Success Stories!

Board of Trustees

Trustees play a vital role in guiding the future of the ASF as it grows. The management and control of the business of the ASF is vested in the Board. All Trustees will make decisions objectively in the interests of the ASF. The Foundation’s Board of Trustees will be responsible for;

  • Adhering to the ASF Constitution;
  • Guiding strategy and policy making to achieve and maintain high quality services in harmony with the beliefs and values of the ASF;
  • Ensuring that the financial affairs of ASF are conducted in a responsible manner in accordance with established policies;
  • Oversee the outcomes of the work of ASF;
  • Encourage effective communication within the whole organisation, especially between ASF Members, and other stakeholders;
  • Actively participate in committees and task groups.

Professor Lord Patel O.B.E

President

Lord Patel, a social worker by background, initially worked in inner city Bradford and then established a number of Third Sector agencies working with those misusing drugs and those with mental health problems; later moving into academia working with a number of universities.

He entered the House of Lords in 2006 as an independent peer and was later appointed Minister in the Government Whip’s Office in the House of Lords. Lord Patel has held a number of high-profile public appointments on national boards and committees, including the Home Office’s Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs, the Care Quality Commission, and was also Chairman of the Mental Health Act Commission and Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

In 2018, Lord Patel of Bradford was appointed by the Secretary of State for Education and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care as the Chair of Social Work England. Social Work England is the new regulator for all child, family and adult social workers in England.

Angus Martin

CEO

An accomplished third sector CEO, leader and advocate. Offers comprehensive experience establishing and maturing charities that harness the power of sport and football to enhance communities and promote wellbeing, education, economic regeneration and inclusion. Provides specialist expertise in generating sustainable sources of income for charities.

Has a demonstrable track record working with Boards to create compelling visions and strategies and inspiring management teams to implement them through robust business planning, financial management and governance. Embraces change, drives innovation and gets the best from people by harnessing their skills and experience. Devotes time to building colleague, stakeholder and Board relationships based on confidence, trust and credibility.

Combines the Chief Executive role at the ASF with running his own consultancy supporting sports charities and community organisations. Previous roles include head of education at The English Football League Trust and general manager at Brazilian Soccer Schools.

Jug Johal

Chairman

For more than 30 years Jug Johal has been an avid supporter of rugby, playing at club level for Scunthorpe RUFC and Moseley RFC and at county and international level for India Rugby.

Jug has been campaigning for equality and inclusion of Asian communities in sport for the past decade, having co-founded the British Asian Rugby Association in 2004. Jug’s latest project with the support of the ASF Board of Trustees and its ambassadors will continue with this campaign by supporting National Governing Bodies, National Governing Organisations, clubs and committees at a strategic level to deliver tangible projects which break down cultural and religious barriers and provide sporting benefits to an under-represented minority ethnic community.

Jug is also an executive board member at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust and has collective responsibility for ensuring that the Trust is able to deliver high quality and effective services at all times at its three hospitals and community sites. Jug leads the directorate of estates and facilities ensuring that the estate and service strategies are in place to ensure a safe, secure and high quality patient environment both within the Trust and to other organisations to whom the Trust provides estates and facilities services.

Jug, who lives with his family in Lincolnshire graduated as a Sports Therapist and has a Master’s degree in Leadership in Health & Social Care.

Sat Nijjar

Vice Chairman

Sat is Chief Executive of The Fortel Group of businesses and joined the family-owned business as Operations Director in 2005 after achieving a 1st Class BSc in Computer Science and Business Studies from the University of Birmingham and a career in investment banking with the US bond brokerage firm, Bear Stearns in Canary Wharf.

Sat represents the second generation of the family and has been the driving force behind the accelerated growth of the company, doubling the business over the last five years. Sat and the management team strive to support the local community and religious venues and a variety of charities, which in the past have included British Heart Foundation and The Sikh Channel through numerous fundraising events. He is also involved in the economic development of Walsall Borough through a founding member seat on the Public/Private joint initiative The Walsall Economic Board, a member of his local PPG and an alumni member and regular attendee of The Sunday Times Fast Track 100 events.

