President, Council and Board of Directors

Gilly English brings a wide range of skills to the TIA UK following a career in sport that spans over 30 years, starting out as Club Secretary at a Golf Club in Hertfordshire where she got her first taste of administration.

She moved to London in 1976 to work for Dunlop Sports Company, dealing with both UK and overseas promotional work in the Tennis Department.

In 1983 she joined the Lawn Tennis Foundation and became Assistant Manager after 2 years, eventually, in 1992, taking on the role of Executive Director of the British Schools Tennis Association (BSTA), a national governing body for school sport with charitable status.

Her work at the BSTA included responsibility for policy, management and administration as well as accountability to the Charity Commission and client liaison with two major companies, HSBC and Nestlé, two of the longest serving sponsors in tennis. She also secured funding from Sportsmatch, the government's scheme to match business sponsorship of grass roots sport, and the Foundation for Sport and the Arts.

She has also worked with agencies involved in school sport and education, such as The Youth Sports Trust, Education Authorities including teachers, and volunteer networks.

Gilly has contributed to government policy on sport ("Raising The Game") via the select group nominated by the CCPR (Central Council of Physical Recreation) and the NCSS (National Council for School Sport) on all issues related to sport in schools, such as teacher training, minimum time for PE within the National Curriculum, health of children, competitive sport, payment for teachers in after-school activity and loss of playing fields.

In October 2001 Gilly became an independent consultant in sports event and sponsorship management, establishing Sport Wins to focus on the development of grass roots sport programmes while continuing to work with the BSTA, including the organisation and promotion of the nationwide Schools Tennis Team Competitions and National Schools Tennis Championships.

She organised the inaugural International Schools Tennis event under the auspices of the International Schoolsport Federation in 2003 and maintained other contracts including The Nestlé Kids Clubs Tennis Scheme on behalf of The Lawn Tennis Association in conjunction with 4Children the UK's largest childcare charity, a Celebrity-Am Golf Challenge for the Prince's Trust in Nottinghamshire and promotional work for Second Serve - agents for Tretorn and Pro-Kennex, as well as various research projects.

Since 2004 Sport Wins' major contract has been with The Dan Maskell Tennis Trust, which raises funds to help people with disabilities to play tennis.

Gilly joined the administration of the TIA UK in June 09 to assist with the increasing workload of the association and took on particular responsibility for the Board of Directors and the Steering Groups as well as liaison with the general membership.

Contact details: 01737 831 707 / gilly@tiauk.org