Chief Commercial Officer at Crystal Palace Football Club. An experienced Sports, Entertainment and Venue Executive empowering high performance results. With over 20 years of demonstrated history of delivering against steep revenue targets and driving growth for some of the most respected rights holders in the world of Tennis, Sports Entertainment and Football.
Nuria Tarre
Nuria is Chief Marketing & Fan Experience Officer and joined the City Football Group in November 2015. Her role encompasses Content and Digital platforms, Fan Relationship Management (FRM), Fan Data and Insights, Retail and Brand. Nuria joined CFG after 19 years of experience in the telecommunications, aviation and tourism and leisure industries. Her previous position was as CEO of the biggest ski resort in the Pyrenees, Grandvalira.
Julian Tagg
20 years lecturing at Exeter College in all aspects of Physical Education. Specialized in Sports Psychology and Acquisition of Skill
Exeter City football club career started as a ball boy, later becoming a player, then a coach. Took control of ECFC 2003 at insolvency (- £4.8 million)
Head of Academy, Director of Football, Vice Chairman, CEO and Club Chairman.
Currently, ECFC’s President Director of Football and External Affairs. Chairman of the Exeter CITY Community Trust Charity.
Ryan Sparks
Ryan Sparks was appointed Bradford City AFC chief executive officer in November 2020, after being promoted from the role of director of communications and commercial.
At 29, he became the youngest in his role in the EFL, which he remains today. He has spent over four years at the University of Bradford Stadium, having joined the club ahead of the 2018/19 season.
Yvonne Harrison
Yvonne became Women in Football CEO in January 2022. Equality is a huge passion for Yvonne, from grassroots participation to the boardroom, and with over 20 years in the sports industry, she has experience across the board, in sport, health and business.
She began her career with Manchester-based charity GreaterSport, where she later became CEO and led the charity to unprecedented success, helping to put Greater Manchester firmly on the map as innovators, driving impact and changing lives through sport and physical activity. During her tenure she was awarded The Charity Times Awards – Rising CEO star, the Northwest Institute of Directors, Director of the Year for Public and Third Sector and was added to the Northern Power Women’s top 50 Power List, alongside the charity securing multiple awards.
In 2018 Yvonne became Managing Director for Project 92, overseeing the sport and education portfolio for the Class of 92, which included a game-changing higher education institution in Greater Manchester, UA92.
In late 2020 Yvonne established StryveUK, a sports consultancy which has worked with professional sports franchises, clubs, national governing bodies and charities as well as supporting individuals through executive coaching and mentoring. In addition to this, Yvonne is actively involved with several organisations in a Non-Executive Director capacity, and is Chair of Trustees for Foundation 92.
Colin Garlick
Colin Garlick is a football administration executive with almost 40 years of experience ranging from grassroots to elite level.
Garlick’s career began on a voluntary basis as a representative on the Macclesfield District FA in 1983, in 1998 he was named as a Life Member of the Macclesfield District FA and remains a Life Member of the North East Cheshire District FA following the merger of Stockport, Macclesfield and Stalybridge & Hyde respective District FAs in 2020.
In 1993, Garlick joined Macclesfield Town FC as a voluntary club secretary before becoming the club’s full-time chief executive and club secretary during a period in which the club won back-to-back promotion from the Conference to the then Second Division. In 2005, Colin joined Rochdale AFC and spent 11-and-a-half years at Spotland, during which time Dale twice won promotion to League One, having also reached the League Two Play-Offs on two occasions.
In September 2016, Garlick joined Port Vale as chief executive and club secretary and played an important role in the Shanahan family’s acquisition of the Valiants in May 2019. The Vale were named EFL Community Club of the Year in 2020 for their community outreach work during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Garlick and other club staff rallied together with chair Carol Shanahan OBE to provide 300,000 meals in a heroic effort to support fans and local residents.
In 2018, Garlick became Cheshire County FA’s representative on the FA Council, before he enjoyed a fifth promotion of his career when Port Vale returned to League One after a five-year absence by winning the League Two Play-Off final at Wembley in May 2022.
In April last year, Garlick was named as the fcbusiness League Two CEO of the Year at the 2022 Football Business Awards for his leadership throughout the 2021/22 season.
Sanjay Bhandari
Sanjay is the Chair of Kick It Out, football’s equality and inclusion charity. In this role, he is a frequent public commentator and recognised thought leader on issues related to discrimination and equality.
Sanjay is also a Board member at the Lawn Tennis Association and Greater Sport (the Local Active Partnership for Greater Manchester) and is part of the Government-sponsored Parker review into the ethnic diversity of UK boards (focusing on FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies). Sanjay was also a member of the Premier League’s Equality Standard Independent Panel for four years.
Sanjay enjoyed a 30 year business career in law, technology and compliance including 12 years as a Partner at international consultancy business EY where he was also the partner sponsor for award winning race strategies. Since 2019, Sanjay has been pursuing a portfolio career. Sanjay is a Board Member at the law firm Travers Smith and the Serious Fraud Office as well as a number of charities. Sanjay is also Chair of the Satellite Applications Catapult which acts as a hub for innovation in the UK space technology industry.
Andrew McKinlay
Andrew is the Chief Executive of Heart of Midlothian FC and won the Football Business Awards Scottish CEO of the year in 2022. A lawyer by profession, prior to working at Hearts, Andrew also spent 6 years at the Scottish FA ultimately becoming the organisation’s Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive.
Malachy Brannigan
Malachy Brannigan has held senior executive and board positions in all four divisions of English professional football as well as Managing Director positions in both Scottish and Irish football across a 27-year career in football administration.
Mal has been a member on both the commercial and finance working parties of the English Football League (EFL) and was one of the Founding Trustees of the EFL Trust, a charity whose focus – through the network of the EFL’s Club Community Organisations – is on improving health and wellbeing, raising aspirations and realising potential, and building stronger, more cohesive communities.
Mal graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University, with a master’s degree for Sporting Directors and has also been a Board Director at GreaterSport as well as guest lecturing on a number of post-graduate and master’s degree courses on matters such as leadership, change management, fan engagement and governance.
In March 2021, he was appointed Chief Executive by Phoenix 2021 Limited to oversee Wigan Athletic FC and to work with the Club’s management team to drive Wigan Athletic forward in a new era under new ownership. Having survived the 20/21 season by a single point, the Club achieved promotion as Champions in 21/22 and won the Fan Engagement Award at both of the prestigious Football Business Awards and the Sports Industry Awards events, in conjunction with Stadimax.
Mal is also a previous FC Business Overall CEO of the Year Award winner.
Juliet Slot
Juliet is currently Chief Commercial Officer at Arsenal Football Club. Previously, she was Chief Commercial Officer at Ascot Racecourse from 2012 to 2020, and prior to that has worked as MD at Pitch Media, MD at Haymarket Network, on the London 2012 bid and at Advantage International (now trading as Octagon). She has also been Sales and Marketing Director at Fulham for 5 years and worked at adidas for 5 years. She has sat on many boards during her career and is currently a non-executive director at the British Olympic Association.
