Lisa Dodd-Mayne
Neil Fairlamb
Yvonne O'Malley
Sarah Forster
Cordelle Ofori
Steve Welch

MEET OUR BOARD

“Manchester is a city at the forefront of promoting physical activity, sport, leisure, and health to its people.

With a diverse population, the city recognises that physical activity is not a one-size-fits-all solution, and the key to promoting physical activity is to understand the different needs and interests of all. As a result, Manchester continues to lead the way nationally in how sport, leisure, health, and physical activity can be a powerful agent of change for all people.

When it comes to promoting physical activity, we do things differently here in Manchester.

We have adopted that very same philosophy for recruiting, selecting and appointing representation on our Board.

We’re proud of the diversity, knowledge and wealth of experience we have amassed onto our Board, made up of passionate individuals uniquely positioned to help lead and shape the vision for England’s only tripartite whole system partnership between Local Government, Sport England and Heath Commissioning.

Our Board will no doubt hold us to account, and in equal measure, support us on our mission across the whole sport, health and physical activity landscape to encourage and inspire all Mancunians to move more each day.”

Eamonn O’Rourke, CEO, Manchester Active

Lisa’s career is dedicated to sport and is passionate about the role physical activity plays in improving people’s health and wellbeing. Lisa is currently Executive Director, Place at Sport England where she heads up the newly formed Place directorate pivotal to supporting the delivery of Sport England’s ten-year strategy “Uniting the Movement”.

Prior to this, Lisa worked in Higher Education at the University of Warwick as Director of Sport and Active communities. Lisa developed the Universities strategy for sport, leading the development of the £49m Sports & Wellness hub, performance sport and sport and physical activities programmes. Under Lisa’s tenure, Warwick became sector leading with its active campus approach. Alongside that, Lisa chaired the British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) Physical Activity& Health Board and represented the Higher and Further Education sectors on UK Active’s Membership Council.

Prior to that, Lisa had an extensive career in Local Government working at Wakefield Council as their Director of Sport & Culture and prior to that at Coventry City Council heading up their sports team.

Lisa’s strengths lie in her passion and enthusiasm for driving forward change and ensuring everyone has the opportunity to move more by accessing sport and physical activity opportunities.

Neil holds one of the most senior roles in Manchester City Council having worked in local government for over 30 years across the West Midlands and Northwest. Neil was attracted to Manchester in 2004 to lead the City’s sports legacy programme following the hosting of the Commonwealth Games and has since overseen teams in community development, parks, sport and leisure, events, youth and more recently in housing, highways, homelessness, community safety, environmental services and neighbourhood management.

Neil led the £200M transformation of the Council’s leisure estate, the impressive and globally successful partnership arrangements with City Football Group and the UK’s largest programme of major sports events and sports development programmes. Neil is also a Director of the Manchester Institute of Health and Performance and a Trustee at the National Football Museum, the Wythenshawe Forum and the Greater Manchester Community Basketball Club.

Yvonne has over 20yrs working in the public sector to include 8yrs in the charity sector.

Responsibilities include providing the strategic leadership and a clear vision and strategy for the city on Leisure and sporting facilities across the city, Events (including major events and community events), Commercial Contracts to include capitalising on untapped growth markets, Specialist Markets (including Christmas Markets) and the We Love MCR Charity (the only grant-giving charity dedicated to supporting the City of Manchester’s communities and young people). .

A passionate, versatile, credible and experienced senior leader with extensive experience to include enhancing and sustaining service delivery, place development, partnership and collaborative working, governance, contract negotiation and management, capital programme leadership, business development and revenue generation, commissioning, mega and major event delivery and legacy, commercial and stakeholder management, financial management, fundraising and people management.

Leigh Latham is Interim Deputy Place Based Lead for Health and Social Care Integration (Manchester).

Leigh will provide leadership stability for the locality as Manchester moves towards the new Integrated Care Board operating model, which will support delivery of the NHS 10-year plan.

Cordelle has worked for Manchester City Council for almost 9 years and is currently the Deputy Director of Public Health.  She qualified as a doctor in 2001 and went on to practice as a GP before specialising in public health medicine. Her first-hand experience of facing health inequalities as a GP and her work for charities in the past inspired her passion for improving health equity. She has a special interest in race health equity and improving health for marginalised communities.

She is currently leading the development and delivery of Making Manchester Fairer– the City of Manchester’s action plan for tackling health inequalities with a focus on the social determinants of health. Cordelle is an ardent advocate of physical activity or exercise for all, in a way that works within the context of people’s day to day lives, communities and culture.

She sees the way in which the way we enable all residents to stay active as important for addressing the city’s health inequalities, and also helping to bring people and communities together and socially connected and improving general wellbeing. In her own words, keeping moving is “good for your heart, lungs, bones and brain and it’s also good for the soul”. 

A CIMA qualified accountant with more than 20 years’ experience within the sport, media and publishing sectors. Sarah currently holds the position of Finance Director at Sport England where she has been since 2019. Prior to which she was at Penguin Random House, Thames & Hudson, The Economist Group and Warner Bros.

Having grown up in the Northwest of England Sarah is enjoying the opportunity to support the great work MCRactive are delivering. Sarah keeps active through yoga and walking along with gym classes.

Steve Welch is the Strategic Lead for Leisure Operations at Sport England.

Steve is an experienced senior leader, currently working at national level with sector wide influence.

Steve has a proven track record in business transformation and growth, strategic planning, major capital projects, financial management, contract management, collaborative leadership, board level engagement and decision making.