Senior Leadership Team

He oversaw a period during which the sport won three Olympic and two Paralympic medals at Tokyo 2020 and hosted the 2019 Taekwondo World Championships in Manchester. Prior to that, he had held advisory roles at both UK Sport and the British Olympic Association, and will bring his experience and knowledge from these positions to the UK Sports Institute.

As well as his role as the National Director of the UK Sports Institute, Matt is the Board lead for Safeguarding.

Subsequently he spent ten years with MAN Truck and Bus (part of the VW group), latterly as Finance Director.

He joined British Cycling in 2006, coaching athletes to gold medal performances at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, before taking on the role of Head of Marginal Gains for the London 2012 Olympic cycle.

Post-London, Matt spent three years as Head of Athletic Performance at the Rugby Football Union (RFU) before returning to the UK Sports Institute in March 2016, initially as the Interim Strategic Lead for Research and Innovation and now as Director of Performance Innovation.

He has a Masters from the Sheffield Hallam University, a PhD from the University of Birmingham, the IOC Diploma in Sports Nutrition and is a registered nutritionist.

She has accountability for ensuring the right strategies are in place to develop and motivate our people, ensuring they are at the heart of discussions and decision making, for delivering HR activity as efficiently and effectively as possible and for leading the UK Sports Institute through the change activity required to deliver our Tokyo Strategy.

She was educated at Durham University and the University of Oxford and has more than 10 years’ experience in sports communications.

She spent eight years at the British Paralympic Association in various media and communications roles and has worked for ParalympicsGB at five Games, including London and Rio.

This change in career path has led to Pippa holding several governance and medical leadership roles across a range of sports, including gymnastics and equestrian.

As well as her UK Sports Institute role, Pippa is the Chief Medical Officer for the British Paralympic Association. Pippa’s previous roles include being the join Acting Medical Director at the EIS and Professional Women’s Game and Para Football Medical Lead at the Football Association.

Claire studied at Leeds Metropolitan University combining her sports science degree with her swimming career, which saw her compete in two Olympic Games. Upon retiring as an athlete, Claire worked for Commonwealth Games England and British Swimming before joining the Institute, where she is currently the Co-Head of Operations with Di Benham, leading on Elite Training Environments (ETEs).

Di combined her knowledge and experience into the growth and development of the Institute. Remaining in an operational role throughout her time at the UKSI, Di joined the SLT in July 2023 as Co-Head of Operations (alongside Claire Hague) and lead in Health and Safety.