University of Birmingham Sport
Hall of Fame 2025
In 2023, we launched our first ever UoB Hall of Fame, now in its second year we inducted our newest cohort at our celebration event held on 30 October 2025.
University of Birmingham Sport were delighted to host our annual Hall of Fame event in October 2025, a great evening of celebration and recognition for the third cohort of 16 outstanding individuals. Please find below our inductees for the Gamechangers, Coaches and Performance Practitioners, and Sportspeople categories. Congratulations to all!
Gamechangers
Ever since it was founded in 1900, the University has had a knack of attracting and producing game-changing individuals that have made a significant contribution to their field, whether that be research, academia, sport or all three.
Our Hall of Fame Gamechangers have been inducted on the basis of having made a prominent and distinguished impact in sport, contributing insurmountably to its landscape and continued development.
David Gill
After graduating from the University of Birmingham with a Bachelor of Commerce in Industrial, Economic and Business Studies, David initially worked in finance before carving out an impressive record of executive roles in football.
Highlights include 10 years as CEO of Manchester United, board and vice chair positions at the FA, and David is the current Vice President and treasurer of UEFA. David was also awarded a CBE in 2019 for his services to football.
Mel Bound
Mel is a pioneer in women’s grassroots sport, recognised globally for her ability to build & lead connected communities that make a lasting positive change in women’s physical and mental health. She is the founder and CEO of ‘This Woman Runs’, the world's largest running community with 250 thousand members.
Through this project Mel launched a get active app based on “minutes moving” that was listed as the best running app in the UK for consecutive years. The success of This Women Runs is profoundly wide reaching and has undoubtably not only inspired women to get active, but, perhaps more importantly, created the resources, spaces and communities that facilitate long lasting exercise habits.
Zena Wooldridge
Zena held the position of Direct or Sport here at the University for 17 years, throughout her time in this role Zena was instrumental in Sports growth, the construction of the Sport and Fitness Centre and UoB’s position as a key partner with Commonwealth Games in 2022; all whilst maintaining a constant presence in international squash governance.
In 2020 Zena left the University of Birmingham and became President of the World Squash Federation, in this role Zena has overseen a period of sustained progress for squash since the COVID-19 pandemic, including greater gender equity in the sport and has been a driving force behind squash’s historic inclusion in the LA28 Olympic Games. Zena was awarded an OBE in Queen’s Honours in June 2009 for Services to Sport and this week has been elected to the the Executive Board of the Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations.
Martin Slumbers
Martin was Chief Executive of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club from 2015-2024, and received an OBE for his services to golf in the King’s Birthday Honours List in June 2024. After a decade of driving change during his tenure Martin has been credited with leaving a lasting legacy. Martin played a leading role in instigating many significant changes which have positively affected not only the inner workings of The R&A, but also many areas of the wider game, from the staging of the Open Championship and the Women’s Open, to the multitude of initiatives that have been implemented to help grow the game at the amateur level around the world. Martin also received an honorary degree from UoB in 2016.
Coaches and Performance Practitioners
This Hall of Fame category celebrates those that, during their career as a coach or performance practitioner, have exemplified this by providing bespoke support and/or influencing athletes’ performances significantly towards success at the highest levels within their sport. A performance practitioner may be – but is not limited to – a sport-specific coach, strength and conditioning coach, physiotherapist, sport scientist or performance lifestyle coach.
Jennifer Savage
We are very proud that Dr Jennifer Savage started her journey as a sports psychologist with the University of Birmingham Sport Performance Centre in 2010 and worked with our performance teams and sports scholars before going onto work for the EIS & UK athletics in 2014. Jen worked as the lead sport psychologist for the GB athletics team at both the Rio & Paris Olympic Games working closely with the sprint relay squads and individual athletes. She is now the Head of People Performance and Culture for British Athletics.
Joan Duda
We are lucky to have had Professor Duda here on campus in the school of Sport and Exercise science for a whopping 26 years, Professor Duda is internationally known for her expertise on motivational processes and determinants of adherence and optimal functioning in sport, exercise, and dance. She is an experienced mental skills consultant, working with athletes, coaches, and other performers at all levels. She also founded her internationally renowned PAPA project in 2009. Professor Duda has approached her field from the standpoint of trying to impact policy based on scientific evidence, this has yielded wide reaching success in both professional and participation sports settings.
