Footballs in a pile.

Governance

In 2017 the London Football Association changed its Articles of Association to become compliant with the highest tier of sports governance, as set by Sport England and UK Sport through the Code for Sport Governance.

The Code was launched in October 2016 as the gold standard for sports governance and is widely recognised to be amongst the most advanced governance standards in the world.

The code sets specific goals in relation to transparency, independence and diversity and the London FA was the first County Football Association in England to reach these standards.

The London FA also boasts one of the most diverse boards in sport and you can meet them here.


James Middlehurst

James Middlehurst, Independent Non-Executive Chair

James lives in Wimbledon and has lived and worked in London all his life. 

James comes from a marketing background originally and is an experienced entrepreneur, with over 25 years' experience of working at CEO or Director level, including having served as a Director at the British Direct Marketing Association and on the Direct Marketing Commission. He has founded three SMEs focusing on fraud prevention, GDPR compliance and security software.

Jill Berry

Jill Berry, Non-Executive Senior Independent Director

Jill is an experienced commercial board level HR professional with a proven track record of working successfully with CEOs to improve and transform their business performance and profitability through designing and implementing the appropriate global people strategies. Her experienced has been gained across multiple geographies and industries, including the arts, media, industry and not for profit.

Jill is currently Global Director of People & Organisational Development at Amnesty International, supporting their human rights agenda worldwide. Prior to this she held senior human resource roles with some of the world’s best-known brands. These include Global Head of Resourcing/ Senior Vice President HR, Europe Middle East, Africa at Christie’s, the world’s leading Auction House, and Senior Vice President, Europe, at CNN/Turner Broadcasting. Jill was a board member of Thorn Lighting Ltd. where she was Group HR Director for their international business and played a key role in transforming the organisation. Her early HR years were spent in the music business which included 10 years as Director HR & Operations for Virgin Records Ltd.

An experienced mentor, trainer, and business coach, she is also a West Ham United and Scotland fan.

Board member

Nina Stewart – Independent Non-Executive Finance & Risk Director

Nina is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW) and a Chartered Tax Advisor (CTA). The early years of her career were spent at a Big 4 firm in London providing international tax advice to large corporates and since then she has worked across a range of sectors including oil & gas, professional services, financial services and the legal sector. She is currently a Partner at a boutique law firm specialising in commercial disputes and regulatory matters.

Nina has served on several Boards and Audit Committees in both the private and charitable sectors, including several years spent as Honorary Treasurer on the Board of NCT, the UK’s leading charity for parents.

Nina is a mother to three boys who are all very keen footballers, so she is heavily involved in both school and grassroots football around South West London.

Tom Barnard

Tom Barnard, Independent Non-Executive Legal & Governance Director

Tom is a solicitor specialising in commercial dispute resolution with a particular focus on the sports sector.  He has a great deal of experience advising governing bodies, clubs, athletes, agents and commercial entities. Tom mainly advises in relation to regulatory, governance and commercial issues, but he has experience dealing with a range of legal issues within the sport sector and more widely.

Tom’s appointment to The London FA will provide experience on a range of governance related matters. He has recently acted for two major sports governing bodies on governance, regulatory and compliance projects. He has also advised athletes in relation to high-profile safeguarding failures against two significant national governing bodies.  Tom is adept at navigating the intricacies of the sporting regulatory landscape.
 
Away from work, Tom coaches his son’s U10s rugby team and he supports Brighton and Hove Albion. 
terri

Terri Lynam – Independent Non-Executive Marketing & Communications Director

Terri is an accomplished leader in sports event management, with a rich background in the planning and delivery of major events like Olympics and Paralympics, Commonwealth Games, and Rugby World Cups. She excels in marketing communication and ticketing, contributing her skills to entities like Speedway International and Rugby League World Cup. Her consultancy, In the Round, has provided valuable insights for prestigious projects with UEFA, Cricket World Cup and World Blind Games, among others. Her expertise encompasses brand building, fan engagement, and enhancing spectator experiences as well an interest in AI Technology.

Terri is also passionate about the unifying power of sports. She actively promotes health and well-being through increased sports participation and is a vocal advocate for women's advancement in the sports industry. Her involvement with the Women’s Sport Collective and Women in Football groups, alongside her role as Trustee – Marketing Communications for the British Triathlon Trust and Independent Non-Executive Director for British Dodgeball, underscores her dedication to fostering equity in sports.

A sports enthusiast at heart, Terri loves the community feel of live sports events and enjoys outdoor activities like walking and cycling, as well as yoga, squash, and netball. She is looking forward to being an Independent NED on the London Football Association Board amplifying the great work already in progress and supporting the team on refreshing the brand and becoming a service delivery entity.

Anita Poulman

Anita Poulman – Non-Executive Football Director

Anita lives in Mill Hill, London, and has held several roles in a Jewish children’s football league, including fines secretary, vice-chair, chair, and is still the general secretary. The daughter of German Jewish refugees, she followed in her Father’s footsteps as an Arsenal supporter which she has also passed on to her 2 sons who follow her passion.

Having worked for many years for BT in project and then change management, in her retirement she looks for opportunities to pass on some of what she learned. She assists in school sessions aimed at helping kids with CV writing and interview skills, she volunteers as the recruitment manager for JUST ONE Tree, a non-profit social enterprise, and has provided some training for the LFA. She is also a busy member of the Regional Discipline Panel, secretary to the LFA Judicial Committee, an active member of the Inclusion Advisory Group, assist the Rules and Sanctions Committee, on the Nominations and Renumerations Committee, and has recently been selected for the National Serious Cases panel.

