England Netball Appoints New Ceo
England Netball has appointed Fran Connolly as its new CEO, replacing the outgoing Joanna Adams.
Adams, who oversaw a period of growth for netball in England, culminating with a home World Cup which took place in Liverpool in July 2019, announced that she would be stepping down from her role as CEO in August 2019.
She will be replaced at the helm by Connolly, who joined the organisation in 2001, and has served as Director of Development since being appointed to that role in 2010. In that time, England Netball says she has been instrumental in the sport’s ability to secure investment from commercial partners and government agencies as well as the development of the sport at grassroots and participation level, with programmes such as Back to Netball, Walking Netball and the Bee Netball programme for under-11 participants.
Recently, the organisation announced that 130,700 women either started playing or increased their participation in netball following the 2018 Commonwealth Games, with a further 160,000 added to that number after the Netball World Cup in 2019.
Connolly said: “I’m thrilled and feel hugely privileged to be taking on the role at this exciting time. As a sport we’ve been on an incredible journey and have experienced remarkable success over recent years at every level from our participation programmes to the Vitality Roses. However, I truly believe we’ve only just scratched the surface of the potential that netball has.”
“As a sport we are, and will continue to be extremely ambitious, we constantly strive to be the trailblazers in women’s sport and seek out innovative approaches to growing our great game. We must continue to work hard to increase the visibility of the sport, extend our reach to new audiences both on and off the court and continue to create the types of experiences that transform the lives of women and girls across the country.”
Colin Povey, Chair, England Netball, added: “We partnered with Executives in Sport Group who undertook a wide-ranging international recruitment process that attracted extremely high levels of interest and generated an exceptionally strong field of candidates so it gives me great pleasure that the best candidate for the role was someone from within the organisation.
“Through the selection process Fran’s breadth and depth of knowledge across all aspects of the sport shone through. She has a real passion for women’s sport and netball in particular. In the view of the Nominations Committee, Fran was the standout candidate.
“She’s been one of the most influential Development Directors in British sport over the past decade, having transformed the participation landscape with the introduction of pioneering initiatives, securing netball’s position as the largest female team sport.
“I have every confidence that Fran will inspire netballers everywhere as well as our own members of staff and lead England Netball into a thrilling new phase of development.”
