Illsley Chief Financial Officer john.illsley@thesportsconsultancy.com

John joined The Sports Consultancy in July 2018.

He is an experienced finance professional who combines over 20 years’ experience as a company director and 9 years in consultancy. John  joined The Sports Consultancy from the corporate finance team at Moore Stephens in London where he specialised in valuing IP and businesses for litigation, dispute resolution and non-contentious matters. Prior to joining Moore Stephens was a director /owner of a leading independent valuation consultancy.

John has previously worked in sport and media, as finance director of ISC, the commercial rights holder to the FIA World Rally Championship. He has also held finance director positions within subsidiaries of major groups including GEC, Booker, Unilever and Virgin and PE backed companies. He is a chartered accountant having qualified with Arthur Young McClelland Moore (now part of EY).

John’s role at The Sports Consultancy is to assist in the development of the business and the execution of strategic plans.

John is a sports fan, who by his own admission spent far too much time on the cricket pitch. He now focusses on staying fit, and watching as much sport as the family allow.

Siân Jenkins Associate Director, Consulting sian@thesportsconsultancy.com

Siân is a management consultant with over twelve years’ experience in the consulting and sports industries. At The Sports Consultancy, Sian works with both host cities and rights holder to secure innovative and successful hosting partnerships.

Siân has worked with rights holders including World Rugby (Rugby World Cup), World Table Tennis (Portfolio of events), Interkultur (World Choir Games and European Choir Games), Red Bull (Cliff Diving and Ice Cross), World Athletics (World Indoors) and FIBA (FIBA Basketball World Cup) to secure new hosts.

On the other side of the rights holder relationship, Siân enjoys working with cities and event agencies to produce exciting and creative event strategies and before designing event calendar portfolios that put that strategy into practice.

Sian also works on creating compelling and successful bids and bid narratives for our city and national clients. Examples include FEI World Championships (Herning), World Choir Games (Flanders, Belgium) and Rugby League World Cup 2021 (England).

Prior to joining The Sports Consultancy in 2013, Siân worked at Deloitte in their Operations Consultancy practice, consulting both private and public sector clients on all aspects for the project lifecycle from strategy to delivery. Siân also spent two years working at the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), where she helped create and deliver a readiness and testing programme involving a range of exercises across all venues.

Kirsten Sibbit-Johnston Associate Director, Consulting kirsten@thesportsconsultancy.com

Kirsten has over 12 years’ experience in legal, consulting, major events and sport.

She specialises in supporting rights holder clients to design practical, implementable and measurable business and commercial strategy. She believes in having an ambitious and realistic strategy but also ensuring that organisations are set up to deliver success through the right governance structures, operating models and organisation designs.

She also advises public and private institutional investors on their investments in sport.

Her recent and current clients include Abu Dhabi Sports Council, NEOM, World Athletics, European Aquatics, British Cycling, UCI Cycling World Championships 2023, Rugby League World Cup, the Kuwait FA, the FIA, The FA, UK Sport, EventFlanders, and the International Tennis Federation.

Kirsten spent five years in New Zealand where she led the Major Events Feasibility team at Auckland Tourism Events and Economic Development developing and implementing events strategy. At PwC New Zealand, she advised sports sector clients including New Zealand Major Events, the New Zealand Olympic Committee and Sport NZ on operational effectiveness, operating model and organisation design.

Kirsten is legally qualified, training at Magic Circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer before being seconded to the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

Fraser Houlder Associate Director, Rights Marketing fraser@thesportsconsultancy.com

After 20 years in the sports industry Fraser joined The Sports Consultancy in February 2018. Following successes with The UCI Road World Championships 2019, where 17 sponsors generated significant revenues, Fraser continues to lead The Sports Consultancy’s sponsorship work and is now involved in a number of host procurement projects.

Fraser joined The Sports Consultancy from The Female Sports Group, a consultancy he jointly founded in 2014 and which is dedicated to female and mixed gender sport. During his time there, he transformed parkrun’s commercial proposition, which saw a presenting partner (Vitality), two official partners (Exodus and Leeds Building Society) and several other sponsors (Vhi, Co-op and Healthspan) secured, more than tripling its commercial revenue with seven-figure deals. Whilst there, Fraser also worked with Table Tennis England, England Netball, Badminton England, World Cycling Revival and Herne Hill Velodrome to secure new commercial partners.

