Chief Executive Officer

British Rowing Association

About the Organisation

British Rowing is the national governing body for one of the UK’s most exciting, thriving, and successful sports. We are responsible for governing the sport of rowing in England and for bringing together our pathway and elite athletes across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales to create the Great Britain Rowing Team – one of the most consistently successful teams in British sport. With significant Olympic and Paralympic success, we are funded by UK Sport, Sport England, and a passionate community of over 500 clubs and 32,000 members. Together, we are united by a single purpose

Rowing embodies teamwork, perseverance, and growth and development, grounded in community. British Rowing’s role is to facilitate and enhance that for all our members, protecting that heritage while opening the sport to a new generation - on the water, indoors, and beyond.

We are building a governing body fit for the future: digitally enabled, financially strong, and deeply connected to its grassroots. It is undertaking significant investment in its digital systems and processes, ensuring that its members and clubs have a modern and more effective user experience when planning to row, race, and in the running of a club or event. Our transformation is already underway; streamlining systems, empowering clubs, improving member experience, and ensuring that every person who wants to row can do so safely, affordably, and sustainably.

We have transformed our organisational structure by establishing a strong and capable leadership team and aligning our operations behind our strategic priorities. We now have the key skills required to deliver the programme and drive a step change in performance and in the service we deliver to our members.

But the potential runs far deeper. With Olympic and Paralympic excellence at one end and the opportunity to rapidly expand the participation base at the other, British Rowing stands ready to fly the flag for what sport in Britain can achieve – combining World-leading performance with genuine social impact.

About the role

The Chief Executive Officer will lead British Rowing through a period of transformational change – turning strategy into impact, building unity across the sport, and ensuring our success at every level reflects the diversity and dynamism of the nation we represent. It is a role for a leader who combines strategic clarity with executional excellence, engaging and empowering every club, coach, athlete, volunteer, and member of staff to play their part.

As CEO, you will be the visible leader and ambassador of British Rowing – representing a sport with deep heritage and an exciting future. The Chief Executive will be responsible for the delivery of the British Rowing Transformation Plan, ensuring outcomes are aligned to the needs of the organisation, its members, its clubs, and partners. This will require considered leadership and sound business judgement as British Rowing seeks to establish a more united and robust organisation.

Responsibilities

• Lead Transformation and Growth: lead the team to deliver the transformation programme, ensuring regular reporting against milestones to key stakeholders, surfacing of issues and risks and identifying and delivering appropriate mitigating actions, ensure that British Rowing has strong business planning and risk management systems in place, which ensure timely delivery of these strategic plans.
• Inspire and Empower People: by providing inspirational leadership to the senior team, ensuring clear performance objectives, robust performance review and appraisal processes, with regular feedback and ongoing development programmes for the team.
• Governance and Accountability: Work with the Chair to optimise the contribution of the Board and senior leadership team, to ensure the Board is able to operate effectively and make well-informed decisions. Ensure exemplary standards of governance, risk management, and transparency across the organisation and the sport.
• Financial Stewardship and Commercial Development: Oversee financial performance, develop new income streams, and ensure investment decisions deliver sustainable value and impact.
• Stakeholder Leadership: Build trusted, influential relationships with key local, regional and national partners. In particular, build strong relationships of trust with the Home Nations, Regional Rowing Councils, clubs and competitions – such that they share and own the vision of the transformation programme.
• Culture and Values: Define, embed and role model the organisational culture and values and embed throughout the organisation and the broader sport.
• National and International Representation: Maintain and strengthen the relationships with the national partners, including UK Sport, Sport England and the British Olympic and Paralympic Associations. Act as the Accountable Officer for funding agreements and maintain strong relationships with national and international partners, including World Rowing.

Skills, Competencies & Experience

Experience & Expertise:

• An accomplished senior-level executive with demonstrable experience in motivating and leading teams through growth and change.
• Experience leading an organisation successfully through a significant transformational period and building commitment throughout all stakeholder groups.
• Experience of operating at board level, providing the Board and stakeholders with a clear understanding of the issues and risks and progress of the organisation to enable them to fulfil their fiduciary duties
• A deep understanding of the importance of good governance within an organisation and the experience of having managed its delivery
• Excellent financial awareness, with a proven ability to control budgets and forecasts.
• Has experience in effective risk management across physical and financial risks as well as effective safeguarding.
• Experience of developing a brand and a good understanding of what transformation really is, and how it can generate and drive growth, efficiencies and commercial opportunities

Key Skills & Attributes:

• An inspirational, inclusive and collaborative leader – high integrity and ethical standards, passionate about the power of sport to transform lives and communities a leader who can demonstrably engage and unite people behind a compelling mission
• Commercially astute with the ability to develop and drive strategy to enhance income streams and partnership potential for the organisation and its members.
• Skill, ability and experience to continually develop members of the senior management team in a high-performing organisation.
• Collaborative and empowering leadership style
• Ability to drive change to take the sport through a new era, whilst taking the broader membership and stakeholders with you through consultation, listening and consistent communication.
• Ability to promote, embed and advance equality, diversity and inclusion throughout the organisation

Working locations

• Hammersmith and Caversham

How to apply

• Applications: Please send a covering letter and CV via Online

Interviews

• First round either 27th or 28th November.
• Final Interview: 10th December

Policies

British Rowing celebrates diversity and is committed to equality of opportunity. We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and particularly welcome those from groups currently under-represented in our sport. We value breadth of experience. Rowing knowledge is not essential, but leadership excellence and shared purpose are.

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