Our Board
The Board of BaseballSoftballUK Ltd, based on provisions of the company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association, is made up of a Chair, two Directors appointed by each Federation and up to five Independent Directors who can bring valuable skills to the Board. The Independent Directors are people who have no direct connection to the BBF Board or BSF Executive, but who can contribute valuable skills and experience to the BSUK Board and bring a different perspective to the challenges we face.
The Board provides policy direction and review for BSUK and for the work carried out by BSUK staff, and meets on a quarterly basis. But much of the Board’s work is now carried out through subcommittees that meet more regularly and consist of both Independent and Federation Directors. These subcommittees cover areas such as development strategy, diversity, employment, finance, governance, marketing and the service level agreement (SLA) between BSUK and the Federations.
Read more about the role and responsibilities of Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) here.
Diversity
The Board is committed to making appointments on the basis that no less than 30% of its total membership be represented by either gender, progressing to gender parity and progressing towards achieving greater diversity on the Board. The Board has also adopted the Diversity Action Plan.
Minutes from meetings of the Board and sub-committees are published in the Company Documents section.
Demographics
As the development agency for baseball and softball in the UK, BaseballSoftballUK has an important role to play in the make-up of the sports we deliver. The organisation is committed to encouraging equality and diversity amongst Board, staff, players and volunteers.
BaseballSoftballUK’s Staff and Board demographics are now as follows:
| # | Male | Female | LGBTQ+ | Disabled | White British | White Other | BAME | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Board | 9 | 56% | 44% | 22% | 0% | 56% | 33% | 11% |
| Staff | 12 | 58% | 42% | 25% | 0% | 67% | 25% | 8% |
| Total | 21 | 57% | 43% | 24% | 0% | 62% | 29% | 10% |
BSUK Chair
Position Vacant
Independent Directors
Jayne McLernon
Jayne hail from Northern Ireland and started her career with Macquarie in Sydney, Australia. She then moved to Morgan Stanley and was based in London and Mumbai, before joining Barclays in 2006, where she held a number of roles across Control and Securitisation. Jayne left Barclays in 2013 to have a career break to look after my young family and in 2015 joined HSBC in London to run their Europe Stress testing team. In 2017, Jayne joined Standard Chartered where she is currently Global Head of Finance Operational Risk.
Simon Winman
Following a 20-year career at the Rugby Football Union and was most recently Head of Club Development responsible for the retention, recruitment and recognition of volunteers, facility investment and improving the leadership, management and governance of clubs, Simon now trains and coaches a wide variety of clients from the worlds of education, the military and sport through associations with M2M2 Coaching & Mentoring, Ashridge Hult Business School and 4Global. He currently sits on the Boards of Aylesbury Grammar School and Buckinghamshire County RFU in addition to his professional roles.
Simon is married with two children and two cats and can, on occasion, be seen out running around the streets of Aylesbury.
Prashant Dave
An experienced commercial real estate lawyer, Prashant’s practice covers all aspects of commercial real estate, including acquisitions and disposals, leasing and development. He also has expertise in the restaurant and leisure sector acting for occupiers on the acquisition and disposal of sites. Prashant has also worked extensively with charities, particularly on land-related issues.
Fiona Breeden
Fiona has spent her career working with sports organisations in both the UK and the US and brings a wealth of marketing and commercial expertise to her role with the Board. She has worked with National Governing Bodies, professional sports rights holders and brands, investing in and partnering with sports. In her current role with sports marketing agency Two Circles, she helps rights holders deepen their relationship with fans using data as an enabler of growth.
She resides in Hertfordshire with her husband and son.
Gary Henderson
Gary’s career has involved substantial work within sport and physical education. Starting as a P.E. teacher, he later joined the Rugby Football Union in a variety of roles culminating in the role of Head of Game Development. This role led a local and national team delivering coach, referee, player and medic development services throughout the UK. Gary then worked with British Judo’s High Performance team and later as Corporate Services Director. More recently, he became a partner with 4global Sports Management Consultancy in London and has maintained involvement within local sport by chairing the Board of Sussex RFU and being a trustee of a local sports charity in Brighton and Hove. Gary is also a Trainer for the World Academy of Sport, delivering training to a range of international agencies (IPC, IOC) and federations.
Matthew Knowles
Matthew is a communications and public affairs professional with more than 20 years of experience in UK and international politics, trade associations and global businesses. A native of Leeds, he is a graduate of the University of Leeds, l’Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Strasbourg and Queen Mary College of the University of London. He is a Boston Red Sox fan, ever since his first visit to the US in 1998, as well as a follower of Leeds United, the LSU Tigers football team, Yorkshire and England cricket, the Miami Dolphins in the NFL and Hull FC in the Super League.
Knowles lives in Hampshire with his wife, son, daughter and Labrador.
BSF Board Nominated Directors
Jenny Fromer
Jenny worked for BaseballSoftballUK for over fifteen years, first as Director of Baseball Operations and from 2005-2017 as Joint CEO and Head of Operations. During her tenure with BSUK, Jenny's particular focus and legacy was on strong governance, demonstrated in the high regard with which BSUK was held across sport. Jenny was an integral part of successfully securing Sport England investment from 2005-2019.
On leaving BSUK, Jenny took up the voluntary role of President of the British Softball Federation and joined the BaseballSoftballUK Board.
Prior to her time at BSUK, Jenny spent several years working with Major League Baseball, first running their various youth programmes and later as Director of Game Development. Jenny have also previously worked in social housing and run a pair of independent cinemas in the Washington, DC area. Her current role is Head of HR for a secondary school in Hammersmith.
Jenny has run a slowpitch softball team, SPAM, for over 25 years and is a devoted New York Yankees fan.