Fraser was previously General Manager of BDS Sponsorship, a business that he was part of for 18 years with six of those at the helm. During his time at BDS, he worked with a wide range of rights holders to commercialise their sponsorship assets and wrote over 75 commercial strategies for these clients.

As well as being a keen cyclist Fraser loves all sports and regularly runs, plays football and represents Kings at rugby – where he is also a coach and chairman in the mini rugby section.

Will Rylance Manager, Consulting will.rylance@thesportsconsultancy.com

Will joined The Sports Consultancy as an experienced hire, having began his career at Goldman Sachs and later setting up and successfully exiting his own sports travel business. He joined with several years experience working in strategy teams across multiple sectors, including FMCG, TMT and Sport, and has a valuable blend of strategic, commercial and operational expertise. He has a strong track record of delivering solutions that generate significant step changes in revenue and working collaboratively with clients to ensure successful delivery and execution of growth strategies.

Whilst at The Sports Consultancy, Will has helped major Rights Holders and sports investors to unlock growth potential, by delivering value-add proposition to fans that grow both direct and indirect revenues. Outside of the day to day Will also runs the valuation process for the TSC sponsorship sales team, which articulates the return on investment to brands from sports related sponsorship activity.

He is an avid sports fan and sits on the red side of Manchester having grown up in the north west, and is a keen golfer now that he’s hung up his footballing boots.

Stewart Gray Manager, Consulting stewart.gray@thesportsconsultancy.com

Stewart joined The Sports Consultancy as a manager in May 2023. Prior to joining TSC, Stewart spent over 8 years with Ernst & Young (EY) in the UK, New Zealand, and Australia with a focus on delivering strategy and business transformation projects.

During his time with EY, Stewart worked across a range of industries with experience spanning strategy development, business and operating model design, customer growth strategy and operational excellence. Amongst his wide client portfolio, he led projects with New Zealand Rugby to develop a refreshed strategy and business case reflecting the value, potential and commercial viability of women’s rugby, and Auckland Unlimited to design a new target operating model and organisational structure for the newly formed entity.

Stewart has a degree in Economics and Accounting from the University of Edinburgh and a strong finance background having qualified with the Institute of Chartered Accountants Scotland (ICAS) in 2017.

Outside of work, Stewart is a sports enthusiast. Since hanging up his rugby boots after a long amateur career, his focus has turned to lower impact sports such as tennis, golf and running, travelling to major sporting events, and dealing with the emotional turmoil of being a Scottish rugby fan.

Matthew Harraghy Senior Consultant, Consulting matthewh@thesportsconsultancy.com

Matthew joined The Sports Consultancy in 2014, and works in the Consulting team across a range of projects and clients.

He has worked for a variety of rights holders and international federations on strategy and major event host procurement projects for clients including the ICC, FIA, World Rugby, IAAF, EPCR and ITF. He has also worked for several public sector organisations, developing event strategies for the Government of Flanders and London & Partners and creating bids for events such as the Ryder Cup. In addition, Matthew spent a year working in the Rights Marketing team, helping to secure commercial partners for a range of rights holders and defining sponsorship structures for events including the Rugby League World Cup and Sailing World Championships.

Matthew has a degree in Music from Durham University, and previously worked at IMG Artists in classical music artist management. Outside of work, he can usually be found running, playing the trumpet or watching Everton.

Stuart Turner Senior Associate stuart.turner@thesportsconsultancy.com

Stuart Turner is an events industry professional with thirty years’ experience of working in the fields of sport, culture and events.

Stuart has worked as the Head of EventScotland and was responsible for leading on the creation of the National Events Strategy ‘Scotland the Perfect Stage’. He also led the EventScotland team in developing a portfolio of events over a period of ten years, working across both sport and culture. Stuart was integral to the establishment of themed years in Scotland and initiated the work on Scotland’s year of Homecoming in 2014. He led EventScotlands work on successful bids for World Gymnastics Championships, World Orienteering Championships, European Eventing Championships, MTV Europe Awards and many other World and European events.

Stuart worked extensively on and around the Glasgow 2014 commonwealth Games and was a member of the Sport Advisory Group as well as the Games Legacy Executive Board. He led work to secure events to test readiness for the games including World Junior Track Cycling, World Junior Netball and eight nations hockey.

