Tennis Wales appoints new senior leadership team
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A new senior leadership team has been appointed at Tennis Wales, with Chris Lewis and Jamie Clewer joining Simon Johnson (CEO) to deliver the new strategy from 2020 – 2024.
Chris Lewis, newly appointed Head of Performance will lead on the delivery of the player pathway across Wales. He brings 30 years of playing and coaching experience to the role and will work closely with players, parents, coaches and programmes to help them reach their potential.
Chris is a level 5 Master Performance Coach and has overseen the development of many of Wales’ best players since he retired from professional tennis. He worked as a travelling coach with Johanna Konta and has captained several GB and Welsh teams in Commonwealth Games and Home Nations events.
Chris said “I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to lead on Tennis Wales’ performance strategy. I am really excited at the prospect of helping to improve the pathway for players across Wales and will use all of my passion, experience and expertise to achieve that.”
Jamie Clewer will join Tennis Wales as Head of Participation and lead our work to grow tennis.
Jamie has 15 years' experience in National Governing Body Sport Development. He has an extensive track record of leading change in Governing Body policy and delivery and as strategic lead for Football Development in Wales, Jamie’s remit included increasing participation and building the infrastructure of grassroots clubs whilst safeguarding the future of the sport through appropriate facility development/management.
Jamie also served as a member of the Senior Executive Team of the FAW Trust and as a consequence, has valuable experience of strategic and corporate management within a sporting context.
Equality and inclusion work are both personal passions of Jamies, and he has a positive track record of intervention in disadvantaged and diverse communities. Under his ‘stewardship’, he saw a 45% increase in female participation. He was also responsible for the first two strategies for disability football, leading to a 500% increase in disability participation and the establishment of a national and regional performance programme.
Jamie has experience of designing, implementing and activating sponsorship programmes for grassroots football activity working with multi-national companies such as McDonald’s, Lidl and Vauxhall, and most recently he has been working for Bridgend County Borough Council in the Prevention and Wellbeing Service, leading the Healthy and active funded Super-Agers Project and work to support the health and wellbeing of disadvantaged groups. In addition to working as a consultant on various facility planning and development projects.
Jamie said ‘I’m delighted to be joining Tennis Wales at an exciting time, with a new vision in place and renewed focus. I look forward to leading the future growth and development of the sport across Wales working closely with our excellent staff team, coaching network, clubs and wider stakeholders. I recognise this is a challenging time for all of us and it is essential that in the short term we offer what ever support and guidance we can to the tennis family in Wales to overcome the current situation. I very much look forward to meeting everyone in due course.’
Simon Johnson, CEO for Tennis Wales, commented on both appointments “we have a really exciting strategy to deliver and have a really great team of people in place to lead our work. In the years ahead we’ll not only lead our sport through this difficult situation with the Coronavirus, but grow and develop tennis across Wales for thousands of new people”.