Janet Inman

Trustee

Janet has been involved in developing and delivering sport she was at school. She trained as a Specialist PE teacher at Lady Mabel College then worked in secondary and primary schools for 20 years and took a leadership role after completing the National Qualification for Headship.

Taking part in sport and volunteering has been a large part of Janet’s life. She has worked as a coach in a number of sports in local community clubs. This eventually led to her taking on the role of Chair for Lincolnshire Volleyball and becoming the National Development Director for Volleyball England.

Whilst taking a break from teaching Janet was employed by Volleyball England to help write their first Whole Sport Plan. During the past 10 years Janet has been a Non-Executive Director at a number of organisations including the County Sports Partnership Network, Volleyball England, Lincoln City Foundation and Activity Alliance. When she finished teaching she took up a post at the Lincolnshire Sport where she became the CEO in 2010. In 2017 she left Lincolnshire Sport to take up the CEO role at Volleyball England where she remained until October this year when she retired.

Chandni Vora

Trustee

Chandni is Chief Operating Officer for Vascroft Contractors Ltd, a fellow Chartered management accountant (FCMA), Graduate from CASS City University Business school, and is responsible for the strategic and operational growth of the business.  She is passionate about the need to ensure the construction Industry is forward thinking and moving with the technological changes, to mitigate the skills, economic and sustainability challenges that lie ahead.  With over 24 years’ experience in project financial appraisals analysis, budgeting, Board reporting, and ERP implementations spanning across accountancy, legal, engineering, construction, telecoms retail industry, she has gained valuable commercial financial acumen, enabling her to keep Vascroft’s high-level strategy front-and-centre, while understanding the details of day-to-day execution and operations to ensure what needs to happen does happen.

She is Freedom member of the City of London Livery Worshipful Company of Constructors, an advisory board member of E2Exchange.   She is a Trustee of Vascroft Foundation UK charity and ambassador for several UK charities Project Giving One Kind Act SKLPC UK.  Chandni is an active volunteer in many humanitarian charitable organisations a keen traveller, with a strong affiliation to India as an NRI.  In her spare time an avid cyclist participating regularly on long distance challenges to raise funds for several charities such as SEWA UK,  British Asian Trust, Diabetes Uk for the betterment of people’s wellbeing and society as whole in the UK and beyond.   As a type 2 diabetic for last 23 years, her reversal diabetes journey stems from her passion for Sport and “Sewa” selfless giving and believe they work in tandem instils these values in her two daughters.  She advocates the message of wellbeing and lifestyle changes can set you up for a better mindset and progression through life in a healthier way.

Her daily affirmation is to keep a positive mindset: “Believe in yourself and your goals will be reached. The climb will be tough but you CAN get there!”

Mansoor Khan

Trustee

Surgeon Commander Mansoor Khan is a Military Trauma Surgeon at the North-West London Major Trauma Centre based at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington. He has served on multiple military operations, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mansoor graduated from King’s College School of Medicine and Dentistry in 2000. He completed his Registrar training in the South Yorkshire Deanery and undertook a 1 year Trauma Fellowship at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Centre in Baltimore. Having gained his PhD, he was appointed to the position of Senior Lecturer in General Surgery to the Academic Department of Military Surgery and Trauma and is currently the Consultant Advisor in General Surgery to Medical Director General Royal Navy.

His interests include Primary Injury Prevention, and current projects include methods of intervention for Non-Compressible Torso Haemorrhage and Spinal injury prevention under the auspices of the FIA/CBIS. He is actively involved in providing medical cover in support of the Automobile and Touring Club of the United Arab Emirates, including the Abu Dhabi Formula, Dubai International Rally and the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.