Stuart also worked as Head of Major Events in Auckland where he wrote the ‘Major Events Strategy for Auckland’ as well as leading on the establishment of a new Cultural Festivals strategy. Stuart was central to delivering the Host Venue Agreement for the 36th Americas Cup and played an active role as a member of the Event Steering Group. In his time in Auckland Stuart also restructured the Major Events team and introduced policies and processes to help deliver the strategy. Stuart was also the driving force behind Auckland’s new winter festival, Elemental and led his organisations involvement in the successful bid to host the womens Rugby World Cup in 2021.

Stuart has been involved in working with Team Scotland at every commonwealth games since 1998 in various roles and was involved in the Team GB preparations for both Syndey 2000 and Salt Lake City 2002 Olympics. He is currently a Director of the International Association of Event Hosts.

Fiona Unwin Senior Consultant, Rights Marketing fiona@thesportsconsultancy.com

In her role as a Senior Consultant, Fiona specialises predominantly in maximising commercial partnerships within the world of sport and entertainment. Fiona has experience in creating, selling and delivering sponsorship rights packages and running major event host city procurement projects.

Over the past six years, Fiona has worked with rights holders such as: Major League Baseball (MLB), Laver Cup, World Athletics, BLAST Premier; The Fédération Equestre Internationale (The FEI) and has worked with brands including: Toyota; Vitality; Boehringer Ingelheim; Heineken; Müller; Brewin Dolphin and SPAR.

During 2021 Fiona spearheaded the development of a major industry report focused on the effectiveness and future role of sponsorship that captured the opinions of more than 70 senior decision makers from major brands and rights holders.

Fiona has always been a passionate sportswoman. When not working, she is most likely to be found running, cycling or in the gym.

Hannah Seymour Senior Consultant hannah.seymour@thesportsconsultancy.com

Hannah joined The Sports Consultancy in 2022 as a Senior Consultant with over seven years of management consulting experience. Since joining she has worked on a range of projects including major events impact analysis, strategic investment opportunities for growth, and commercialisation of intellectual property.

Hannah began her career at IBM in the finance practice primarily focussing on clients within financial services, helping in all aspects of the project lifecycle, from strategy to delivery. She is an experienced project manager with a strong track record of successfully delivering complex technology and transformation programmes.

Outside of work Hannah can usually be found running around one of London’s parks and recently completed a 250km ultra marathon across the Wadi Rum desert for charity.

Laurent Altmeyer Senior Consultant laurent.altmeyer@thesportsconsultancy.com

Laurent joined The Sports Consultancy as a Senior Consultant in September 2022.

Laurent has over seven years of consulting experience with a focus on helping clients address complex challenges through designing and implementing market-leading operating models and strategies across a wide range of different industries in both the public and private sector. He has a strong record in helping organisations use innovation to develop and execute on new growth strategies to achieve their growth ambitions.

Outside of work, Laurent is an avid rugby fan and enjoys following England around the world as they seek to claim their next piece of silverware. He also trains throughout the year to compete in triathlons.

Michael Harvey Senior Consultant, Consulting michael.harvey@thesportsconsultancy.com
Michael joined The Sports Consultancy at the beginning of 2023, bringing with him over six years experience in sport covering digital strategy, fan development and audience commercialisation.
With a range of previous clients stretching from governing bodies, broadcasters, brands and rights holders, Michael adds a breadth of industry experience to our Consulting team.
Outside of work he can regularly be found on the sofa watching NFL Redzone during the winter or hacking through the rough searching for golf balls in the summer.
Pascal Foster Consultant, Consulting pascal.foster@thesportsconsultancy.com

Pascal is a Consultant in the Consulting team, having joined the company in 2019.

He works across the full breadth of our service offering for some of our highest-profile rights holder and host city clients. Recent work includes supporting Major League Baseball enter new international markets with the development of their International Regular Season Games, creating a Foundation Plan for the Organising Committee of the 2034 Asian Games in Riyadh, and securing Brussels as a new host on the World Padel Tour circuit for 2022.

Pascal has also written various major event impact analysis and assessments for rights holder clients, and led the latest development of our economic impact methodology. He delivered an economic impact report for the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup in England and Wales, a social impact study for a Transport for London event, and is currently working with Formula 1 to create comprehensive impact reports for three of their Grands Prix in 2021 and 2022.

