Women in Sport strengthens Board with three new trustee appointments

Clare Broadbent is a highly respected advertising and marketing leader who recently retired after more than 37 years leading global content and marketing agency Cedar Communications as CEO. Under her leadership, Cedar grew into an internationally recognised agency, delivering strategic content, publishing and commercial partnerships for major global brands. Alongside her executive career, Clare has been deeply involved in grassroots sport as club secretary and head of football development at Dulwich Football Club. She has seen first-hand the transformative role football can play in children’s lives, particularly the way girls develop self-belief when they start playing.

Ganan Kanagathurai brings extensive commercial and strategic expertise, having made a significant impact in the food sector through senior roles at Tesco, as former CEO of Itsu, and as founder and chair of Roti King. Sport has been a constant in Ganan’s life, with cricket forming the backdrop to his childhood through his father’s professional career. He is a passionate advocate for gender equality, including ensuring girls and women have the same access to sport as boys and men.

Chris Haward joins the Board with a distinguished career in policing and regulation. A former Chief of two police forces and national lead on organised crime, he is now Managing Director of the Cricket Regulator. Chris has a strong track record of courageous leadership and is a vocal advocate for tackling misogyny and advancing race and gender equality. A lifelong participant in sport and a coach, he is committed to ensuring women and girls can experience the same value and joy from sport as men and boys.

Julia Newton, Chair of Women in Sport, said: “We’ve been steadfastly dedicated to ensuring our Board not only reflects today’s UK society, but that it contains some of the brightest minds in the UK. The charity sector continues to face an increasingly tough environment and our approach is to hire the very best to support our outstanding executive. Clare, Ganan and Chris each bring exceptional expertise in their areas and a deep and personal commitment to our mission. They will help us continue to influence policy, challenge the sector to build a gender-equal culture and use our powerful insights to drive lasting societal change. As we look ahead, growing our partnerships with corporate supporters will be one key way to help accelerate this impact and sustaining our work for the long term.”

These appointments come at a critical time as we step up our call for decisive action. We are also calling for stronger measures to tackle misogyny in sport, including requiring all organisations in receipt of public funding to implement robust anti-misogyny policies and training to root out harmful cultures wherever they exist.

With a strengthened Board, we are also deepening our focus on the role men can play in accelerating gender equity, building our insight into male audiences to better understand men’s attitudes towards sport for girls and women. We will also focus on expanding the partnerships and funding needed to support our work and drive long-term systemic change in a challenging funding climate.