Simon Nathan
Over the past decade, Simon, a physics graduate from the University of Birmingham, has held the office of High-Performance Director at both Athletics Australia and Athletics Canada. Prior to this he was an Athletics Team Manager for Team GB at the 2012 Olympics, which means he has had a leading role for three different nations at the past four Olympic Games. In addition to all this he was also Team Leader for Athletics Northern Ireland at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
Sportspeople
The Sportspeople category looks to celebrate and award those that have evidenced success at the pinnacle of their sport. This may be an Olympic, Paralympic or World Championships’ medal, or a significant period of sustained excellence at the highest level of competition.
Anna Henderson
Originally a competitive skier, Anna’s athletic path took an unexpected turn following a serious injury. What began as rehabilitation through cycling soon ignited a new passion. As a TASS and EDCAP scholar studying sport science at the University of Birmingham, she rapidly rose through the ranks, earning medals at National, Commonwealth, and European levels. Her crowning achievement to date however came in 2024 with an Olympic Silver Medal in the Time Trial event. Now riding with pro team Lidl-Trek this year, Anna claimed her first Women’s World Tour victory on Stage 2 of the Giro D’Italia!
Annie Caddick
Annie started her rowing career here at University of Birmingham where the university coaches suggested she should apply to British Rowing’s para development programme. She was quickly snapped up by British rowing and has been on a medal winning streak ever since. 2024 saw Annie win three European medals including Gold and then a Paralympic Silver medal in the PR3 mixed double sculls, with crew member Samuel Murray.
Fran Williams
Fran is quite simply Netballing royalty, she’s earned 43 caps and counting for the England Roses. Fran has won World Cup silver and bronze medals and this year captained England to victory in the Netball Nations Cup. She has also won four Netball Super League titles with franchises Loughborough Lightning and Wasps. before all this Fran dominated BUCS for Birmingham alongside her Economics degree.
Hannah Kelly
Hannah, is an accomplished international athlete and Olympic bronze medallist in the 4x400m relay. She also helped Great Britain to a World Indoor bronze medal in a national record. A University of Birmingham Law graduate with a passion for excellence on and off the track, Hannah also works within Campus Services while continuing to train on campus.
Didi Okoh
Didi only graduated from her Law degree in 2024, but just before she did, she won a Bronze medal in the 100m at the Paralympics in Paris. Didi only became fully classified at the start of 2024 her rise within the sport has been electric, in September 2025 she won another global Bronze medal at the World Para Championships in Delhi.
Georgia Hunter-Bell
Georgia, who studied Geography here at Birmingham, has navigated an unconventional journey in her sport. Georgia took a step back from running after university to pursue a career in cyber security, but rediscovered a passion for recreational running during the Covid pandemic. At the start of 2024, Georgia was still working full-time but a fourth place finish at the World Indoor Championships and a looming Olympic Games gave Georgia the motivation and confidence to go all in on Athletics, and it paid-off in Paris with a shock Bronze medal and a British Record in the process. This year she switched events to the 800m and went one better winning a silver medal ahead of Olympic Champion and training partner Keely Hodgkinson at the Tokyo World Championships.
Izzy Christiansen
Izzy is best known in her playing career as a Manchester City stalwart where she won the 2015-16 PFA Player’s Player of the Year award, Izzy also had stints at Lyon and Everton, but she started her professional career alongside her studies in Sport Science here at UoB by playing for Birmingham City Football Club. Izzy earned 31 senior caps for her country before retiring in 2023. She currently coaches at Manchester City alongside a prominent sports media career in commentary.
Josh O’Brien
Josh, initially a keen football goalkeeper, came to university to study Economics and during his second year in 2021, discovered the Rowing Club. Just three years later he was atop the Paralympic podium with a Gold medal in the PR3 mixed coxed four. Along with the rest of his crew Josh has dominated his class, alongside this paralympic triumph he is also the reigning European and World champion in the mixed four categories.
Laura Sugar
Initially a Welsh International Hockey player, Laura was studying a PGCE here at UoB, when coach Phil Gooderham, observed Talipes, more commonly known as club foot, which could classify Laura as a Para athlete. During her time in Birmingham this was explored and Laura switched to Athletics qualifying in the 100m and Long Jump for the Rio 2016 Paralympics.
Shortly after Laura switched sports again to Paracanoeing where she has enjoyed her most success winning Paralympic Gold in the KL3 class in both Tokyo and Paris! Laura was awarded the MBE for services to rowing in 2022.
Megan Richter
Megan, started her sporting journey as a swimmer winning World and European medals before taking up Paratriathlon whilst at UoB for her studies. Megan was based here during her build up to Paris last year and fought back from an injury ridden season to emphatically win Gold last summer.
Find out more about the University of Birmingham’s Sport Hall of Fame