Mansoor has over 60 publications, and is currently the Course Director for the Definitive Surgical Trauma Skills Course, at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and runs an MSc in Trauma Management at Imperial College London

Raj Randhawa

Trustee

Raj Randhawa is the Northern Grassroots Officer at Kick It Out - English football’s leading equality and inclusion organisation, where he works alongside the Football Association (FA) to strategically identify and support the needs of grassroots football. Within this critical role, Raj also offers consultancy in relation to Education, Diversity and Inclusion & Anti-discrimination governance, whilst delivering support and education to the wider grassroots football family. Raj is also an Executive Board Member at Lincoln City Women and Notts County Foundation, where he has collective responsibility for ensuring that both organisations deliver against strategic objectives.

Achieving a Masters Degree in Sports Management and his teaching qualification, Raj has held previous positions as an Education Officer at Newcastle United Academy, moving to MK Dons SET as an Education Manager and then progressing to Head of Community at Lincoln City Foundation.

Raj’s entire career journey has been focused on harnessing the power of football and sport to drive positive social change. Particularly where under-represented groups can have access to sport activities that can better physical, mental and social well-being, but also support these individuals to have the confidence to pursue careers in sport, without any fear of prejudice or discrimination.

Raj Athwal

Trustee

Raj was the first British-born Asian to become a commercial director of an English professional football club (under the chairmanship of the late Graham Taylor at Watford).

His wide-ranging knowledge of football has since been accrued with time at Coventry City, Glasgow Rangers, Accrington Stanley, Port Vale and Burton Albion. This means he has worked at every level of the professional game in England as well as at one of the two biggest clubs in Scotland.

Raj was the winner of the Asian Business Sporting Award 2012/13 at the inaugural National Asian Football Awards held at Wembley Stadium and last year published his critically-acclaimed memoirs: A British Raj – My Life in Football Behind Closed Doors.

He has been responsible for generating millions of pounds in revenue – from stand naming rights via front-of -shirt sponsorships to all the many commercial partnerships that are needed at every football club.

Raj was a member of the Executive Board which facilitated the move from Highfield Road to the £116m Ricoh Arena and was part of the turnaround team when Glasgow Rangers was liquidated with the primary role of creating a strategy to generate sustainable revenue. He sourced and negotiated the 32 Red front-of-shirt sponsorship at Glasgow Rangers in 2014.

Away from work, he is a regular guest on local BBC radio breakfast shows discussing current affairs and is a public speaker at universities and colleges in the UK.

Andy Reed OBE

Advisory Board

Andy Reed is the Director of SajeImpact the Sports Think Tank and Loughborough University Institute for Sport Business.

Formerly the MP for Loughborough between 1997-2010, Andy has a strong association with Sport Policy having served as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Sports Ministers and adviser to various Ministers and Sports bodies during his time in Westminster.

He Chaired the Parliamentary Sports Caucus and was secretary of various All-Party Sports Groups including the All Party Sports Group. He introduced the 10 Minute Rule Bill paving the way for the Treasury CASC scheme for Community and Amateur Clubs & was responsible to the Prime Minister for the Labour Party 2010 sports manifesto. He played a vital role in the 2012 Olympic bid and delivery of the Games. As part of the government he led case for the increased funding for UK Sport in the lead to 2012 whilst in the Treasury. In his time he became known as the ‘Backbench Voice for Sport’

He was Chair of the Sport and Recreation Alliance from 2010 to 2016 – the umbrella body for the 320 National governing bodies and associations of sport and after a spell on the Board until 2018 he is now a Vice-President. He led on sport policy and the Health agenda for the Alliance.

He Chaired his local Leicestershire County Sports partnership but after 12 years he stood down when governance term limits were introduced. He also sits on the Boards of Special Olympics GB, British Basketball League Foundation and was with Sports Chaplaincy UK until 2018. He was a Member of the RFU Rugby World Cup Legacy Group for his region. (2013-18)

In 2011 he established with other colleagues, the independent Sports Think Tank (www.sportsthinktank.com) to enable the sports sector to have its own policy and evidence based Think Tank space in Westminster and Whitehall. The Think tank is highly respected for its thoughtful and challenging approach to sports policy matters.

