Sport 4 Life trustees
Learn more about our Board of Trustees.
Our board is made up of volunteers from a wide range of backgrounds and are responsible for the charity’s strategic direction. They meet regularly to discuss and review our strategies and policies to help make sure Sport 4 Life continues to support young people in the community.
ALL THAT WE DO IS FOCUSED ON CHANGING THE LIVES OF YOUNG PEOPLE.
Mike Gahir
Chair
Mike is a financial and business development professional with considerable experience in leading organisations as an executive and non-executive director.
Mike also has an MBA from Warwick Business School and degrees in both financial services and economics. Outside of work, Mike has previously chaired a large employment charity in the region, and was named winner of the 2021 Sunday Times Non-Executive Director of the Year (‘One to Watch’ category).
Mundeep Johal
Trustee
Mundeep is the Head of Financial Reporting at Secure Trust Bank Plc, where she has responsibility for regulatory reporting, tax and external reporting.
Mundeep began her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, after which she moved into financial services, working at Santander and Coventry Building Society. Mundeep joined Sport 4 Life in 2020 and brings to the Board experience of financial accounting and reporting.
Thomas Crane
Trustee
Thomas is the General Counsel at Coventry Building Society, where has responsibility for legal, procurement, data protection and corporate governance matters. He began his career at Theodore Goddard, before moving on to roles in private practice and the financial services sector.
Tom joined Sport 4 Life in 2019 and brings to the Board experience of strategy, governance and legal matters.
Alexandra Ireland
Trustee
Alexandra is a solicitor specialising in general commercial contracts work, grant funding agreements, brand protection issues, intellectual property matters, data protection and privacy. Alexandra has experience working with a wide range of clients from smaller charities working in local communities through to much larger organisations working both nationally and internationally, education sector clients such as independent schools, academies and universities.
Alexandra joined Sport 4 Life in 2019 and brings commercial experience, intellectual property and charity legal matters.
Pam Wilde
Trustee
Pam joined Sport 4 Life in 2021 and brings strategic marketing and board-level experience from organisations such as technology experts SSP, Rolls-Royce, Barclays Bank and Interserve. Her experience covers marketing strategy development, campaign development, PR, brand strategy and market positioning.
Pam has a lifelong interest in sports participation and the impact of activity on mental and physical wellbeing. She has run marathons including Boston and New York, plays singles tennis leagues and is currently training to enter a bodybuilding competition.
“I am delighted and proud to be appointed as Trustee for Sport 4 Life. Sport 4 Life make a significant difference to young people in the West Midlands, using sport and activity to help equip people with the skills to secure employment and live a life filled with hope. In the challenges of the post Covid environment organisations like this are even more imperative.”
Emma Neale
Trustee
Emma is an Associate Professor in Marketing and Employability Lead at Birmingham City University. Emma specialises in teaching Marketing Strategy and Management, as well as embedding employability skills within the curriculum, to create placement and graduate opportunities for students.
Prior to embarking on a career in Higher Education, Emma worked at Siemens as a European Direct Marketing Manager and also Emma ran her own marketing consultancy, working with SMEs within the region.
Emma joined Sport 4 Life in 2021 and brings to the Board marketing and employability experience.
“I chose to apply for the role as trustee at Sport 4 Life, as I was really impressed with the strategic vision and overall leadership of the charity. The core values of “changing the lives of young people”, is perfectly aligned with my own ethos and philosophy of life, so being a trustee will be extremely fulfilling on a personal level, as we continue to have an impact on the lives of young people. I will also be able to contribute with my knowledge and skills from an employability and marketing perspective as my experience, expertise and networks, I will assist with the continued growth and success of Sport 4 Life, which I am very much looking forward to being part of.”
Alton Brown
Trustee
Alton is a London-based senior leader with over 16 years of experience within the charitable sector, specialising in the strategic development and delivery of engagement programmes, especially linked to young people, community development and using sport and the creative arts as a vehicle for social good.
Alton has an impressive sporting background too – a former Olympic pathway athlete in Karate, boasting a successful 22-year career at the pinnacle of this sport for both England and Jamaica, including multiple European championships and World and Pan American medals.
“As a long-term admirer of Sport 4 Life and the incredible impact they create in the lives of young people, I am very excited to now be joining their board. Growing up, sport was an introduction to a world that completely resonated with me. Sport gave me an inspiring lens I could use to navigate life, it gave me the tools to leverage new development opportunities and it opened up doors across the world that I could never have imagined as a young person growing up in an economically deprived area.”
