About

Andy Reed obe

Andy Reed is the retired owner and Director of SajeImpact the founder of the Sports Think Tank and part of Loughborough University Institute for Sport Business.

Formerly the MP for Loughborough between 1997-2010, Andy has a strong association with Sport Policy having served as part of the DCMS Ministerial team between 1998-2001 and then as adviser to various Ministers and Sports bodies during his time in Westminster. He moved to the DEFRA and Treasury Ministerial Teams between 2011 and 2007.

He Chaired the Parliamentary Sports Caucus and was secretary of various All-Party Sports Groups including the All Party Sports Group. He introduced the 10 Minute Rule Bill in Parliament paving the way for the Treasury CASC scheme for Community and Amateur Clubs.

He was responsible to the Prime Minister Gordon Brown for the Labour Party 2010 sports manifesto which was launched in his Loughborough Constituency by Gordon and Tess Jowell MP. He played a leading role in government to secure the 2012 Olympic bid and delivery of the Games. He had worked with the BOA in the pre-bid stage to secure government backing. As part of the government he led case for the successful increased funding for UK Sport in the lead to 2012 for Team GB whilst in the Treasury. In his time in Westminster he became known as the ‘Backbench Voice for Sport’.

After leaving parliament in 2010 he maintained his passion for sport. He was appointed Chair of the Sport and Recreation Alliance from 2010 to 2016 – the umbrella body for the 320 National governing bodies and associations of sport and after a spell on the Board until 2018 he is now a Vice-President. He led on Sport Policy and the Health agenda for the Alliance. He was awarded the Arthur Bell Trophy by the SRA for services to community sport. Prince Philip had won it the year before and Lord Seb Coe won it the year after!

He Chaired his local Leicestershire County Sports partnership but after 12 years he stood down when governance term limits were introduced. He remained and advisor to the new Active Partnership Board. He was re appointed Cahir in 2023.

He also sat on the Boards of Special Olympics GB, Swim England, British Basketball League Foundation and with Sports Chaplaincy UK. He was a Member of the RFU Rugby World Cup Legacy Group for his region. (2013-18) He served on the RFU Governance Review as an Independent in 2021-22. He advises a range of NGBs on Governance, and strategy.

In 2011 he established with other colleagues, the independent Sports Think Tank (www.sportsthinktank.com) which gives the sports sector its own policy and evidence based Think Tank space in Westminster and Whitehall. The Think tank is highly respected for its thoughtful and challenging approach to sports policy matters and issues.

In 2015 he joined the Board of the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (CIMSPA). He is was interim Chair for 18 months until September 2018 when he also stepped down after ensuring the Body was financially secure, met its governance requirements and recruited a strong replacement as Chair.

Outside of sport Andy also served on the Board of the biggest Children's international development agency – World Vision UK between 2012 and 2018. He still services on his Local Enterprise Partnership Board - Leicestershire LEP and the Governments Sports Business Council where he Deputy Chair. He sits on the Loughborough Town Deal Board on behalf of the LLEP and the Government Sports Business Council.

In 2012 Andy was awarded the OBE for services to Sport and the Community in Leicestershire, after Chairing the 2012 Olympic Leicestershire Legacy Group and chairing Leicestershire and Rutland Sport.

In 2012 he helped launch the new International Sports Management MBA at Loughborough University Business school and teaches around the world on Sport Policy and development. He was made a visiting professor of Sport Policy and Development from 2014 at Liverpool John Moores University. He also advises the new Institute for Sports Business based at the Loughborough University in London campus on the Olympic park and works closely with the world leading sports University.

He is a regular keynote speaker at sports events across the UK and Ireland. He also wrote a regular column for Sports Management Magazine

In 2020 he took over as Chair of the Sport for Development Coalition a growing ‘Movement’ of charities, governing bodies, funders and delivery organisations who all believe in the power of sport and physical activity to act as effective tools for intervention when generating positive social outcomes.

His company SajeImpact has helped a variety of sports bodies and brands to communicate their messages to policy makers, having worked with sports charities like Sports Leaders UK, the YST as well as with leading brands like Nike on their Designed to Move Campaign. Other clients have included the ASA, Sporting Equals, Sports Aid, Sports Coach UK, the LTA, Judo, the RFU and London Sport.

Andy believes sport can be used for social transformation and works with a wide range of sports foundations and charities – School of Hard Knocks, Leicester Tigers Foundation, British Asian Rugby Association, Asian Sports Foundation.

Andy is regularly tasked with short term senior counsel roles utilising his experience of government, Treasury and sport. He was appointed as an informal advisor to the Labour Party in 2023-24 on sport policy ahead of the 2024 General Election. He helped secure the Commonwealth Games for Glasgow 2026.

Andy supports a number of sport start-up sport and fitness Tech companies and works to encourage new social enterprises in sport. He works with Loughborough University Physical Activity & Public Health Research Group, based in the School of Sport, Exercise, and Health sciences.

Andy always had a passion for economic development and regeneration and joined the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership in 2015 to promote the economic impact of sport and to widen the understanding of the health and wellbeing agenda and its economic impact on the economy. After its abolition by the government in 2022, he was asked by the Mayor of Leicester City and Leader of Leics County Council to continue to chair its successor body - the Leicester and Leicestershire Business and Skills Board.

In 2016 Andy was appointed by the Sports Minister Tracey Crouch to lead the Review of the County Sports partnerships as part of the government's new Sporting Futures Strategy. The report was published in the Summer of 2016 and the role of CSPs and their new performance framework was designed and launched in 2018. The CSP network has become the Active Partnership network and plays a crucial role in the delivery of the Government and Sport England strategy.

He still regularly plays rugby for Birstall RFC and the Commons & Lords XV where he has been Club President and now Hon Vice President. He advises Leicester Tigers Foundation and the British Asian Rugby Association and works closely with the Asian Sports Foundation.