Other clients include Destination New South Wales, Greater London Authority, London & Partners, the Homeless World Cup Foundation and TGI.

Pascal also led on the launch of SEER, TSC’s internal think-tank and research unit, writing two detailed reports investigating the disconnect between rights holders and their two most important investors – host governments and brand sponsors.

Pascal also speaks three languages, having graduated from Oxford University with First Class Honours in French and Italian prior to joining company.

Outside of work, Pascal is a keen footballer and spends his Saturdays following the trials and tribulations of Sunderland AFC

Tom Rofe Consultant, Consulting tom.rofe@thesportsconsultancy.com

Tom joined The Sports Consultancy as an Analyst in the Consulting team in September 2019. At TSC Tom works across our consulting offering, including strategy development, host procurement, and sponsorship valuation/optimisation. Recent projects include host city strategy for World Athletics and developing the sponsorship strategy for the 2022 World Gymnastics Championships.

Prior to joining TSC, Tom completed a graduate scheme at Arsenal Football Club. At Arsenal Tom worked across commercial, operational and high performance functions of the Club. Before joining Arsenal Tom graduated from the University of Exeter with a First Class Honours in Economics and Politics.

Outside of work Tom is a qualified skydiver, a keen MMA and NBA fan, and can often be found agonising over his NFL fantasy team.

Jay Williams Consultant, Consulting jay.williams@thesportsconsultancy.com

Jay joined TSC as an Analyst in the consulting team in January 2020. Since joining he has worked across TSC’s Consulting and Rights Marketing functions.

His consulting project experience includes commercial strategy, event strategy, host city procurement, sponsorship regulation, strategy and operating model design for clients that include Badminton England, NEOM, IARD, Super League Triathlon and Metro Vancouver.

On the Rights Marketing side, Jay has been leading on market analysis, brand identification and sponsorship sales outreach. Working across a portfolio of national and international rights holders, he has developed a deep understanding of sports partnerships and the value they can deliver to brands.

Outside of the office, Jay is a keen sportsman. He enjoys playing rugby and long-distance running. Away from the pitch, he is a passionate Welsh Rugby fan.

Mayank Sohani Consultant, Consulting mayank.sohani@thesportsconsultancy.com

Mayank joined The Sports Consultancy as a Consultant in October 2022.

Prior to joining TSC, Mayank completed a graduate program with Ernst and Young (EY) Australia, where over a 3 year period, helped deliver numerous risk transformation and strategic projects for various private and public sector clients. He brings knowledge in the fields of business strategy, financial and process modelling, event impact analysis and program management. Before joining EY, Mayank graduated from Monash University with a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Accounting and Finance.

Outside of work, Mayank is a Cricket tragic and is also an avid fan of Tennis, Formula One and Australian Rules Football. He is also passionate about promoting positive mental health and wellbeing within the community and is the co-founder of a podcast aiming to de-stigmatise mental health through the power of storytelling and conversation.

Michael Canty Analyst, Consulting michael.canty@thesportsconsultancy.com

Michael joined The Sports Consultancy as an Analyst in the Consulting team in March 2022 after a successful internship.

Life at TSC has begun with a secondment role as project manager for Major League Baseball, working across all seasons of the global project Home Run Derby X. At TSC Michael works across our consulting offering, including hosting and campaigns and commercial partnerships and has worked with major rights holders including esports entertainment network BLAST and The National Hockey League.

Michael speaks three languages, having graduated from Durham University with First Class Honours in French and Spanish prior to joining the company.

Outside of work Michael enjoys playing darts and is a long-suffering Queens Park Rangers F.C. fan.

Oli Ng Analyst, Consulting oliver.ng@thesportsconsultancy.com

Oli joined The Sports Consultancy as an Analyst in June 2022 after completing a three-month internship with the firm.

Oli works on a wide range of projects covering commercial strategy development, new concept creation, host city procurement, and economic impact studies across a variety of clients, including World Athletics, the National Hockey League (NHL), and Volleyball World.

Prior to joining TSC, Oli completed a master’s degree in Management from Imperial College Business School with Distinction. Having grown up in Hong Kong, and graduating with a bachelor’s degree in German and Russian at University College, London, he also speaks several languages.

