SIA 08: Campbell Wins Leadership Award

UK Sport and Youth Sport Trust chair and lifelong sport enthusiast Sue Campbell CBE was presented with the inaugural Marsh Leadership in Sport Award at last night’s Sport Industry Awards 2008.

Campbell was presented the award by British athletics legend and double Olympic gold medalist Dame Kelly Holmes and fellow gold medalist and 100m runner Darren Campbell to a standing ovation from the packed house of 1,600 industry ambassadors and sport and entertainment celebrities.

Campbell’s reward came in recognition of her ground-breaking and consistent endeavour in developing the sporting infrastructure in this country.

Such has been her impact on the industry and the country as a whole that Rt. Hon Gordon Brown, Prime Minister sent a video message of congratulations to Campbell with regard to her prize.

In the message screened in front of the watching Awards guests, the Prime Minister stated:

“I know that all of you appreciate sport’s unique ability to touch and change people’s lives. But as sport becomes increasingly central to the lives of more and more of us, its growth demands more and more of the leaders and administrators who run it in this country, to ensure it is always a force for good.

As a result Sue Campbell has had to show a remarkable breadth of talents: as a leader, a motivator, an innovator and a legacy creator.   

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. She has long played a leading role in the development of British sport. Today as Chairman of both the Youth Sport Trust and UK Sport, she helps shape strategies for both school and elite sport and masterminds their delivery. She does so with passion, commitment and expertise, never losing sight of her overriding ambition: to help create a sporting system in this country that is sustainable, world class and the envy of other nations.
 
Somehow she has also found time to mentor world class athletes, taken a lead role in promoting women in sport, turned the UK into a world class anti-doping nation, and developed the elite sports programme in pursuit of more medals in 2012.
 
Those that work for her are inspired by her. Those who work with her have unbounded respect for her. The result: UK Sport is now a world-class delivery agency for government, renowned for its expertise and its effectiveness.”