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UKSI welcomes Lisa Grufferty as Boardroom Apprentice in its first year as part of the nationwide scheme

15 December 2023

The UK Sports Institute (UKSI) is excited and proud to welcome Lisa Grufferty to the Board in the position of Boardroom Apprentice.

Lisa Grufferty

This is the first year that the UKSI has been a Host Board as part of the nationwide Boardroom Apprentice scheme which is run by the Department for Levelling Up, Communities and Housing. It seeks to provide practical experience and learning to individuals interested in serving on public or third sector boards and to enable a wider diversity of individual to play their part in boardrooms. Read more about Boardroom Apprentice.

Lisa will attend the UKSI Board throughout 2024. She will bring all her experience and knowledge from her career so far to the role, including more than 25 years’ experience delivering complex multi-million-pound infrastructure portfolios with stakeholder engagement at the heart. She is currently the Head of Planning and Performance Management at the Houses of Parliament Restoration Programme.

Lisa said: “I am delighted to be partnered with the UKSI and keen to find out more about the organisation. Their mission to deliver outstanding support that enables sports and athletes to excel is a statement that I find really interesting. Being paired with them during a year of the Paralympics and Olympics in Paris 2024 will be very exciting. I’m looking forward to learning and being inspired to learn in a welcoming and safe environment with an organisation which really does put people at the heart of extraordinary performance.”

John Dowson, Chair of the UKSI Board commented: “I am very proud that the UKSI has become a host Board for the Boardroom Apprentice scheme. We look forward to playing our part in supporting and promoting the programme through our involvement in 2024 and having the benefit of increasing the diversity of our Board. It was great to meet Lisa in person recently at our National Conference and I very much look forward to working with her over the coming months. I am confident she will be an excellent and valuable voice around the Board table for us.”

The UKSI’s involvement in the Boardroom Apprentice scheme goes beyond being a Host Board however as one member of our team – Naomi Stenhouse – has also been appointed as the Boardroom Apprentice on another board. It follows on from two members of UKSI staff, Natasha Mills and Jo Harrison, being successfully placed with Host Boards in 2023. As well as gaining the experience of joining a Board, Boardroom Apprentices are supported by a Board buddy and benefit from a series of learning days to support their development.

Lisa will be onboarded at the same time as the UKSI’s two new non-executive directors, starting in January 2024.