Our Vice Presidents

Mike Power OBE- appointed 2018

Mike is the former Chief Operating Officer (COO) in London's successful bid for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and subsequently COO for the first two years of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG). Mike is currently a Non-Executive Director of Brentford FC  and was on the Board of the Sport and Recreation Alliance from 2011 to 2017, during which time he was Treasurer and Senior Independent Director. He also served on the Board of British Swimming from 2007 to 2015.  

Mike's professional background is in Finance and General Management and is a qualified Chartered Management Accountant. Prior to his involvement in the sporting world, he rose to be a Divisional President at the Procter & Gamble Company and subsequently was an expert advisor to a leading management consultancy from 2009 to 2017. He is currently an occasional lecturer at the Said Business School at Oxford University.

As such, Mike brings a wealth of sport and commercial experience to this voluntary position.

 

Margaret Peggie OBE – appointed 2004

A teacher of physical education and dance, Margaret worked as a fitness teacher and teacher trainer for Flexercise of which she is now Vice President. She was a founder member and the first Chair of the Exercise, Movement & Dance Partnership (EMDP) 2005-2010. 

She was made a Vice President of the Alliance in 2004, having been Deputy Chair of the Movement & Dance Division 1993-2005; a member of the main Board 1999-2004; Deputy Chair 2001-2004. She produced festivals of exercise, movement and dance at the Royal Albert Hall for Flexercise and for the Alliance (1995-2005). Margaret received her OBE for services to fitness, dance and sport in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2008.

A Board member of Sports Leaders UK from 2003, she took on the role of Chair in 2004, a position she held until 2011 with a further period from 2012-2015.

Board member of Bucks & Milton Keynes County Sports Partnership 2007-2011. Board member of Oxfordshire County Sports Partnership from 2013 to the present day.

Robert Pettigrew MBE – appointed 2002

Robert has been an Honorary Member since 1980 and attended the Outdoor Pursuits Divisional meetings since 1970; he was elected Chair of the Division 1997 - 2005.

Member of the Rights of Way Review Committee; Standing Conference on Countryside Sports; Mountain Training Board (sometime Chairm); National Mountain Centre Plas y Brenin Advisory Committee; Sport and Natural Resources Group, Yorks & Humberside Regional Sports Forum; Millennium Crag Project (Chair), Chair of the Alliance 1995-1997.

Robert represented Loughborough University First XV rugby, athletics and cross-country running. He was Chairman of Loughborough University Mountaineering Club being an active mountaineer and mountain explorer on foot and ski in every mountainous area of Great Britain and Ireland and European Alps from Lyngen in Arctic Norway to Central Italian Alps - several first ascents of peaks and passes.  Significant mountain exploration over many seasons in the Kulu region of the Punjab Himalaya of India.  Several first ascents of peaks and passes between 16,000ft - 22,000 ft. Frequent contributor to Alpine Journal and Himalayan Journal. British Mountaineering Council delegate to North York Moors National Park (1988-1994); sometime Chairman Mount Everest Foundation Screening Committee (1980-1996); sometime President British Mountaineering Council (1974-1977); Chairman Mountain Training Board (1987-1993); British Honorary Secretary of the Himalayan Club of India (1986  -). Honorary Member, The British Mountaineering Council.

Currently President of the Access and Conservation Commission of the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation - World body representing mountaineers of 80 nations.

Currently a free-lance consultant on sport and recreation in India and Outdoor Education in the UK.

 

Andy Reed OBE - appointed 2018

An enthusiastic individual seeking positive impact in society through social transformation projects using, sport, faith, co-operatives, social enterprises & Foundations. 

A sound grounding in government and Sports Policy through my 13 years as the MP for Loughborough and serving in the DCMS, DEFRA and the Treasury Ministerial Teams. 

Now serving voluntarily on various sport, faith and voluntary organisation boards as well as being a serial social entrepreneur - creating solutions for local communities. 

Joint Founder of the Independent Sports Think Tank and Director of SajeImpact serving numerous clients across sport, co-ops and foundations and in partnership with various leaders in their field.

Working to innovate using disruption & technology in all sectors and create high performing organisations through my non-executive work at EPpartners (www.eppartners.co.uk) and Icon Training.

Always keen to share these passions and future proofing organisations through media and public platforms worldwide - not just confined to the UK.

Taking on Chair roles with organisations to seek transformational change - having Chaired the Sport And Recreation Alliance, Leicestershire & Rutland Sport, CIMSPA, SAPCA to help transform their governance and strategic direction.