When not watching football she loves watching and playing tennis, injuries permitting.

Board member

Abu Nasir – Non-Executive Commercial Director

Abu is a sports entrepreneur and football business leader who has been involved in football and sports since the age of 7 as a player, coach, and sports business executive at both grassroots and professional level. His career highlights include Board, Director and Consultant roles with Liverpool FC, The Football Association, The Premier League, and Government and he is involved in commercial and acquisition deals in professional football. Abu is also an FA licensed football intermediary, and his sports firm manages high profile players and coaches.

He is a passionate and innovative leader with a strong commercial background of leading, managing and developing high profile multi-agency programmes in the sports industry, and in the public and private sectors, as well as managing a diverse range of businesses which includes a global sports management consultancy, technology, and hospitality sector enterprises. He has managed business turnover of £800m to date and successfully delivered projects and programmes circa £1bn.

Abu represented Luton Town FC and Liverpool at schoolboy and youth level but was unable to make the grade at professional level due to serious injuries. He went on to play semi-professionally.

kevin

 Kevin Wilmot - Non-Executive Football Director

Kevin has been working in football administration roles at grassroots and National League System level for almost 30 years. Over half of that time has been spent as a Council Member with the London Football Association where he has held roles as Referees Ambassador/Vice President, North East Region Chair, Status Enquiry Officer, Vice Chair of the Regulations & Standards Committee and is currently Vice Chair of the Cups & Competitions Committee.

Elsewhere, Kevin is Chair of the Middlesex County Football League, Chair of the Capital Counties Feeder Leagues Trophy and a member of the Isthmian League’s Maintaining Standards Panel. He has also been a company secretary, director of football, club secretary, league secretary, registration secretary, programme editor and matchday announcer so has knowledge and experience of most aspects of the day to day running of clubs and leagues.

Professionally, Kevin works as a middle manager for Enfield Council. In his spare time, if not watching a football match, he can often be found at the theatre, a good restaurant, or any pub that serves a good selection of gin or real ale.

Yashmin Huran

Yashmin Harun BEM – Council-Elected Non-Executive Director

Yashmin is Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Muslimah Sports Association (MSA), an award-winning sports organisation that delivers participation opportunities for Muslim women. 

Established in 2014, Yashmin has grown the MSA to become a recognised charity that engages over 200 young women a week. Yashmin and the MSA won the inaugural FA for All Award at the London Football Awards in 2019, was highly commended at the She Awards as a Community Champion in the same year and won the Muslim News Awards for Excellence in Sports 2017 and London Sports Workforce Award 2018.

Yashmin’s professional background is in banking and she is also a Non-Executive Director of British Fencing.

jo

Jo Hind - Council-Elected Non-Executive Director

Jo spent over 25 years working in media and advertising including roles at Channel 4, AOL and Google, leading and building commercial teams and advising on digital marketing and transformation.

In 2014 she retrained as a coach, trainer and facilitator, working with both individuals and organisations in all aspects of communication and leadership. In 2017 Jo co-founded Birdsoup, a People Transformation Consultancy, which provides a range of services including advising on DEI strategy, developing leadership and training programmes and helping organisations solve key people challenges.

Jo has been involved in Grassroots football since 2010 first as a parent volunteer and qualifying as a coach in 2014. She joined the London FA as a council member in 2019. She was the first female member of the Cups and Competitions Committee, a part of the Council Review and Commercial Working Groups and  Vice-chair of the Women and Girls Advisory Group. She started her playing career in 2019 and plays for two Women’s Rec teams and is a passionate and long-suffering Norwich City Fan.

abdul

Abdul Yusuf - Council-Elected Non-Executive Director

Abdul has spent 7 years at the Premier League, currently he works as the Youth Projects Executive. In his current role, he supports on the delivery of the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP), aimed at supporting young people who are aspiring footballers to maximise their potential, on and off the pitch.

Prior to his career with the Premier League, Abdul worked at West Ham Foundation as a Football Development Coach, on the Kicks programme. There, he mentored and coached young individuals facing challenging backgrounds, utilising football as a tool for positive change.

Deeply passionate about Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI), Abdul has played a pivotal role in managing various projects integral to the development of the Premier League’s No Room for Racism Action Plan. Additionally in shaping the league's first South Asian Action Plan, designed to enhance the representation of British South Asian players in professional football. 

tyra

Tyra Mills - Council-Elected Non-Executive Director

Tyra Mills is a freelancer, presenter and content creator who has previously featured on BT Sports, Sky Sports and more. She is also a qualified football coach and scout. She is a smart independent, person who inspires the next generation and is also a passionate Individual who has an infectious personality which has the ability to light up any room she walks in.

Sports have always been a way to relieve herself from stress and work exhaustion. Coaching, scouting and content creation has helped her connect with my many young females who have been or have been brought up in the same position as herself. Connecting with young females throughout these past years has been a delight. She's been able to have a massive impact through football and school workshops.

From playing to coaching, to scouting then back to playing, Tyra has found herself in the centre of it all. Tyra's pillars of interest are mental health, women and girls, and disability. She strives to make an everlasting impact within the sports industry whilst documenting it all too.