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Iain Roy
Chief Executive Officer

Iain Roy is a recognised Australian sports integrity expert and experienced lawyer with over 22 years’ experience.

 

The founding Head of Integrity at Cricket Australia who personally investigated “Sandpapergate” in South Africa, Iain now works with sport and government clients on a range of sports integrity, governance and risk management matters. He has a particular interest in improving the capability of sporting organisations.

 

Iain is a director of Women Sport Australia, an independent member of the Richmond Football Club Governance and Remuneration Committee and is a member of the Gambling and Integrity Panel of Esports Games Association Australia (EGAA).

Dale Wood
Strategy Director

Dale Wood is an experienced consultant focusing on the sports, cultural and entertainment sectors via his business DHW Collaborations.

 

He has over 20 years’ experience working directly with sports, cultural institutions, Government, brands, promoters and venues.  His experience includes:

 

  • Establishing his own business, DHW Consulting, in March 2013, relaunched in March 2017 following a hiatus for another role. During 2018, the business expanded and rebranded to become DHW Collaborations, and incorporated alliances DHW Ludus Infrastructure and DHW Simpson Advisory;

  • With a reputed sport and entertainment agency, dual roles of Head of Strategy (management consulting) and Head of Insight Insights (research); and

  • Co-head of a ‘Big 4’ Sports, Events & Venues practice.

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Dale’s vast experience working with all levels of government, Sport Australia, professional competitions, major events, NSOs, SSOs, and professional and amateur clubs enables him to understand the criticality of sports integrity and governance, and he sees the major gaps in capability across the Australian sporting eco-system.

Malcolm Speed AO
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Malcolm Speed AO has had a long and varied career as a lawyer, sports administrator, and company director.
 
After 20 years as a senior basketball administrator, he was appointed in 1997 as Chief Executive of Cricket Australia. In 2001, he was appointed as Chief Executive of the International Cricket Council, a position he held up to 2008.
 
In addition to his basketball and cricket roles, he has been a Board member of the Australian Sports Commission (now Sport Australia), Deputy-Chair of Golf Australia and President of Cycling Australia. From 2009 until 2018 he was Executive Director of the Coalition of Major Professional and Participation Sports (COMPPS).


He has been a member of the board of Richmond Football Club since 2011.


In 2012, he was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame for service to basketball and cricket.


He now works as a consultant, company director and university lecturer. 

 

He is a Life Member of ANSZLA and was the third recipient of ANZSLA's Outstanding Service to Sport Award in 2008.


He lectures in Sports Law at Melbourne University and chairs the Advisory Board of the Deakin University Sports Network where he is an Adjunct Professor.
 
He is widely regarded as one of Australia's leading sports administrators and has wide, hands-on experience in dealing with high-level integrity and governance issues.

Dr Catherine Ordway
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Dr Catherine Ordway is an Assistant Professor at the University of Canberra and Senior Fellow at The University of Melbourne Law School.  Catherine was awarded her Sports Management PhD titled “Protecting Sports Integrity: Sport corruption risk management strategies” in August 2019. 

 

Catherine is a sports lawyer, with degrees from the University of Adelaide, and has a Graduate Diploma in Investigations Management from Charles Sturt University.  Catherine has been consulting to a range of national and international sports organisations and Olympic bidding cities for more than ten years.  As one of the pioneers in anti-doping, Catherine has been featured in the National Library of Australia Australian Women Lawyers as Active Citizens Project, for her work in the lead up to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games; at that time having conducted one third of all Court of Arbitration for Sport cases internationally.  Catherine has served on numerous ethics and anti-doping tribunals/ committees, and currently supports the: International Cricket Council, the World Baseball-Softball Confederation, World Curling and the West Indies Cricket Board.  Catherine has published on sports integrity, governance and gender equality issues and is a sought-after media commentator and conference presenter. 

Dr Peter Harcourt OAM
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Dr Peter Harcourt is a Sport and Exercise Physician with extensive experience in elite sport including Basketball, Cricket, Australian Rules, Olympic and Commonwealth Games.

 

He has a particular interest in anti-doping, having held senior appointments with FIBA, ICC, WADA and ASDMAC. Peter has significant experience in the management of athlete injuries, concussion and illicit substances. He currently holds the Chair positions for the FIBA Medical Commission, FIBA Anti-Doping Committee, FIBA COVID-19 working Group and ICC Medical Advisory Committee.

 

He is a member of the WADA Prohibited List Expert Group, Medical Director of the Australian Football League, anti-doping consultant to the ICC and Cricket Australia and Senior Fellow at the Law School, University of Melbourne.