Outside work, Oli is a passionate Manchester United fan, and he enjoys playing football and ice hockey, scuba diving, and watching Formula One.

Sian Kelly Analyst, Consulting sian.kelly@thesportsconsultancy.com

Sian joined The Sports Consultancy as an Analyst in August 2022.

She holds a Masters in Sports Management from the Johan Cruyff Institute and a First-Class undergraduate degree from the University of Oxford in Spanish and Linguistics.

Combining her language skills and cricketing background, Sian was previously the Coach of the Argentine Women’s Cricket team and Female Development Officer for Cricket Argentina, before returning to the UK to work as an Account Executive at Sports Marketing firm InCrowd Sports. She is particularly passionate about the growth and increased professionalisation of women’s sport, and enjoys playing cricket at her local club each week.

 

Samina Musa Analyst, Consulting samina.musa@thesportsconsultancy.com

Following a successful three-month internship, Sami joined The Sports Consultancy as an Analyst in the Consulting team in October 2022.

Prior to joining TSC, Sami obtained a first-class degree in Performance Psychology from The University of Edinburgh. Sami has always had a passion to work in the sports industry, completing her undergraduate degree in Sports and Exercise Science at Durham University where she received a Distinction. Sami has experience working in a variety of roles within the sport and health industry with five years’ experience in marketing and advertisement for chiropractic clinics and placement experience on the Active 30 Programme, a scheme set out by the Government’s Childhood Obesity Plan, getting children to achieve sixty minutes of physical activity per day.

Sami works across our consulting offering including event strategy, host city procurement, commercial strategy development and sponsorship regulation for clients including the National Hockey League, Formula One and World Athletics.

Outside of work Sami enjoys watching her favourite team, Arsenal, play and is an avid Formula One fan with a dream of attending the Italian Grand Prix in Monza.

Federico Battaglia Analyst, Consulting federico.battaglia@thesportsconsultancy.com

Federico joined The Sports Consultancy as an Analyst in April 2023, after completing a three-month internship within the consulting division of the firm. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and master’s degree from Loughborough University London, which he obtained with a distinction.

At TSC Federico works across the firm’s consulting offering, focusing on unlocking commercial value for a number of high-profile clients, including Formula 1, NASCAR and Rugby League World Cup. Prior to joining TSC, Federico accrued 2 years of industry experience by engaging in research collaborations, internships, and industry placements. His project portfolio includes an international strategy development piece for Global Squad Basketball (MD, USA), a talent identification and development research project for Valencia Basket Club, and a CSR framework development project for SlumsDunk ODV, a non-profit basketball academy operating out of Nairobi, Kenya.

A passionate traveller, Federico has lived in 5 countries and is fluent in Italian, English and Spanish. Outside of work, he can be found watching basketball, exploring London or planning the next trip to the nearest beach.

Ivo Slot Analyst, Consulting ivo.slot@thesportsconsultancy.com

Ivo joined The Sport Consultancy as an Analyst in the Consulting team in May 2023.

Prior to joining TSC, Ivo worked at Nestle on a Commercial Graduate Training Program. During his time there he worked across multiple teams within the Sales function where he managed accounts, delivered strategic plans and developed skills in planning and analysis. Aside from this Ivo is passionate about sustainability and worked on multiple projects to drive this, including leading the relationship with a key charity partner.

Before joining Nestle he graduated from Nottingham University where he received First Class honours from a degree in Industrial Economics.
Outside of work Ivo enjoys his fitness and is a member of a CrossFit gym, he can also often be found losing balls on the golf course which he doesn’t enjoy as much! Ivo is a keen sports fan and supports Harlequins where he is a season ticket holder.

Legal

Facilities & Venues

Simon Molden Director, Major Events simon@thesportsconsultancy.com

Simon began his career at Sport England in 1999 where he worked in the Lottery Strategy Unit, monitoring and evaluating the company’s progress against the 1999-2009 funding strategy. In 2002, he moved into consultancy and worked on a range of high-profile projects, including an 18-month secondment with Elmbridge Borough Council project managing the Elmbridge Xcel Centre leisure PPP and a secondment with World Cup Barbados Inc. In the latter role, he spent three-and-a-half months as Cricket and Facilities Manager for WCB’s successful bid to host the final of the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

In 2007, Simon moved to Capita Symonds Sport & Leisure, where he was primarily responsible for major event work, as well as delivering business planning and procurement support to local authorities. High profile projects included the 2015/2017 World Athletics Championships Feasibility Study for London, the 2014/16 European Swimming Championships Feasibility Study for London and 2015 Eurobasket Feasibility Study, as well as the first joint leisure management contract procurement in the UK (for Guildford and Woking Borough Councils).

