I joined Racing Welfare as Chief Executive in 2015 from the Northern Racing College, where I had been CEO for the previous 8 years. Prior to that I had been CEO of two different educational charities that specialised in creating awareness of rural Britain as a living and working environment. During my time with the Countryside Foundation for Education we designed the concept that went on to become Racing to School and resulted in thousands of young people gaining an experience of racing.
I had had a lot of contact with Racing Welfare whilst at the Northern Racing College, as a partner in supporting young people as they entered this fantastic industry. Given that my two passions in life are racing and people, I couldn’t believe my luck in getting a job that couldn’t have more perfectly combined them.
My role is to lead the organisation and to support my colleagues in delivering our vision and mission. We are very lucky to have a team with such a range of different skills and my job is to make sure they have all the necessary resources and support to do their jobs and serve our beneficiaries.
I have always been into horses and my first memory of going racing was as a seven year old going to Goodwood with friends of my grandparents who had a horse called King Cloud running. I went to point to points regularly throughout my teenager years, but it was when I met my husband that I really started going racing very regularly. All three of my children have worked in the industry and my daughter still works on a thoroughbred stud in Australia. Through my work at the Northern Racing College I saw so many young people whose opportunities might otherwise have been very limited in life, going on to exciting and inspiring careers that might see them travelling the world.
Equally, it can be physically and mentally demanding and people who work in racing face the same life challenges as the rest of the population. It is a privilege to work for an organisation that seeks to help people through those challenges and to live happy and sustainable lives. I feel honoured to be part of racing’s family.
Our Staff
