England Touch Association adds to Non-Executive Director expertise

• Professor Mark James joins the England Touch Association’s board as a Non-Executive Director with immediate effect
• Mark is Professor of Sports Law and Director of Research at Manchester Law School
• His expertise will help the England Touch Association achieve its growth ambitions as one of the country’s top participation sports and align it with the latest Sport England strategies

The England Touch Association (ETA) has today announced the appointment of Professor Mark James to the board as a Non-Executive Director.

Professor James is one of the country’s leading sports law researchers, working with a variety of sports organisations and governing bodies on a wide range of issues, including ambush marketing, ticketing and player violence and injuries.

With over two decades’ experience working within the sports sector, Professor James is ideally placed to help the England Touch Association continue to develop in a strategic and sustainable way during a period of rapid growth.

“I am genuinely excited to be joining England Touch at such an important stage of its development,” he said. “Touch is a great sport that brings together all ages and sexes in a mixed environment and is going through a period of rapid growth.

“I hope that I will be able to use my experience of working with many different sports organisations over the years to help England Touch to continue to reach out to new audiences and to build on its success in international competitions.”

Professor James joins Chris Martin and Natalie Davis (profiles below) on the Board, completing a trio of Non-Executive Directors with a broad range of expertise to support the ETA’s Executive Directors and Managers, as well as the Association’s broader ambitions ahead of the 2018 European Touch Championships.

Chief Executive Gregg Cropper is excited by the addition of Professor James to the ETA’s board.

“Since I first met Mark I knew that his depth of knowledge and law background would be a perfect fit within the ETA to both add value and fill an identified skills gap,” he said.

“One of our major ambitions is to continue our alignment with the latest Sport England strategies, including ‘Towards An Active Nation’ and develop our place as one of the country’s leading participation sports. Mark will quickly become integral to this area and we’re all looking forward to working closely with him in the future.”

About the other Non-Executive Directors

Chris Martin Chris has been a long-time player and fan of Touch and has a wide range of commercial experience. Over the past 15 years Chris has built a number of successful companies in and around sports development and has built up an extensive network of industry experts and contacts on whom he can rely.

As a qualified PE teacher, an experienced coach and successful business owner in the world of digital and web, Chris offers effective advice and support to the England Touch board through this period of accelerated growth and development. Chris has acted as a Governor and NED with other organisation and feels this experience will be of benefit to the future governance of England Touch.

Natalie Davis As a policy advisor to Government Ministers for the last seven years, Natalie has experience creating and developing policy ideas at the national level. Most recently Natalie was one of the authors of the Government’s new Sport Strategy and has worked with sports administrators across the sector to increase participation and raise the profile of women’s sport. Natalie hopes to use her experience to help England Touch become more effective and sustainable at this exciting time in its journey as a National Governing Body.