He joined The Sports Consultancy as a Director in January 2012 and has continued to deliver a range of high profile projects, including the procurement for British Cycling of a new Delivery Partner for the Tour of Britain from 2014-18, the feasibility study and bid support for Scotland’s successful submission to host the 2019 Solheim Cup, the feasibility study for the new Scottish National Performance Centre for Sport (now Oriam, opened in 2016) and economic impact appraisals for the 2016 and 2017 EPCR Champions and Challenge Cup Finals and the 2017 IAAF World Cross-Country Championships.

Chris Marriott Director, Venues & Events chris@thesportsconsultancy.com

Chris began his career in the City, working in management buy-outs and corporate acquisitions for Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest financing.  Completing a number of sport and leisure related deals sparked a professional interest in sport and he moved to a specialist leisure consultancy PMP in 2003.

Before joining the Sports Consultancy Chris was an Associate Director with Capita Symonds Sport & Leisure. He led the consultancy’s management and procurement work. In 2011 Chris completed the procurement of an operator for Guildford Spectrum – the largest public leisure centre in the UK – as part of the first ever joint procurement process on behalf of Guildford and Woking Borough Councils.

Chris focuses on two key areas of consultancy work: leisure management procurement and venue facility feasibility. He has delivered projects for many clients including UK Sport, the English Institute of Sport Sheffield, The Government of the Isle of Man and the States of Guernsey, as well as numerous local authorities across the UK.

Tom Pinnington Director, Venues & Events tom@thesportsconsultancy.com

Tom is responsible for leading the growth of The Sports Consultancy’s venue development capability, establishing the team as a leading consultancy in the development of significant sport and leisure facilities and venues. He has delivered commissions for many clients including central and local government, national governing bodies of sport, universities, developers, architects and other consultancies. He has over 15 years’ experience in the sport and leisure sector, focussing on the development of capital projects.

Tom began his career at Sport England, where he worked on the development and assessment of capital projects. From Sport England he moved to the Big Lottery Fund where he was a programme manager leading the development and delivery of the £750m Physical Education and School Sport Programme. He then moved to consultancy, rising to become an Associate Director within Capita’s Sport & Leisure Consultancy team, before joining The Sports Consultancy in 2011.

James Roberts Analyst, Facilities & Venues Consulting james.roberts@thesportsconsultancy.com

James joined The Sports Consultancy as an Analyst within the Facilities and Venues team in July 2022 as part of his industrial placement year at Loughborough University. James studies Economics and Management and will return to Loughborough in July 2023 to complete the final year of his studies.

When he isn’t working, James is a keen sportsman and enjoys playing Football and Tennis. He has more recently picked up Golf, although he is realising it becomes quite an expensive sport when you lose numerous balls each round.

Dominic Harris Analyst, Facilities & Venues Consulting dominic.harris@thesportsconsultancy.com

Dominic initially joined The Sports Consultancy in October 2020 as part of his industrial placement from Loughborough University, where he studied Business Economics and Finance. Having successfully graduated with First Class Honours in July 2022, he has since returned to the Facilities & Venues Team as an Analyst.

His F&V consulting project experience includes strategic planning, feasibility studies, needs assessments, options appraisals, contract monitoring and operator procurement. Dominic has worked with a broad range of both public and private clients, including the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Sport, The Department for International Trade and Padel4All.

Outside of work, Dominic is a keen racquet sports player, and has represented his university at both tennis and squash. You will also see him at the Emirates Stadium every week, where he copes with the stresses of being an Arsenal fan.

Freddie Adam Analyst, Facilities and Venues Consulting freddie.adam@thesportsconsultancy.com

Freddie joined The Sports Consultancy in April 2023 as an Analyst on the Facilities & Venues Team after 4 years at the University of Bristol, where he studied Chemistry. His project experience so far includes facility benchmarking, needs assessments, strategic planning, energy benchmarking and contract monitoring for both private and public sector clients.