Brigid Simmonds OBE – appointed 2012

Brigid Simmonds became Chief Executive of the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) in September 2009.  The BBPA represents over 90% of the brewing industry and their members own over 20,000 pubs.  Brigid was previously Chief Executive of the umbrella organisation Business in Sport and Leisure (BISL), from 1992 to 2009, where she represented over 100 companies across private sector sport and leisure interests.

She was a former chair of the Sport and Recreation Alliance [2005 – 2011] and is also a board member of the Tourism Alliance.  She was previously on the Board of Sport England and Leicester City Football Club.  She is also a member of the Government’s Future High Streets Executive and a trustee of the Responsible Gambling Trust.  In June 2006 she was awarded an OBE for Services to Sport.

Professor Peter Thomas MBE – appointed 2004

Peter was appointed to represent the National Association of Community Education Officers in the Division of Interested Organisations in 1975. Between 1979 -1989, Peter was the Deputy Chair of this Division, and between 1997 - 1999, was the Chair and he served as a Member of the then CCPR Executive Committee. Between 1998 - 1999 chaired the Organisation & Services Review Group and successfully steered the major changes to the governance of the organisation. He was elected to the new Board of Directors in 1999 - 2002. In 2014 he was awarded our prestigious Emeritus Award.

He is a former member of the GB Sports Council and has represented the UK on a number of pan-European Working Groups on Youth Sport and has been a Consultant on Sport & Recreation Management to the Sultanate of Oman; The University of Oman and the State of Bahrain.  In addition his sport and recreation speaking engagements have taken him Melbourne to Moscow and from Prague to Tokyo.

Since his retirement from his position of a Senior Education Officer and Head of the Arts, Sport and Recreation Service of Buckinghamshire County Council he has continued to work professionally and as a volunteer in the world of sport including being engaged by Sport England in the corporate governance and financial management of sport.  He has served an Executive Chair; Executive Director; Chair, Board Member and Chief Executive of a number of key facilities and national sports organisations and national governing bodies of sport.

He was awarded the MBE for service to sport in 2004 and as a former Visiting Professor and Director of Sport at Buckinghamshire New University was conferred with the status of Honorary Professor in 2013.

Since 2012 he has served as the President of LEAP, the Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Sport & Activity Partnership. Between 2006 - 2012 he had served as its founder Chairman. In 2012 he was presented with the first Buckinghamshire Life -time Achievement in Sport Award. He has also served as a Vice President of the British Sports Trust - Sports Leaders UK, having been appointed by the CCPR in 2002, as its first Chairman when it became a separate legal entity. Between 1999 - 2017 he served as the 4th Chairman of the Colson Trust - Phyllis Colson CBE being the founder of the CCPR - following in the foot steps of Sir Stanley Rous, Sir Robin Brook and Dame Mary Glen Haig.

Hilary Weedon – appointed 2004

Hilary attended her first meeting at the then CCPR in 1971, when she became the representative member for the Medau Society.  She was already a teacher and trainer for the Society, working to get people of all ages and abilities involved in Medau work, and movement and dance in general.  She was the first elected Chairman of the Medau Society, and continued to take classes and train teachers for many years.  

After becoming Deputy Chair of the Division in 1979, she became a member of the CCPR Executive Committee, among others, including the Sports Council/Health Education Authority’s Fitness and Health Advisory Group.  In 1989 she became Chairman of the Movement and Dance Division, and was active in promoting the work of the Division for many years through large scale events around the country and, in particular, helping to organise the regular Festivals of Movement and Dance every five years at the Royal Albert Hall, coinciding with the CCPR/S&RA anniversaries.   

Hilary is a Vice President of both the Medau Society and the Alliance. She has five children, nine grandchildren and two great grandchildren, and has still to retire completely. 

Howard Wells OBE – appointed 2016

Howard has spent 46 years in sport and recreation management. He has been chief executive of six different organisations since the age of 37 and set up four from the outset.

Howard was the first chief executive of UK Sport and spent 15 years in Hong Kong up to 1996. As a former senior coach of the FA, Howard also played and coached at Wycombe Wanderers FC. He has been a Member of the Saudi-British MoU Group on sports development since 1996. Between 2008 and 2014 Howard was a Match Commissioner of FIFA.

Howard is also a visiting lecturer at Bucks New University and a consultant to the Buckinghamshire Learning Trust.

Howard was elected to the Sport and Recreation Alliance board in 2000 and was chair from 2001 to 2005. He was awarded an OBE in the 2013 New Year Honours List. Howard finished his term as an Appointed Director in July 2016.