Who we are

In August 2019, Fran succeeded Joanna Adams as the new Chief Executive Officer to lead England Netball into an exciting new era. Joining England Netball in 2001, Fran has grown within the organisation, being appointed as Director of Development in 2010 and subsequently leading on the phenomenal growth in participation the sport has seen since. She has held a number of roles within the organisation and overseen a broad spectrum of areas including participation, capital investment, governance, competition and events, coaching, officiating, volunteering, talent and insight. During her tenure, Fran’s contribution has to date included: securing substantial investment from new commercial partners and the main government funding agencies; pioneering the Participant-Centred Approach; and driving the development of England Netball’s highly successful ‘Your Game Your Way’ strategy. Fran has also overseen 10 years of consistent and unparalleled growth in participation and membership, developing industry leading partnerships with organisations such as the Women’s Institute and introducing market-leading programmes such as Back to Netball, Walking Netball and the U11 product Bee Netball. Leading on the Vitality Netball World Cup legacy strategy, Fran successfully harnessed the impact of both the Commonwealth Games and Netball World Cup to inspire a nation of new netballers. 130,700 women started playing netball or more netball following the 2018 Commonwealth Games and this was bettered in 2019 with an incredible 160,000 women starting or playing more after the Netball World Cup. Through her leadership and influence netball has supported the overall growth of women’s sport, helping to address the gender inequality gap and inactivity levels in traditionally hard to reach population groups.

Mark Foster joined England Netball in May 2023 from the Rugby Football League (RFL) where he held the role of Chief Commercial Officer. With more than 15 years’ experience in commercial, marketing, digital and broadcast leadership within Rugby, Cricket and Football, Mark has an exceptional track record of commercial success and is responsible for driving revenue and audience growth across England Netball and Netball Super League properties through the building and fostering of authentic partnerships. Mark assumes overall responsibility for all commercial, marketing and communications functions at England Netball.

Jennie joined England Netball in March 2025 as Group Finance Director. Jennie is a Chartered Management Accountant with 25 years' experience in finance across both for profit and not-for profit organisations. She joined us from a Local Authority owned social enterprise where she was Chief Executive and Chief Finance Officer. Having worked in high-growth sectors and private equity backed companies she brings a wealth of commercial finance expertise in delivering profitable growth alongside an understanding of the unique challenges of operating in the not-for-profit sector. During a varied career, Jennie has held strategic responsibility for a number of non-finance functions including People & Culture, IT, Business Intelligence, Corporate Governance and Project Management. Jennie is responsible for leading the finance and risk functions across England Netball and Netball Super League, providing strategic financial leadership, financial management and governance to ensure the long-term financial health and growth of the sport

David joined England Netball in 2020, having enjoyed a highly successful 12-year tenure as Performance Director of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) where he was responsible for developing the systems, programmes, people and pathways that identified and prepared players for the England team. During his time as Performance Director, the England team won the 2019 Cricket World Cup and the 2010 World Twenty20 competition and were ranked number one in the world in all formats of the game. David, who has also worked as a High Performance Consultant for the likes of UK Sport, British Canoeing, and British Weightlifting, has a wealth of experience in the elite sporting landscape and is passionate about the potential success of netball on the road to the next Commonwealth Games and Netball World Cup. He works closely with Vitality Roses Head Coach Jess Thirlby and Netball Super League clubs to continue to build on the successes of recent years and to support the development of world leading performance environments for the sport.

Katy joined the organisation in 2020 from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) where she held the role of Head of National Programmes. During her time with the ECB, Katy spearheaded its first national programme designed for children; All Stars Cricket, which has seen 185,000 children engage with the game over three years, plus she secured £1.4m of Sport England funding and also successfully delivered a number of large scale innovative projects which led to her inclusion in the Financial Times’ Rising Stars list. Katy previously worked for England Netball for seven years in senior development roles such as National Coaching Manager and National Development Manager. During that period she spearheaded the flagship participation programme Back to Netball which won the National Lottery Sports Project of the Year Award in 2012.