In 2015 he joined the Board of the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (CIMSPA). He is was interim Chair for 18 months until September 2018 when he also stepped down after ensuring the Body was financially secure, met its governance requirements and recruited a strong replacement as Chair.

Outside of sport Andy also served on the Board of the biggest Children’s international development agency – Worldvision UK between 20102 and 2018. He still services on his Local Enterprise Partnership Board – Leicestershire LEP and the Governments Sports Business Council.

In 2012 Andy was awarded the OBE for services to Sport and the Community in Leicestershire, after Chairing the 2012 Olympic Leicestershire Legacy Group and chairing Leicestershire and Rutland Sport.

In 2012 he helped launch the new International Sports Management MBA at Loughborough University Business school and teaches around the world on Sport Policy and development. He was made a visiting professor of Sport Policy and Development in 2014 at Liverpool John Moores University. He also advises the new Institute for Sports Business based at the Loughborough University in London campus on the Olympic park and works closely with the world leading sports University.

He is a regular keynote speaker at sports events across the UK and Ireland.

His company SajeImpact has helped a variety of sports bodies and brands to communicate their messages to policy makers, having worked with sports charities like Sports Leaders UK, the YST as well as with leading brands like Nike on their Designed to Move Campaign. Other clients have included the ASA, Sporting Equals, Sports Aid, Sports Coach UK, the LTA, the RFU and London Sport.

Andy believes sport can be used for social transofrmation and works with a wide range of sports foundations and charities – School of Hard Knocks, Leicester Tigers Foundation, British Asian Rugby Association, Asian Sports Foundation.

Andy supports a number of sport start-up sport and fitness Tech companies and works to encourage new social enterprises in sport. He works with Loughborough University Physical Activity & Public Health Research Group, based in the School of Sport, Exercise, and Health sciences.

Andy always had a passion for economic development and regeneration and joined the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership in 2015 to promote the economic impact of sport and to widen the understanding of the health and wellbeing agenda and its economic impact on the economy.

In 2015 Andy launched the campaign for a Sport Impact Fund www.sportimpactfund.com to widen the availability of new financing for the sport sector.

In 2016 Andy was appointed by the Sports Minister Tracey Crouch to lead the Review of the County Sports partnerships as part of the government’s new Sporting Futures Strategy. The report was published in the Summer of 2016 and the role of CSPs and their new performance framework was designed and launched in 2018.

He still regularly plays rugby for Birstall RFC and the Commons & Lords XV where he has been Club President and now Hon Vice President. He advises Leicester Tigers Foundation and the British Asian Rugby Association and works closely with the Asian Sports Foundation.

Tracey Francis

Advisory Board

Tracey has over 25yrs experience within Sports Development, having had a varied career. She spent 21/2 years as Head of Growth at the England and Wales Cricket Board, with specific responsibility for the new markets of; Women & Girls, Disability, Diverse Communities, and Casual Cricket.

Prior to this she was the Head of Community Sport at Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club, and member of the Senior Management Team, she launched and managed the Trent Bridge Community Trust, the charitable arm of the County Cricket Club. Tracey was an integral part of securing £1.2m loan from RBC as part of the capital development at the ground which successfully won Gold Package A – bringing two Ashes Tests to Nottingham in 2013 – 2015 and creating an economic return of £30m to the region.

Through the Trent Bridge Community Trust she delivered a number of social, sporting, and economic benefits back to RBC through the ‘Positive Futures’ project in Cotgrave, Bingham, and Keyworth and successfully transferred loan to grant in excess of £700,000. Launching both Team Notts a collaboration of all professional sport clubs in Nottingham, and The Royal Foundation Coach Core programme, developing the next generation of sports coaches and leaders, and developing RBC’s own Young project across the borough.

Tracey is an ambitious ambassador for sports development and is sensitive to the history and culture of sport without stifling progress and innovation. Her legacy to Nottingham was to build ‘The Field of Dreams’, a £1.2m new cricket clubhouse for the most disadvantaged residents of the City.