Phil Smith

As the Executive Director of Partnerships, Phil Smith is one of a Sport England leadership team of six and has individual responsibility for several areas of the business.

His partnerships team manages long term investments in various sport and activity organisations, who work in partnership with Sport England to achieve the aims of the ‘Uniting the Movement’ strategy. Those partnerships and investments are aimed at helping more people to enjoy the multiple benefits of sport, with an emphasis on tackling inequalities.

Phil’s team also leads Sport England’s work to develop sporting talent, which helps to find and develop successful England and GB athletes and teams, working closely with UK Sport and the British Olympic and Paralympic Associations. The long term vision is for our international teams to not only be successful, but truly representative of our country.

In addition to helping people to be active, Sport England is striving with partners to make the sport system better, which covers the good governance, financial sustainability and integrity of sports bodies. Phil and his team produces guidance and advice for leaders in sport to use.

Phil also has the responsibility for the people team at Sport England, with expertise covering all the different types of roles essential for the sport and physical activity industry. This includes the needs of 7 million volunteers, 1.2 million coaches and 400,000 professional staff – again focusing on the inequalities what exist in those groups.

Phil has always worked in sport and joined Sport England in 2008 from The Football Association, where his professional career started after Euro ‘96 as the General Secretary of the County FA in Manchester. His football career took him through various roles in the game before becoming The FA’s Head of Policy and Public Affairs, responsible for football industry policy in relation to Government in both the UK and international bodies.