England & Wales staff

3rd Floor, Victoria House, Bloomsbury Square, London, WC1B 4SE

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Tel: +44 (0)20 7273 1592
Fax: +44 (0)20 7383 5740

Chief Executive: Dave Boyle

Assistant to the Chief Executive/Head of Personnel/Office Manager: Laura Knewstub

Senior Development Officer: Jacqui Forster

Events and Administration Officer: Vicki Goodfellow

Policy and Operations Manager: Tom Hall

Rugby League Supporters Trust Development Officer: Laura Harrison

Membership and Development Officer: James Mathie

Communications Manager (including media enquiries): Kevin Rye

Dave Boyle

Chief Executive

Dave became Chief Executive of SD in 2008, having joined the organisation as a Development Officer shortly after its foundation in 2000.

He became Deputy Chief Executive in 2003, overseeing casework, the development of the organisation's services to members and co-ordination of SD's policy work and lobbying.

He is a former local government press officer, and has also worked in the voluntary sector. He supports AFC Wimbledon, has previously been a long-serving National Council Member of The Football Supporters' Federation and was a Director of the Social Enterprise Coalition and regularly appears in the media and at conferences representing Supporters Direct.

Tel: +44 (0)20 7273 1576 (Laura Knewstub)

Laura Knewstub

Assistant to the Chief Executive/Head of Personnel/Office Manager

Laura began working in football in 2001 when she joined the Premier League working in the office of the Chief Executive, Richard Scudamore, and 2003 joined the Press Office as PA to Phil French, then Director of Public Policy.

Following his departure to become Chief Executive at Supporters Direct, she joined him again as his PA and took on the additional role of Office Manager, which includes responsibility for all personnel matters for the organisation. Laura continues in this role following Phil's replacement by Dave Boyle.

Tel: +44 (0)20 7273 1576

Jacqui Forster

Senior Development Officer

Altrincham fan Jacqui is a former senior local government lawyer specialising in land and property and contract transactions at local authorities of various tiers and also a housing association. She is a former lay UNISON Branch Secretary and an activist in the union at local, regional and national levels.

Jacqui has worked for Supporters Direct since 2003, and is now partly based in her native North West as well as at our head office in London. Her casework is predominantly focused upon trusts in the North West, Yorkshire and the North East, and she also co-ordinates a number of regular meetings in these and other areas of the country.

She is the main point of contact for all legal and constitutional enquiries, providing support to trust secretaries in particular. Jacqui is also responsible for carrying out the registration of the rules for new supporters’ trusts.

Tel: +44 (0)7736 184 282

Vicki Goodfellow

Events and Administrative Co-ordinator

Vicki Goodfellow joined Supporters Direct from her previous role at the London Transport Museum, where she began as a receptionist, eventually becoming marketing and events officer and finally Project assistant in the redevelopment of the Museum, which reopened late in 2007 after an extensive refit.

At Supporters Direct, she is responsible for the organisation of all our major events, including the flagship national conference, regional meetings and the development of training events. She also assists with administrative duties.

Tel: +44 (0)20 7273 1592

Tom Hall

Policy and Operations Manager

Tom joined SD as a Development Officer in the London Office in January 2007. His background is in sports development having worked for Sport England for a number of years managing grant programmes in both community sports and professional football.

Prior to Sport England he worked in community development and regeneration. He has also provided consultancy for organisations to secure grant aid for community sports projects. He has a degree in Social Science, an MSc in Business Strategy, Politics and the Environment and is a qualified project manager.

Tom is responsible for co-ordinating SD's projects, policy and research and identifying funding.

Tel: +44 (0)20 7273 1657

Laura Harrison

Rugby League Development Officer

Laura is the newest recruit to Supporters Direct, having joined the team in May 2009.  She is the first person to be employed solely to work on rugby league.

Laura’s background in the game dates back to 1990 when she began supporting Huddersfield Giants – a club she still follows now.  Her love of the game saw her develop a career, firstly as an amateur coach and manager with Underbank Rangers in Huddersfield and then as Community Officer with Harlequins Rugby League so she is knowledgeable on all aspects of the game.

Laura comes to Supporters Direct on the back of a 7 month trip to Australia where she worked in corporate hospitality at ANZ Stadium in Sydney.

Tel: +44 (0)7985 628215

James Mathie

Membership and Development Officer

James is the latest recruit to the Supporters Direct team, having joined in early October as Membership and Research Officer, a new position in SD. He has a background in sport having joined from Sportsmatch, where he was a Scheme Support Manager, helping to fund grass roots Sports projects and he has a degree in Sports Management from Sheffield Hallam University.

He also has experience in the commercial sector, having worked as an advisor within Human Resources for Barclays in their head office.

As Membership and Research Officer, James’s focus is on the day-to-day issues affecting supporters’ trusts – acting as the first point of contact for all enquiries from members. He also works closely with Dave Boyle to further develop the services currently offered by SD, investigating how these could be increased and improved for the benefit of the member trusts.

Tel: +44 (0)20 7273 1532

Kevin Rye

Communications Manager

Kevin has worked for SD since 2004 heading up its communications work. He handles all strategy & brand issues, media relations, PR, marketing, publications and the ubiquitious social media; naturally, if you can't find him in the office, you can always find him on Twitter.

He advises supporters' trusts and clubs on their own communications strategies. He also specialises in troubleshooting/crisis management at clubs in trouble, liaising with the authorities on cases on behalf of supporters.

Kevin cut his comms teeth on the Committee of the Wimbledon Independent Supporters Association, helping run its anti-franchising campaign in the 2001/2002 season specialising in press, PR, public affairs and marketing, which he continued during the early establishment of AFC Wimbledon.

Previously he has worked in PR for the telecoms industry, been a freelance writer and worked for local government and charities in information and research. He also spent a number of years working with children & young people and other client groups in the care sector.

+44 (0)20 7273 1595/+44 (0)7852 998542