Adrian Anderson
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Adrian is a barrister with a broad practice specialising in media and sports law and disciplinary proceedings. He is a former partner of Corrs Chambers Westgarth with commercial and practical experience as a senior executive for major professional sports.

Adrian joined the AFL as General Manager of Football Operations in 2004 and was there for nine years . He was responsible for the day to day running of the AFL competition including the on and off field rules and disciplinary matters and established the AFL’s integrity unit.

 

Immediately prior to becoming a barrister, he advised major professional sports and conducted reviews on disciplinary, integrity and governance matters. This included:

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  • acting for six months as interim CEO of Cycling Australia implementing governance and commercial reform;

  • conducting an integrity review for Cricket Australia concerning the threats of match fixing and doping; and

  • conducting a player welfare review on behalf of the NRL.

 

He is a Melbourne Cricket Club Committee member, Cricket Australia Conduct Commissioner, Chairman of MyGolf (JV between Golf Australia and PGA), Board Member of the National Golf Club, and VAFA Tribunal member.

Mat Jessep
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Mat Jessep is a commercial and corporate lawyer and business consultant with specialist skills and experience in sports, esports, media and entertainment, acting for clients in Australia, North America, the UK, and Europe. As a dedicated sports lawyer, Mat has acted for National Sporting Organisations, State Sporting Organisations, sponsors, broadcasters, and leagues and event operators.

 

Mat is a pioneer and leading lawyer and consultant in the fast-growing esports sector, acting for clients with interests in leagues and teams in Europe, North America, Australia, and Asia.  

 

In the sports integrity space, Mat's experience includes:

  • acting as Tribunal President in member protection matters for various sporting organisations;

  • acting as Judiciary Counsel for the NSW Rugby League;

  • acting for Basketball Australia in the 2018 'Basket Brawl' matter - conducting an investigation, interviewing players, advising BA, and drafting submissions to FIBA regarding NSO and player sanctions; 

  • advising clients on anti-doping rule violations; and

  • drafting member protection and child safe sport policies for sporting organisations.

 

Mat is an active member of the US-based Sports Lawyers Association (SLA), teaches as a Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne Law School and lectures as a casual academic at the University of Technology Sydney in the Law Faculty and Business School.

Maria Clarke
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Maria Clarke is a highly experienced sports lawyer based in New Zealand, specialising in leadership and advisory work for local and global sporting bodies, in sports governance, sports integrity, organisational structures and change management. Since 2016, she has been an integral part of international efforts to implement change and clean up world sport at the highest levels including advising World Athletics, World Sailing and the International Paralympic Committee.

 

Internationally recognised as being at the top of her game, Maria has held a wide range of chair, board member, director and advisory roles, in New Zealand and around the globe including as Chair of the World Athletics Working Group for Governance and Integrity Reform, Member of the International Partnership Against Corruption in Sport, Taskforce 3 on Good Governance to Mitigate the Risk of Corruption in Sport; Chair of the World Sailing Governance Commission, Vice-Chair of the International Paralympic Committee, Governance Review Working Group; Member of the IOC Marketing Commission; Member of the IOC Sport & Law Commission; Member of the Association of National Olympic Committees Legal Commission; Chair of the World Athletics Legal Commission; Board member of the NZ Olympic Committee; Board member of Netball New Zealand; and member of the NZ Olympic Committee's Integrity Committee. Maria is also a long standing member of the Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Association.

 

Maria has practised in both New Zealand and Australia and over her 30 years in the law, has advised numerous national federations, regional/ state bodies, clubs and elite athletes across over 50+ different sports on a wide range of sports law matters including anti-doping, selection disputes, child protection, other sports integrity matters, disciplinary matters, and governance including major constitution and organisational changes.

Paul Bittar
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Paul Bittar has significant senior executive experience including as Board member, Chief Executive and other senior executive and strategy roles within sport. His experience includes operational management, strategic and business development, wagering and media rights, as well as all aspects of regulatory and integrity management.

 

Paul has worked both domestically and internationally, with over two decades of experience in major sport and more recently on behalf of one of the world’s leading wagering operators (Flutter Group incorporating Sportsbet). His principal focus areas have been:

 

  • Regulation and integrity management. Paul provided consultancy advice and support across a range of clients as well as held numerous senior executive and Board roles with oversight for regulation and integrity functions. His CEO experience includes oversight of all aspects of the governance, regulation and integrity management of British Horseracing, a sport operating across 60 racecourses and c.10,000 races annually;

  • Management of key partner relationships in order to develop commercial opportunities across shared wagering and media assets. This includes new wagering product opportunities, management of Integrity and Product Fee Agreements including all approvals, management of bet types, integrity reviews and investigations. Partners include all domestic and international racing bodies along with major domestic sports (e.g. AFL, NRL, Cricket, etc.) plus working in conjunction with various state regulators; and

  • Media and commercial rights. Business development including M&A/corporate development opportunities, analysis and strategy related to wagering licences and/or B2B partnering opportunities, strategy related to media assets and international racing and sports content opportunities.

