The FCN | European Sports Leadership & Coaching Network aims to provide an interactive and supportive platform for women in sports leadership and coaching to connect, share and develop.
The project will encourage discussion on a variety of topics including; how to navigate through a male dominated arena, negotiating salaries and insights into the workings of the high performance sports industry.
There are two types of webinars as part of this European Network; An Evening with…which will see a special guest share their insights, experiences and advice from their own role in sport and Open Forum, which encourages all attendees to join in with a themed discussion.
Each webinar lasts between 60 – 90 minutes and sees participants from all over Europe, as well further a field from USA, Canada, Africa and beyond…everyone is welcome!
Previous Webinars
Jane Figueirdo
Jane is a Diving Coach, best known for coaching the British sporting superstar Tom Daley, who won Gold alongside partner Matty Lee at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Jane, who was born in Zimbabwe, has had an incredible coaching career, working in both the US and UK with equal success.
Jane’s 24-year tenure at the University of Houston included 12 consecutive conference Diving Coach of the year honors, and four NCAA Diving Coach of the Year awards (2001, 2003, 2009, and 2010). Her divers won multiple NCAA championships at Houston, including Anastasia Pozdniakova who won the 1-meter title in 2008-2009 and 2009-2010. In total, her divers won 8 NCAA titles and 51 All-American honors in 24 seasons. (Source: SwimSwam.com)
In 2014, Jane resigned from her position as Head Diving Coach at the University of Houston to take on the role over the new high performance diving center in London. Since then, she has guide Tom Daley a number of Olympic medals including bronze at London 2012, bronze at Rio 2016 and bronze and gold at Tokyo 2020.
Joanna Coates – Former UKA CEO & Tracey Neville – Former Head Coach of England Netball
oanna Coates is one of the most successful leaders in British sport having worked at the very top of three of the countries biggest sports; Football, Netball, and Athletics.
Joanna joined England Netball as the Commercial Director in 2010, and nearly 5 years later took on the position of CEO. Throughout this time she was responsible for the strategic plan of the sport across the country and saw a record growth in the company’s participation programmes, sponsorship deals and ticket revenue.
Joanna was part of the team that was pivotal in the Vitality Roses’ historic win at the Commonwealth Games in 2018 and in securing the rights to host the Vitality Netball World Cup 2019 in Liverpool. Under her guidance netball has proudly become the fastest growing female team sport in the country.
In March 2020, Joanna took up one of the most difficult jobs in sport as CEO of UK Athletics, implementing monumental changes in the way the sport is safeguarded and governed. Joanna created the sports first framework agreement binding together all the Home Country Federations alongside UKA, as well as creating a historic Operational Plan which put the athletes at the heart of the sport. ‘Age of the Athlete’ is focussed on collaboration and cultural change and it will continue to drive a sustainable and aspirational future for all athletes across the sport through to 2032.
During her time at UKA, Joanna also successfully implemented a Zero Tolerance Policy for abusive coaching and Lifetime bans for coaches found guilty of sexual and physical abuse.
Joanna is now a consultant to various sporting organisations in the UK and continues to create change for women and girls.
Tracey Neville is one of the best known and successful coaches in England, having led the England Roses to Commonwealth Gold in 2018 and Bronze at the Netball World Cups in 2015 and 2019. In 2016 she was awarded an MBE for services to Netball.
As a player, Tracey competed for England 81 1992-2008. Her best achievement undoubtedly being winning England’s first netball medal at the Commonwealth Games in 1998 in Kuala Lumpur.
Tracey stepped down from Head Coach duty in the July of 2019, after 4 years in charge and in March 2020 gave birth to baby Nev and is now the the director of netball job at Superleague club, Manchester Thunder.
Stephanie Hillbourne – CEO, Women in Sport
Stephanie Hilborne is the CEO of Women in Sport; a charity based in the U.K. aimed at giving every woman and girl the opportunity to take part in sport.
Women in Sport was founded in 1984, and has a track record of success in securing change based on its deep understanding of the needs and aspirations of women and girls at each life stage and its determination to break down stubborn gender inequalities through its work within the sports sector and beyond. Their expert and sector leading insight is driving innovation, our programmes are providing impactful solutions to tackle gender inequalities, and our campaigning is empowering more women and girls to be active.
Stephanie joined Women in Sport in October 2019 from The Wildlife Trusts, after working in nature conservation for over 20 years.
As an experienced CEO, Stephanie brings a wealth of knowledge to Women in Sport. She has been instrumental in changing opinions and behaviour, which will be vital for the next phase of Women in Sport’s work creating equal opportunities for women and girls in sport.
Stephanie believes in leaving the planet in a better state for future generations and is a strong advocate for the outdoors and active living. She understands the impact this can have on wellbeing and long-term health and believes strongly in the power of sport to empower women.
Abi Irozuru – GB & NI Long Jumper
Abi Irozuru is a multi talented woman. Not only is she one of the World’s best Long Jumpers representing Great Britain, she is a business woman, speaker and Law Graduate.