Ian has been Director of Super League and Competitions at England Netball since 2019, and has been with the organisation since 2012 leading on the delivery of competitions and events. Ian was seconded to the Vitality Netball World Cup 2019 as Head of Sport Competition where he successfully oversaw all areas of the sport and competition including the management of teams, officials, technical officials, sport specific volunteers, anti doping, field of play, training and warm up venues and sport presentation. Ian was also World Netball's Technical Delegate at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, where he oversaw the delivery of the netball competition throughout the Games. Within the transformation of the Netball Super League, Ian works closely with NSL Co Managing Director, Claire Nelson to oversee the running of the league, as well as leading a team to deliver the entire portfolio of competitions and events at England Netball.

Naomi is a qualified Company Secretary (GradCG) and experienced sport governance, strategy and project manager with a career of almost 15 years in the sport industry. She joined England Netball in 2011 at the start of her career and has progressed within the organisation working in a number of different roles within the competition, development and business areas of the organisation. This has allowed her to develop a broad and far-reaching knowledge of the sport of netball. She has played a pivotal role in the development and implementation of England Netball’s strategies over the last decade and worked closely with staff and volunteers to support the successful delivery of significant change management projects to enhance the success of the sport. Naomi became the Company Secretary for England Netball in 2017 and alongside this has overseen a number of areas within the organisation including governance, compliance, safeguarding, operations, technology, insight and equality & diversity. She is passionate about the impact of sport on people’s lives and taking an insight led approach to strategy in order to tailor and deliver exceptional experiences. Alongside her roles with England Netball, Naomi has provided insight consultancy support to a number of other sports organisations including Sport England, the RFL, British Canoeing and British Cycling. She is currently the Vice Chair of Bath Recreation Ltd. a charitable organisation which owns and operates a number of recreational sites seeking to nurture positive lifestyles within the local community and previously a Trustee of the charity Active4Blood.

Claire joined England Netball in June 2023 with 15 years’ experience working across the sports and marketing sectors. Previously the Group Chief Executive Officer for Netball Scotland and NSL Club Strathclyde Sirens, Claire has been instrumental in transforming netball in Scotland, setting new standards for the sport and delivering industry-leading results. Specialising in commercial strategy, brand, marketing, and partnership acquisition and activation, her remit as the NSL’s first-ever Managing Director sees her work closely with the NSL clubs to strategically leverage the status and reputation of the domestic league, and take it to new heights of visibility and influence.

Appointment date – 12 December 2024 Netball region based in – East Midlands After representing England in netball at Under 21 level, Baroness Campbell went on to become one of the most recognisable and respected names within British sport, and a trailblazer within women’s sport. She began her distinguished career within sport as a PE teacher at Loughborough University and went on to become the Chief Executive of the Youth Sport Trust in 1995 and Chair of UK Sport in 2003 where she oversaw an unprecedented era of Olympic and Paralympic success for Team GB. She has spent the last eight years as Director of Women’s Football at The FA where she played a pivotal role in the success of the Lionesses, the growth of a thriving grassroots game and the professionalisation of the WSL.

Director Status – Senior Independent Director Appointment date – 28 January 2020 Committee membership – Nominations Committee (Chair) Netball Region based in – London & South East Jennifer has risen quickly to the top as a dynamic communicator, having been talent-spotted for rapid promotion at every company she has worked for. Jennifer’s former career as a championship 400m runner and hurdler for England was early evidence of her drive and determination. She was on the Board of Trustees of Working Families, one of the UK’s leading work-life balance charities and she was formally Chair of Governors for a primary school. She has recently joined the London Stock Exchange Group as Head of Communications, Data & Analytics and D&I. Prior to that she has held roles at GSK, focused on using a communications strategic lens to review and support their inclusion and diversity agenda, alongside a number of other special projects. And also as Director of Internal Communications, Experience & Sustainability at Direct Line Group. As part of the Group’s Strategic Leadership Team, she was responsible for developing the Group’s internal communications strategy, including employee engagement as well as developing and executing a new corporate social responsibility strategy. She is also a prominent diversity and inclusion specialist, advocating for diversity and inclusion pan-industry and has been instrumental in introducing and setting D&I strategies within various organisations.