 

Having worked on behalf of both sports and wagering operators, this combined experience has given Paul a deep understanding of issues related to the intersection of wagering and integrity. Experience in horseracing has translated effectively to dealing with integrity issues in other sports where active management of integrity issues is a more recent development.

Margot Foster AM OLY
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Margot Foster is uniquely placed to assist sports organisations meet their governance and dispute resolution needs.  She has spent over 34 years in private legal practice and a similar amount of time on numerous sport boards and committees from local clubs to national bodies, both government and private, and international federations.  

 

This experience, and her strong background in corporate governance, follows a successful career as an elite athlete, winning a bronze medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games and a gold medal at the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games.

 

Margot is a natural problem-solver. She is analytical and has the ability to see what is required from many angles.  Her diverse and extensive experience enables her to offer practical governance and dispute resolution solutions to sports bodies and to speak and write in jargon-free plain English.

 

Margot has also been involved in numerous sports dispute and discipline tribunals dealing with selection, doping and behaviour issues. She has conducted investigations into disputes arising within sporting organisations whether between the organisation and an athlete, an athlete and a coach or between organisations amongst other combinations and scenarios.

Darren Boyd
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Darren is an experienced lawyer, commercial executive and problem solver who has more than a decade working within and alongside some of Australia’s leading sports businesses and sports integrity bodies.

 

Darren is renowned for the quality of his advice, which covers the field of services offered by SIGPA, together with his calm, consistent, influential leadership; exemplary communication skills and personable nature.  In short, he knows sport and its people.

 

Recently, as Head of Legal and Integrity at one of Australia’s most prominent NSOs, he:

 

  • Advised and implemented critical governance reforms following a comprehensive stakeholder consultation processes;

  • Helped steer the organisation through legal, ethical and organisational challenges arising from anti-doping, anti-match fixing and child safeguarding issues, coordinating with Government regulators to ensure transfer of intelligence and management of risk;

  • Led the organisation’s response to the Australian government’s “Wood Review” into Sports Integrity (2017-18) and contributed to industry submissions; and

  • Drafted integrity and governance policies for the sport, and oversaw implementation and education programs.

 

Darren has taught Sports Law, Integrity and Governance subjects at both Victoria and La Trobe Universities.  He has also led the risk management process, and was legal advisor, for numerous international sporting events that have visited Australia.

 

Away from his professional advisory work, Darren is a sports broadcaster who has worked extensively on television and radio both in Australia and abroad.  He is also a keen runner with a goal to compete in the six World Marathon Majors…as long as he can remain injury free!

Darren James
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Darren James is a risk, crisis, compliance and insurance professional with 20 years’ global experience in senior risk, crisis management and compliance roles across the sport, infrastructure, heavy civil construction, renewable energy, finance and insurance sectors.  

  

Darren was the inaugural Head of Risk at Cricket Australia, and now heads up his own consultancy (ND Risk and Crisis Solutions) – with a client base spanning the sport, infrastructure, finance, tech and retail sectors. 

 

He has developed and implemented crisis management plans across a variety of sectors and has led or assisted in the organisational response to a myriad of crises across the globe from large scale bus accidents on high altitude mining sites to underground mine collapses, earthquakes, typhoons, workplace fatalities (including the death of Phillip Hughes), terrorist incidents and “Sandpapergate”. 

 

Darren recently assisted the Australian Institute of Sport to deliver crisis management systems for adaptation by National Sporting Organisations, including providing training to sport leaders in operationalising these systems.  

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He has a passion for building systems from the ground-up, having established new risk and work health and safety functions across numerous sectors. More recently, Darren assisted Sport Australia to deliver a suite of risk management documentation for adaptation by National Sporting Organisations. 

 

Darren is a qualified lead auditor (for health and safety systems) and brings a pragmatic approach to delivering on the needs of his clients, with a focus on clear, jargon-free and engaging communication.

Stuart Corbishley
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Stuart Corbishley is an experienced sports and major events lawyer, administrator and company director who advises and works with high profile international, national and regional sports governing bodies and major event rights holders on a range of legal, integrity, governance, commercial and operational issues.

