The Board & Subcommittees

Dame Denise Lewis

President

Denise began her athletics career with Birchfield Harriers in Birmingham and is now regarded as one of England’s greatest-ever sportswomen. Denise is a huge advocate for the importance of the Commonwealth Games in an athlete’s career path, having won two Commonwealth gold medals at the 1994 Victoria and 1998 Kuala Lumpur Games. She went on to win gold at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and was awarded an OBE. In 2011, Denise was inducted into the England Athletics Hall Of Fame.

Denise joined the board in 2016 and plans to use her vast and influential experience at the highest level to inspire the next generation of athletes. In the 2023 New Year Honours, Denise was awarded a Damehood for her services to sport. 

John Steele OBE

Chair

John Steele became Chair of Commonwealth Games England in September 2022.

John has a background in sport that includes being a professional rugby player and European Cup winning coach. He is currently Executive Director of Sport at Loughborough University, and has recently completed his second term as Chair of the English Institute of Sport.

He has also held several Chief Executive roles including at UK Sport and the Youth Sport Trust. 

Ali Jawad MBE

Non-Executive Director - Athlete Representative

Ali Jawad, 29, was born in Beruit and spent the first six months of his life in the Lebanon before moving to Tottenham where he grew up.  As well as being a world level para-powerlifter Ali also competed as an international judoka early in his sporting journey.

Ali’s career highlights include bronze medals at the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games, becoming world champion in 2014 and winning a silver medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympics Games.

Away from sport Ali is a high profile ambassador for the charity Crohns and Colitis UK. 

Dame Caroline Spelman DBE

Senior Independent Director

Dame Caroline Spelman comes to Commonwealth Games England with an impressive history as a politician and public servant. She spent her early career with the National Farmers Union and was first elected as the Member of Parliament for the Meriden Constituency in 1997. She served the West Midlands constituency for over 20 years.

Dame Caroline has held varied and prominent Ministerial positions, including serving as Secretary of State for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

Dame Caroline is passionate about sports. She is a former junior athlete in the discus throw and county hockey player and continues to play hockey with the Lords and Common’s team. Her eldest son is a professional rugby player for Bedford and her youngest son has been living in Australia. Her husband, Mark, is a former non-executive director of Sport England and currently sits on the board of Harlequins Rugby Football Club.

David Ellis

Non-Executive Director

David Ellis is a Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Commercial and Communications Committee.

After an early career in technology, David served as Group Business Development and Marketing Director Catalyst Housing Group, a social housing trust spanning London and the Southeast. He then joined Premiership Rugby Club, Harlequins, in 2011 as Chief Executive where he served for almost 9 years. 

Currently he is Chief Executive and founder of Maikai Group, an impact agency focussed on enabling business and sports brands to deliver meaningful change/results against the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Donna Fraser OBE OLY

Non-Executive Director

Donna Fraser joined the Commonwealth Games England Board as Chair of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, with over 10 years of corporate experience within business, sport, leadership and well-being. 

Awarded an OBE in 2021 for her services to equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace, Donna served as a Board member in organisations such as the Women’s Sport Trust, the London Marathon Charitable Trust and the British Athletes’ Commission. During the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, Donna worked for the Organising Committee as Head of Inclusion and Engagement and has since continued a similar role at the Professional Cricketers’ Association. 

Alongside her corporate experience, Donna also brings an elite sporting background, having competed for Team England as a 200m and 400m runner, winning bronze at the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games.  

Delia Bushell

Non-Executive Director

Delia Bushell is a media executive with over 20 years’ experience in media, sport, telecoms and strategy consulting. For the past three years she was Managing Director of BT Sport & BT TV, leading BT’s Sport channels, its PayTV platform and the acquisition of premium sports, entertainment & movie rights.

Prior to this, Delia spent 14 years at Sky in a variety of different role, including as Chief Commercial Officer of Sky Italia, Director of Broadband & Telephony for Sky UK, as Managing Director for Sky Ireland, and as Commercial Director for Sky Networks. Before joining Sky, she spent four years as a strategy consultant and at Pearson plc, and she holds an MA in Modern History and an MPhil in International Relations from Oxford University. She has three daughters and is passionate about encouraging female participation in sport.

Diane Modahl MBE

Non-Executive Director

Diane Modahl is founder and CEO of the Diane Modahl Sports Foundation (DMSF), a registered charity and youth foundation that supports young people from disadvantaged communities in the North West to excel through the power of sport in education and employability. 

As an athlete, Diane Modahl is one of Britain’s most successful 800m runners, taking a clean sweep of gold, silver and bronze at three Commonwealth Games (1986, 1990 and 1998) and competed at four Olympic Games. She was unbeaten by any other British athlete over six consecutive seasons and held the English, British and Commonwealth records for both 800m and 600m.

Jonathon Riall

Non-Executive Director

Jonathon Riall joined Commonwealth Games England as an expert in parasport, and is a member of the Sport and ED&I Committees.

Bringing 20 years of experience working in performance sport, Jonny is currently the Head of Performance Services at the British Paralympic Association having previously served as Head Coach for the Paratriathlon Programme at British Triathlon.

Founder of the Paratriathlon Performance programme in 2009 and Head Coach since 2013, Jonny was Team England’s team leader for paratriathlon at Birmingham 2022 and also led the British team through their debut Paralympic Games at Rio 2016.  

Sharjeel Suleman

Non-Executive Director

Sharjeel joins the Board as chair of Commonwealth Games England’s Audit and Finance Committee. Sharjeel brings expertise in financial & cash management as well as strong understanding of working in the creative sector.

A keen cricketer he is never happier than when playing cricket for his local village club, having played cricket for both UCL London and Churchill College. During his 17 year stint at ITV, Sharjeel has been the Director of Group Finance, as well as Director of Investor Relations for ITV.  Sharjeel is currently the Chief Financial Officer for ITV Studios  - the global production and distribution division of ITV with 60 production companies in 13 countries making award-winning, globally recognised shows including Line of Duty, Bodyguard, Love Island, I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here and The Voice.

Mark Osikoya

Chief Executive

Mark Osikoya took up his role as CEO at Commonwealth Games England in March 2023. 

He joined the team after eight years at the National Basketball Association where he headed up the global partnership team in the EME region. Prior to working at the NBA, he headed up sponsorship at Barclays, Coca-Cola and The Football Association in addition to prior experience at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and adidas. 

Mark is currently a trustee at StreetGames UK.