Raelene Castle, CEO, Rugby Australia

Raelene joined Rugby Australia as the code’s first female Chief Executive Officer, beginning in the role in January 2018. She was previously the CEO of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, where she spent four years leading the National Rugby League club after 6 years as CEO of Netball New Zealand. Before beginning her career in sports administration, she was the former Head of Business Marketing at Telecom NZ, Communications Manager at Bank of New Zealand and a Marketing Manager for Fuji Xerox.

Raelene has a rich sporting background as a former representative-level netball, tennis and lawn bowls player. She has held several governance roles in sport, previously serving as a Board Director of the ANZ Championship Netball, the International Federations of Netball Associations (IFNA) and as Chair of the NRL club CEOs leadership group. Raelene was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in 2015 for services to Business and Sport.

David Timms, Senior Business Development Manager – Matchday, Chelsea Football Club

David has been involved in the sport, hospitality and events industries for 12 years. His current role at Chelsea Football Club is to grow the commercial and venue side of the business into key geographical new business regions: Europe, North America, Australia, The GCC and the Far East, across the corporate and incentive, leisure travel and UHNW markets.

David has strong business development, relationship management, sales and project management skills, having spent four years at Mango Event Management a creative, strategic events agency owned by TUI Travel. In the past eight years to date at Chelsea Football Club, David has progressed from his original role as Matchday Sales Executive, through three departments into his most current role as Senior Business Development Manager. In addition to his full time role at Chelsea Football Club, David holds a Vice-Chairman role at Stadium Experience – a marketing consortium with over 50 football & rugby clubs working together to promote sporting venues to the corporate events industry.

Claire Small, Clinical Director, Pure Sports Medicine

Claire Small is the Clinical Director of Pure Sports Medicine, co-founding the organisation with others in 2003. Pure Sports Medicine was the first multi-disciplinary clinic of its kind in the UK and is still the leading organisation providing a comprehensive service to patients with musculoskeletal problems.

The “Sports Medicine” in the name was very deliberate and it is not about treating only elite athletes or sports injuries. The aim was to build an organisation that provided the public with the same quality of care and the same collaborative approach that people would find within the medical team at a Sports Club. From its start of 1 clinic and 2 clinicians, the organisation has now grown to 7 clinics employing a clinical staff of 120 across 9 different medical and healthcare disciplines.

Claire continues to treat patients and is active in teaching, lecturing and research to ensure that the drive towards clinical excellence is a fundamental part of the ethos at Pure.