Based in Manchester, England, Abi runs two businesses alongside being a full time elite athlete including; an education business called Manchester Tutors, and AMPLIFY learning, a business aimed at supporting people to improve their wellbeing, resilience and performance.
Leanne Norman – Director of the Research Centre for Social Justice in Sport
Leanne is based at Leeds Beckett University and is also the Director of the Research Centre for Social Justice in Sport and Society within the Carnegie School of Sport. Her research utilises a critical sociological lens to examine sport organisational and coaching cultures to address gender equity and diversity within sport coaching workforces.
Leanne is an internationally recognised researcher for her research and writing within the area of gender equality and issues of diversity related to sports coaching, sports leadership, and organisations. Her work is driven towards improving the participation, performance, and leadership pathways for diverse social groups, principally, different groups of women
Leanne has been a huge support to the FCN over the years, and most recently has partnered with us to deliver a groundbreaking research project aimed at mapping the current landscape for female track & field coaches in the U.K. A huge thanks to Leanne for joining us for our event!
Rehanne Skinner – Former Head Coach of Tottenham Hotspur
Rehanne Skinner is the brand new Head Coach of Tottenham Hotspur Women’s Football Club (UK)
Until recently, Rehanne was the England Women’s National Team Assistant Head Coach to Phil Neville, having initially joined them three years earlier as Women’s National Head Coach (U18-U21s).
Rehanne has also held the position of Assistant Manager at Arsenal where she worked for three years alongside Laura Harvey during a highly successful period for the team from 2010, lifting two Women’s Super League titles, two Conti Cups and one FA Cup, as well as reaching the UEFA Champions League semi-finals on two occasions.
Rehanne was also the Team Great Britain Assistant Coach to Kay Cossington at the World Student Games, winning the gold medal in 2013 before spending time overseas coaching in Florida. She returned to the UK in 2016 with the Wales Women’s National Team as Assistant Manager before taking up her role in 2017 with the FA, her second spell at the governing body having coached England national youth teams for seven years earlier in her career.
As a player, she represented Middlesbrough and Leicester City, working her way up the coaching ranks at the latter where she took on the roles of Girls Centre Of Excellence Technical Director, Girls U19 Academy Director, Community Manager and Women’s First Team Manager.
Biljana Danicic – Deputy Head of Communications, European Athletics
Biljana Danicic is the European Athletics Deputy Head of Communications and her role includes responsibility for branding, public relations, publications, communication activities and media operations.
She is also an event project leader and has been involved in the successful delivery of many of European Athletics’ major competitions and other events in the last eight years, including four European Athletics Championships and many other continental athletics championships.
Biljana has been with European Athletics since 2011 but prior to her move to Lausanne Biljana was the Athletics Federation of Serbia’s Project Manager for international events as well as Marketing and Communication Manager from 2008 to 2011.
Her time with the federation coincided with Serbia bidding for and then successfully staging a number of international athletics meetings. She was also involved in the organisation of the 2009 FISU Universiade in her native Belgrade and the 2007 European Youth Olympic Festival in the same city.
In addition, Biljana is part of the support team of the reigning world indoor, European outdoor and indoor long jump champion Ivana Spanovic, providing consultancy to her compatriot on marketing and public relations.
Houda Loukili – Former Dutch Champion Kickboxer
Meet Houda Loukili, a former Dutch Champion Kickboxer with a passion for getting girls active across the Netherlands. Houda took up Kickboxing as a young girl thanks to the support of her Father and fell in love with it immediately. Training 6 days a week, she saw a long future ahead of her as a professional fighter, until one day a car accident ended her career.
With a passion for sports still burning in her heart, Houda decided to dedicate her life to supporting young people from all backgrounds to keep fit and be the best person they can be both inside and outside of the ring.
Now, Houda is a consultant, coach and speaker, having worked with organisations such as Nike and the Kenniscentrum Sport en Bewegen (Knowledge Centre for Sport Netherlands) to advise on the best way to engage women & girls in sport.
Tracey Archer – Sponsorship Coordinator, Spar International
Her job is to manage the sponsorship between SPAR International and all of the European Athletics Events. This includes delivering all SPAR sponsorship and organisation of corporate events at the European Athletics Championships, European Indoor Championships, European Team Championships, European Cross-Country Championships and European Junior Athletics events.
Tracey works directly with the European Athletics team along with the Athletics Federations, Local European Organising Committees and local SPAR partners to the particular country where each event is taking place.
During our first FCN| European Sports Leadership and Coaching Network meeting, Tracey will be sharing her own leadership journey and will be open for questions from the audience as to the challenges she has faced, her advice on overcoming adversity and sharing insights into the world of sports sponsorship.
Tracey, is originally from Zimbabwe and absolutely loves living in Amsterdam, which she has done for the past 12 years. She has also lived and worked in London in the UK.
Tracey has been a huge influence in the development of the FCN and has been a mentor to our founder Vicky for a number of years. We are super excited that Tracey will be our first guest!