 

Stuart acted as General Counsel of Football Federation Australia’s FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 bid, as well as being the Principal of Corbishley Sports Law, a sports law consultancy that provides general counsel and other legal services to a range of sports industry clients.

 

Previously, Stuart acted as General Counsel and Company Secretary of Invictus Games Sydney 2018, AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015 and Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games, and was also involved in the establishment of Cricket Australia’s Men’s and Women’s T20 Big Bash Leagues, Athletics Australia’s Nitro Athletics, Hockey Australia’s Hockey League One and Netball Australia’s Suncorp Super Netball.

 

Stuart is the Vice-President of Triathlon Australia, the Chair of Triathlon Australia’s Ethics & Integrity Committee and a member of Triathlon Australia’s Future Operating Model Steering Committee.  Stuart has also served as a member of Athletics Australia’s Ethics & Integrity Committee and of Football NSW’s Legal & Regulatory Committee since 2016.  Previously, Stuart served for five years as Director and Secretary of The Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Association.

 

Stuart’s in-house and board experience across a wide range of sports and events has given him a deep understanding of the industry and, having advised clients at every level of sport, he brings a unique perspective to his advice.

Dean Kino
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Dean Kino is one of Australia’s pre-eminent sports lawyers and provides strategic legal advice to a range of high-profile organisations and their boards and senior management, both within Australia and internationally.  His clients include numerous major Australian and international sports, leagues and clubs and sports media and sponsorship rights holders.

 

Dean advises his sports clients in many fields of expertise, including corporate matters, media rights and sponsorship, licensing, marketing and events rights, governance, integrity, compliance and risk matters, rules, regulations and participation agreements, employment and labour relations, venue hire and stadia management arrangements, government relations, athlete management and ambassadors and crisis management.

Samantha Dellamarta

Samantha Dellamarta is an experienced safeguarding specialist with a career history of direct service delivery and leadership roles spanning the community services sector.

 

Sam brings a wealth of practice knowledge and experience regarding the safety and wellbeing of children and young people to SIGPA and the broader sports integrity community.  Sam’s skills and experience extend to organisational capacity building including policy and framework development, education and training, and project management aimed at preventing child abuse and improving the lives of children and young people.

 

Sam has provided safeguarding services to local, state and national bodies including Girl Guides Australia, YMCA Australia, the Geelong Football Club and Hockey Australia, with a sound knowledge of state and commonwealth legislation and both national and international best practice in safeguarding in sport.

 

Sam understands success in safeguarding stems from strong and informed governance; a culture that prioritises safety; and policies, processes and resources that are accessible and user friendly for all people.  Sam aims to ensure that any person, at any level of the organisation has the competence and confidence to uphold their safeguarding responsibilities to prevent harm and abuse of children and young people and when required, listen and respond effectively and appropriately to any concerns.

 

Sam is also an innovative, confident and highly engaging facilitator who values education and training as the platform to launch both systemic and cultural change.

Laura Johnston

Laura is a lawyer by training who transitioned to professional services, corporate and sport industry roles in people & culture, facilitation, professional development and sport integrity. Laura is a trusted Sport Integrity, People & Culture and HR advisor to many national and state sporting organisations, as well as peak sporting bodies such as Commonwealth Games Australia and Vicsport.

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As the GM People & Culture & Head of Integrity for Swimming Australia from 2015-2019, Laura designed and developed the first “Safe Sport Framework” for Australian sport. Now a sport integrity and child safeguarding expert, Laura is known for:

 

  • Creating child-safe frameworks, policies and simplified resources;

  • Designing and delivering engaging child safeguarding awareness and education workshops; and

  • Leading the investigation and management of the most sensitive of conduct and sport integrity issues involving members, athletes, administrators and children.

 

Laura is an experienced facilitator of awareness & education, leadership, strategy, culture and team workshops, drawing on her experience and innate ability to engage with people from grassroots sport to sporting Boardrooms. Laura is pragmatic, agile and facilitates and influences positive outcomes.

Venetia is a barrister at the Western Australian Bar. She has a broad commercial litigation and arbitration practice, having advised clients in relation to disputes across a range of industries and has been involved with investigations, regulatory inquiries, coronial inquests and royal commissions.

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Venetia commenced practice in Victoria, before moving back to Western Australia in 2009. She has appeared as counsel in most State courts in Western Australia, and in the Federal Court of Australia and Supreme Court of Victoria. Venetia has also acted in private international and domestic arbitrations.

 

Venetia is a Member of the National Sports Tribunal and has chaired and been a member of numerous disciplinary and grievance tribunals for state, national and international sports bodies. She was also President of the Australia New Zealand Sports Law Association for six years.

Venetia Bennett
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