The Sport for Development Coalition has appointed Hitesh Patel as its new Executive Director.
Hitesh, who will take up the role in early May, joins the Coalition from the UK Civil Service where a large part of his career focused on sport at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as Head of International Sport, Major Sports Events and Sports Integrity.
The Coalition is a growing UK-wide movement of more than 230 charities and organisations over-arching thousands of projects and programmes intentionally using sport and physical activity to generate positive social outcomes – as articulated in its new Open Goal campaign which is being launched on April 6th, the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace. The Coalition is supported by Sport England, Comic Relief and Laureus Sport for Good.
EXPERIENCE
Andy Reed, Chair of the Coalition, said: “On behalf of the Board, I would like to welcome Hitesh to the Sport for Development Coalition. His strong background and experience in helping to design and lead on policy, both in the UK and overseas, made him the ideal candidate to help drive forward the ‘collective action’ of the Coalition’s network.”
Hitesh said: “I'm delighted to be joining the Sport for Development Coalition and really looking forward to working with Andy and the team and, of course, our many partners. While I’m leaving the Government after two decades, I see my new role with the Coalition as very much continuing to contribute to public service and am confident that the experience I've gained over many years in sport, public policy and the charity sector will benefit the Coalition's important mission to help improve lives and communities.”
During his time at DCMS Hitesh, who is originally from West Bromwich, oversaw the UK’s engagement in international sport policy across areas including anti-corruption, anti-doping, match-fixing, governance, soft power and sport for development, representing the UK in various intergovernmental and multilateral settings including the Commonwealth, Council of Europe, EU, G20, OECD, UNESCO, UNODC and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). He played a leading role in the development of the ‘International Partnership against Corruption in Sport’ (IPACS) in collaboration with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and other international sports organisations, and helped develop the first UK Code for Sports Governance working with Sport England and UK Sport.
STRATEGY
Hitesh led on the UK Government’s support for the programme of major sports events following the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, including the 2013 Rugby League World Cup, 2014 Tour de France Grand Depart, 2015 Rugby World Cup, 2017 IAAF and IPC World Championships, 2019 UCI Road World Championships and last year’s UEFA Euro 2020. Since August 2021 he has been Head of Music, Publishing and Copyright at DCMS where he has overseen a key workstream on the economics of music streaming. He also holds a number of voluntary roles relating to sport for development, including Chair of Sport 4 Life UK, and trustee of the Tennis Foundation and the Albion Foundation, the charitable arm of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. He is Rapporteur to UNESCO’s International Convention against Doping in Sport, a member of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) Governance Task Force, and also recently chaired WADA’s Independent Observer team at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
Hitesh succeeds Ollie Dudfield as Executive Director of the Coalition after Ollie joined the IOC in January to help lead the global body’s strategy on strengthening the role of sport as an important enabler for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- Read more about the Open Goal campaign which launches on April 6th, the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace.
- For media enquiries, contact [email protected].