Freddie is an avid fan of most sports, especially football, cricket, rugby union and the NFL, and he loves learning about and watching a new sport. His weekends are often spent playing cricket for his home village side in Kent or at Stamford Bridge, where he struggles to cope with the recent downfall of his beloved Chelsea.

Finance, Design & Business Support

John Illsley Chief Financial Officer john.illsley@thesportsconsultancy.com

John joined The Sports Consultancy in July 2018.

He is an experienced finance professional who combines over 20 years’ experience as a company director and 9 years in consultancy. John  joined The Sports Consultancy from the corporate finance team at Moore Stephens in London where he specialised in valuing IP and businesses for litigation, dispute resolution and non-contentious matters. Prior to joining Moore Stephens was a director /owner of a leading independent valuation consultancy.

John has previously worked in sport and media, as finance director of ISC, the commercial rights holder to the FIA World Rally Championship. He has also held finance director positions within subsidiaries of major groups including GEC, Booker, Unilever and Virgin and PE backed companies. He is a chartered accountant having qualified with Arthur Young McClelland Moore (now part of EY).

John’s role at The Sports Consultancy is to assist in the development of the business and the execution of strategic plans.

John is a sports fan, who by his own admission spent far too much time on the cricket pitch. He now focusses on staying fit, and watching as much sport as the family allow.

Steve Tree People Director (Consultant) steve.tree@thesportsconsultancy.com

Steve has been working with The Sports Consultancy since March 2023, supporting all aspects of how people are managed from highly strategic through to the design, implementation and ongoing management of people-related processes. His work includes building a clear employee value proposition and helping the group to articulate how its longer term strategic goals align with its people management.

Steve has a background in management consulting – including at KPMG, Andersen and Deloitte – as well as having been an international People Director in both large and early stage organisations. Specialising in the review and design of the whole people management process as well as mergers and acquisitions, he has worked in most regions of the world.

Steve has an MBA, is CFCIPD and CMCIM and is a trained teacher.

Sahil Fernandes Creative Consultant sahil@thesportsconsultancy.com

Sahil is an experienced creative director with over sixteen years of experience in design and communications across the creative cycle from concept to delivery. Working with national and international clients, he has managed and delivered high impact award winning campaigns and events. His focus has been in Presentations and Brand design, along with Communication Strategy, Art Direction, Sets & Exhibits and Marketing Collateral.

Starting his career in a multi-discipline graphic design firm, Sahil went on to work for studios specialising in presentations, web and finally print.  He went onto head design for internal communication globally at Aegis, which is a leading global business services provider of customer experience management. He then joined C. S. Direkt as Associate Creative Director where he designed executed the first social media push campaign for an Automotive brand in the country. Sahil comes to The Sports Consultancy from Salt, India’s fourth largest experience management agency, where he was heading the design team.

Although you would not associate Sahil with sports, he is huge fan of sports films and movies in general. He’s also a huge graphic novel fan, particularly the DC universe.

Esme Chennells Milton Senior Executive Assistant to Robert Datnow & Angus Buchanan esme@thesportsconsultancy.com

Esme joined The Sports Consultancy in 2015 and is Executive Assistant to Managing Directors Robert Datnow and Angus Buchanan.

Outside of work Esme enjoys spending time training in the gym and visiting sunnier countries.

Jawad Ali Financial Accountant jawad@thesportsconsultancy.com

Jawad is an MBA (finance) graduate and ACCA qualified Accountant. Jawad has worked in a number of Finance roles over the years and is currently working as Financial Accountant at The Sports Consultancy.

Jawad’s role at The Sports Consultancy is to assist in Statutory submissions and compliance as well as day to day running of Finance function.

In his free time, Jawad likes to explore country sides, historic places and spending quality time with family.

 

Alex Joseph Management Accountant alex.joseph@thesportsconsultancy.com

Alex joined The Sports Consultancy as a Management Accountant in October 2022.

Prior to joining TSC, Alex completed the Finance Graduate Scheme at Siemens PLC. Whilst at Siemens, Alex finished his CIMA Accountancy exams and was the finance partner to the Head of Operational Services. He has also achieved an undergraduate degree in Economics from Bournemouth University.

Outside of work, Alex can often be found wandering around a golf course looking for his lost ball, he is also a keen footballer and enjoys going to live sporting events.