Director Status – Independent Appointment date – 24 November 2022 Netball Region based in – East Midlands Committee membership – Integrity & Clinical Governance Management Group (Chair) Michael Bourne is Performance Director at the LTA since October 2020. He is responsible for the development and delivery of the LTA performance strategy inspiring and enabling players to reach their full potential, and has oversight of the Tennis and Wheelchair Tennis Player Pathways, Sport Science & Medicine, and Coach Education & Development functions. Michael has extensive experience of elite performance programmes and player development from across a wide range of sports. Prior to the LTA, he spent 6 years at UK Sport where he held a number of senior roles overseeing investment into Olympic and Paralympic sports in the UK and supporting elite athlete preparations towards the Games. His career has seen him in roles at British Shooting, English Institute of Sport, and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) where he was Head of Science and Medicine.

Jill is a Chartered Accountant and has been a Partner at the professional services firm, PwC, for more than 10 years. Jill specialises in Governance, Risk and Compliance and has significant experience in helping clients to solve complex problems as well as developing talent in leadership roles. Her portfolio includes multinationals as well as not for profit and large private businesses and she has worked across a range of sectors. Jill’s client roles have deepened her expertise in understanding and managing a wide range of risks from technology to people to regulation. Jill has played netball since the age of 11 for school, university and in local leagues. She continues to play socially and now enjoys umpiring as well as playing.

Claire joined the England Netball Board in September 2023 from the membership vote. She started playing netball at age nine initially at school and club levels before representing Birmingham County and playing at a Regional level. Her commitment to the sport continued through university where she served as Netball Club Captain. Even though no longer playing herself, she can generally be found courtside supporting both of her daughters who are in the early stages of their own netball journeys within the West Midlands region.

Director Status – Nominated Appointment date – 16 September 2023 Committee membership – N/A Netball Region based in – South West

David has spent the last seven years as Chief Operating Officer at the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and prior to this, oversaw the strategy, insights, HR, integrity and public policy teams as the ECB’s Chief Strategy Officer. Before joining the ECB, David held a number of senior roles at Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, including Director of Policy and Chief Advisor to the CEO. He was also seconded into Government in 2009 as a Director of the Digital Britain Report, which examined the transformational nature of digital technologies and the policy responses needed as a result. A qualified lawyer who specialised in competition and media law before joining Ofcom. He is currently also a member of the Sport England Board.

Clare became a nominated non-executive director at England Netball in March 2018. She also currently sits on the organisation’s Nominations Committee, as well as Chairing the Regional Chairs’ Forum as the Board representative. She has played netball since secondary school, and her playing career includes stints representing her province at the South African National Championships in 2001, competing for both Loughborough and Northumbria universities in BUSA (now BUCS), playing in the inaugural year of the Netball Superleague in 2005-2006, and more recently at YWCA Bury and Riverside.

Tim Rolfe is a Human Resources professional with over 25 years of experience in senior HR roles. After working in HR consulting, latterly as a Director in EY’s Human Capital practice, Tim held senior HR roles in RSA plc and Prudential plc, most recently as the Group Human Resources Director for Prudential plc. He currently runs his own independent HR consulting business, providing HR advisory services to financial services sector companies. He has sat on a number of subsidiary company Remuneration and Audit Committees as well as acting as a charity Trustee. Tim umpires in local senior and junior netball leagues.

David has spent the last ten years working as a Board advisor to a portfolio of high-growth companies within the sport, media and technology sectors and the previous twenty years working in senior brand marketing and commercial television roles. He is currently Chair at FUSE, part of the Omnicom award-winning marketing agency, and alongside being a Director at England Netball he is also Board Advisor to Twenty First Group, Immersive Gym and a Member of the Stakeholder Board at British Canoeing.

Joan was appointed President in 2020. She has previously held a number of key positions at England Netball spending three years as Vice Chair and then five years as Chair. She also is no stranger to running competitions and having undertaken the herculean role of International Technical Delegate for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014 and Vitality Netball World Cup 2019 in Liverpool. Her netballing credentials are extensive and this was recognised in the Queen’s 90th birthday honours in 2016 where she received an MBE for her services to the game.