One year on from the last London Sport Awards, we are delighted to announce the expert judging panel for the London Sport Awards 2018 taking place at Wembley Stadium on Thursday 8 March 2018.
Chair: Tove Okunniwa
Former Chief Executive of Havas Sport and Entertainment and Head of Marketing for BBC Sport, Tove joined London Sport as Chief Executive Officer in 2017. Tove also serves as Deputy Chair of England Boxing. A passionate advocate for diversity and equality, Tove brings substantial commercial acumen and a firm belief in the importance of empowering people’s lives through physical activity and sport.
Troy Townsend
Overseeing the Volunteer of the Year category
Troy has vast experience of coaching at grassroots level, with over 30 years of experience, including running his own football development centre, the S&T Academy in East London. He joined Kick It Out, Football’s Equality and Inclusion organisation in September 2011 as a volunteer before becoming a core member of staff and working on the development of the Equality Inspires and Raise Your Game programmes, which are both supported by the Premier League. During his time at Kick It Out Troy was honoured as one of The Football Association’s 150 ‘Grassroots Heroes’ and was also named on Football’s Blacklist in 2014 and 2017.
Professor Yvonne Doyle
Overseeing the Physical Activity for Health Award category
Yvonne Doyle qualified as a doctor and has worked in senior roles in the NHS and Department of Health, and in the academic and independent sectors. Since 2013 she provides leadership for health, prevention of ill health, health protection and reduction of inequalities at city wide level to the population of London. Her recent international work on behalf of the Mayor of London has been to accelerate London’s ambition to become the healthiest and fairest global city. She has acted as an adviser to the WHO on Healthy Cities, and has recently been appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath for services to Public Health.
Susie Rodgers
Overseeing the Workforce Award category
Susannah Rodgers MBE is a Paralympic swimmer, who has won a total of 30 international medals during her career. She won three bronze medals at the London 2012 Paralympic Games and Gold and two bronze at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. Susie serves as Non-Executive Director on the Board of the BAC and chairs the Athlete Advisory Group. She is a Trustee of the London legacy charity, Spirit of 2012, sitting on the Audit and Risk and Performance and Impact panels. Susie is also a Director on the Board of the GLL Sport Foundation and works currently at the British Paralympic Association in their Communications team and is actively involved in raising the awareness of women, sport and inclusive agendas outside of work through a variety of charitable and other initiatives and is a patron of various organisations.
Gareth Dixon
Overseeing the Children and Young People Award category
Gareth Dixon has spent the last 10 years working in the Voluntary sector. He has spent the majority of that time with QPR in the Community Trust as Head of their Youth & Communities Department before leaving in April 2017 to become CEO of the Young Hammersmith & Fulham Foundation. The Foundation is part of the Young People’s Foundation movement which have been formed to tackle the reduction of public money for youth services alongside a desire for a more robust and impactful sector. Gareth is also Chair of New Queens Park FC and Coach of NPL Under 9’s football team.
Leon Mann
Overseeing the Club of the Year category
One of the most respected people in the sports industry, Leon started his career at Kick Racism Out of Football 15 years ago. Since then he has established himself as a broadcaster and film maker for BBC Sport and ITV Sport. As a consultant he has worked with some of the biggest names in the sports industry and also helped respected authorities in football communicate effectively with their audiences. A founder of the Sports People’s Think Tank, Black Collective of Media in Sport and the Football Black List – Leon also sits on a number of boards and committees in the industry. His motto is ‘Welcome to the future’… always thinking of the next move and putting strategies in place to deliver.
Huw Edwards
Overseeing the Technology for Participation Award category 
Huw is Public Affairs Director at ukactive, joining from British Tennis where he had been the Public Affairs lead for 3 years. This period saw Huw lead British Tennis’ engagement with Government and wider stakeholders on its programmes to drive participation levels within the sport. Before then he worked for both the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Olympic Delivery Authority during the delivery of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. His Government role saw him head a team that developed and delivered the Government Ministerial engagement programmes across both the Olympic and Paralympics. His 5 years at the ODA focused on managing the relationship with both government and business stakeholders as part of the construction of the Olympic Park. He also worked for the GLA and was Senior Advisor to the Mayor’s Economic Director, supporting the GLA’s engagement with the London business community.
Michelle Weltman
Overseeing all Award Categories
Michelle has been involved in sports development for over 25 years especially in the disability and para sports areas of sport. Michelle has worked for local authority, charities and the private sector. In her many roles she has been at the forefront of developing sports for disabled people across London and has coached Paralympic swimmers to European world and Paralympic gold medals. She has written CPD training resources for the ASA (IOS) and has been involved in tutoring for Sports Coach UK for the over 16 years. Michelle has been involved from the concept to the delivery of the Motivate East legacy project for East London and continues to play an active role in ensuring that this projects achieves its targets. In her spare time she coaches swimming and is head coach to Out to Swim the largest LGBT swimming club in the country.
Greater London Authority
Overseeing the London Together Award category
To be announced
Tickets for the London Sport Awards are now on sale.
