We’re delighted to welcome two new Trustees to Personal Best Foundation’s Board as we continue our mission to positively change the lives of young people through the power of athletics.
Jen Coleman, Co-founder and Managing Director of independent sports marketing agency, RCKT Co. joins our Board alongside Marie Cartwright, experienced Development Manager and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Advisor, and founder of Exercising Psychology, her independent Sport & Exercise Psychology consultancy.
As a chartered marketer (CIM) with a degree in Sports and Business, Jen brings a wealth of experience in marketing, communications and sponsorship with a specialism for creative storytelling. Over the past 15yrs she has worked with a variety of leading global brands, sports and investors in both the UK and Australia and always with a focus on creating powerful collaborations.
Also, studying a Masters in Sustainability Leadership at Cambridge University, Jen’s longer-term ambition is to harness the power of sports marketing to drive societal and environmental change, helping to create a better world for the future generation.
Athletics has been a huge part of Jen’s life. From her youth experiences of school athletics and English Schools through to competing at a national level growing up and at Loughborough University. Today, she is an active member of her local running club and has run several marathons around the world.
Commenting on her appointment, Jen said
“I owe a lot of my personal and professional success to the sport of athletics. I’ve experienced first-hand the transformative benefits it can have on young people’s sense of purpose, confidence and belonging, so it means a lot to me to now have the opportunity to support the incredible team at the Personal Best Foundation in delivering those benefits to communities all over the country’.
Marie Cartwright has worked extensively in the sport sector, with national governing bodies and ‘sport for good’ charities where she was fully immersed in community engagement, designing active-health related participation projects and implementing them within diverse communities, with the aim of driving positive social impact and improved health outcomes through sport at grassroot level. Her projects have won multiple awards.
Passionate about inclusion, Marie founded a charity abroad aimed at changing lives through sport by creating environments where socially excluded youngsters felt they could belong. She is a freelance tutor for the Activity Alliance, a disability-sport charity.
Having swapped her suits, boots and a legal career in the City of London for tracksuits, trainers and a career in sports injury therapy in 2010, her desire to support people holistically in their sporting journeys led her to undertake further education and a third career in Sport & Exercise Psychology.
Marie also currently occupies several non-executive roles including the Manchester FA Inclusion Advisory Board and Inclusive Sportswear EDI Advisory Group, to influence governance and policy-making in a practical way within these structures and to drive systemic change.
Marie has been involved in athletics since her young teenage years, first as an international sprinter, then as a club coach and now as a member of the England Athletics Regional Council (North-West). She credits her professional and personal achievements to athletics, and as such she is a strong advocate for her beloved sport.
Marie said:
“It is a very proud moment. It feels like the culmination of a journey along the world of athletics – this is now my chance as a Trustee to give back, inspire, promote and advocate for the sport that made me who I am.”
Chair of Trustees, Mark Lawrie added;
"We are absolutely delighted to welcome Jen and Marie onto the Board of Trustees. It was an incredibly competitive recruitment process and we’re particularly excited to be welcoming two experienced and passionate individuals who have the specific skills and expertise that we were seeking but who also demonstrated an alignment to our values and an appetite for the challenge ahead.”