Having joined World Sailing last year as Head of Sustainability, double Paralympic medallist Alexandra Rickham has been working in sustainability in the sport sector as a consultant since retiring from full time competition in 2017. She combines her academic knowledge and insight with her practical experience in competitive sport and environmental operations to focus both on changing the sports industry and its practices, and on utilising sport’s platform to inspire change. Alexandra is very passionate about diversity and inclusion and ensuring the athlete’s voice is heard on sustainability and regularly participates on panels, podcasts and other speaking opportunities on these subjects.
Siri Wallenius
As Head of International Relations at Malmö FF, Siri is tasked to manage the club’s responses to disruptive forces reshaping the football industry through innovative solutions and extensive club football knowledge. With a background in international diplomacy and a wide experience in areas such as stakeholder relations, strategic development, knowledge exchange programmes, social impact projects and event management, she has a wide portfolio of knowledge, particularly in the evaluation and development of the intangible components that make football clubs successful communities.
Before joining Malmö FF in April 2022, Siri served at the European Club Association (ECA) in the membership department while also managing the ECA Women’s Football Committee and its Bureau. In 2020, she co-founded the independent football advisory Club Affairs, providing services to enhance strategic decision-making in football, both on and off the pitch.
Siri is a strong believer in implementing sustainable solutions and principles of good governance in the sports industry, and social development of, and through sports.
Ellis McKinnon
Ellis is currently Sustainability Manager 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships. His task is to work across the World Championships’ unique delivery model, consisting of a Central organisation and Event Delivery Partner (EDPs), to lead and support the implementation of the Environmental Sustainability Action Plan; its core themes of People, Place, Planet and key objectives are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This includes Carbon footprinting the event and measurement of its general impact on the environment.
Formerly Ellis was employed for seventeen years with a large timber importing and upgrading business as an Environmental/ Sustainability Manager. His responsibilities included the Environmental Management System (EMS), Timber Chain of Custody Certification, timber legality specialist, supplier assessment and auditing. He also counted and reported on Carbon emissions for the UK operations.
Aslı E KOÇ TİRYAKİ
Aslı is both working as the lead for all commercial operations of the Club while building a sustainable identity by gathering the relevant recourses and the power of the commercial brands and İstanbul Başakşehir FK.
She has a Masters Degree in Sports Management, Club Management and also have several educations in sustainability. She actively has been running environmental, educational and social well being related projects under sustainability in İstanbul Başakşehir FK for almost 4 years.
Joaquin Ñáñez
Joaquin has been working in very diverse non-profit organisations since his teenage years, from emergency housing to social farming projects in disadvantaged neighborhoods. After studying German-Spanish Translation at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, in Argentina, he helped develop a Programme of Social Orchestras in marginalized communities. In 2018 he left his hometown to join the football-for-good organisation Spirit of Football e.V. in Erfurt, Germany. He has helped to visualise, conceptualise, organise and implement fair play, integration, inclusion and sustainability education projects in schools, clubs and communities around the world. He loves to develop and implement innovative football for good education methods and advocacy projects. He co-led Spirit of Football’s sustainability project “One Ball, One World” which took The Ball across 21 countries in 13 months – learning about and advocating for climate action
Dr. Madeleine Orr
Dr. Madeleine Orr (she/her) is researcher, educator, and advocate working at the intersection of sport and climate change. After earning her PhD in Kinesiology from the University of Minnesota in 2020 and a postdoc in strategy at University of British Columbia, Orr joined the Institute for Sport Business at Loughborough University London where she developed the world’s first MSc in Sustainable Sport Business. In the Fall of 2023, she is joining the University of Toronto as an Assistant Professor.
Maddy is the founder and co-director of The Sport Ecology Group, an international consortium of academics who drive climate action in the sport sector through research and public education initiatives. Her research in sport ecology examines the impacts of climate change on the sport sector, with a focus on resilience and adaptation. She has authored more than 30 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and several industry-facing reports that have gained global attention. Her work has been covered by the BBC, Time Magazine, ESPN, Sky Sports, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, and more. Her first book Warming Up: How Climate Change is Changing Sports (for Bloomsbury) will publish in 2024.
For her contributions to the sport sector, Orr has been recognized by Forbes’ 30 Under 30, Corporate Knights’ 30 Under 30 Sustainability Leaders, and NAAEE’s 30 Under 30 Environmental Educators. She was the 2022 recipient of the Rising Alumni Award from the University of Minnesota and was named a Future of Canada Fellow in 2023.
Dr Walker J Ross
Dr Walker J Ross is a lecturer in sport management at the University of Edinburgh and a member of the Sport Ecology Group. His research focuses on sport ecology and sustainability with emphasis on the impact of climate change on sport, governance, institutional behaviours, and stakeholders. Efforts like the UNEP’s Sports for Nature Handbook and Protect Our Winters’ reports on both the Winter Olympics and cycling have been aided by his expertise. Peer-reviewed research of his has been featured in top academic journals as well as popular press from BBC, Sky, ESPN, Associated Press, and Reuters. He is an active member of both the European Association for Sport Management and the North American Society for Sport Management.
Innes Fitzgerald
Innes Fitzgerald is is a British track and field athlete and cross country runner from Devon, England. FitzGerald set a new under-17 record for 3,000 metres, and in December 2022 finished fourth in the under-20s European Cross Country Championships in Turin, to avoid flying to the competition FitzGerald took a 20-hour coach and train journey from Exeter to Italy.
In January 2023, FitzGerald turned down the opportunity to compete at the 2023 World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, Australia because of concerns she holds about contributing to climate change. In a letter to UK Athletics she wrote that “The reality of the travel fills me with deep concern”, adding that “I was just nine when the COP21 Paris Climate agreement was signed. Now, eight years on, and global emissions have been steadily increasing, sending us on a path to climate catastrophe. Turning this around is only possible through transformational change from collective and personal action.” In it’s coverage of this, The Times called Innes “The Greta Thunberg of Sport.”
Steinar Hoen
Steinar Hoen is a retired Norwegian high jumper, his indoor and outdoor bests are both 2.36 m – these are also the Norwegian records for the event. He has been the meeting director for the Oslo Bislett Games since 2007.
Dr. Sheila Nguyen
Dr Sheila Nguyen is a leading regenerative built environment design professional who has consulted with several sport organisations and professional clubs, globally, on strategic and operational environmental sustainability issues with the most recent work with the Australian Olympic Committee’s Climate Action Plan.
Sheila was given the Honorary Lifetime Member award from the British Association for Sustainable Sport (BASIS) and recognised as an Australian Financial Review Top 100 Women of Influence (2019) for her leadership in galvanising the sport industry to protect and respect the natural environment.
She has contributed to over 50 internationally peer-reviewed research outputs and media outlets, has been an invited speaker for TEDx and as a presenter at a number of natural environment and sport industry forums, most notably, at COP21 in Paris (2015), the first-time sport has been invited to the climate agreement discussions. Sheila was the invited Chairperson & MC for the Sustainable Innovations in Sport Forum in Amsterdam (2018) (Ajax Stadium) among other changemaking forums over the years.
Sheila is on a number of boards and advisory committees including as an Independent Director on the World Lacrosse Sustainability Committee.
Sheila is the Co-Founder and an NED of the Sports Environment Alliance, the coalition of sport & planet leaders in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand working to protect the places where we play so we can continue to do what we love- watch an
