We are delighted to announce the appointment of David Rushton as Associate Director from January 2015. David will be responsible for leading the development of our services in the Midlands and North.
David has over 25 years experience in the sport, leisure and culture sector and has worked in a plethora of roles in the private, public and third sectors. After a successful career in private sector marketing, David decided to pursue his passion for sport and physical activity and return to University to study for a Masters Degree in Recreation Management. He then joined the leisure management contractor Circa Leisure and developed his career with them as the company grew.
Following a merger which created Leisure Connection (now 1Life) David had national responsibility for developing swimming where he spearheaded the company’s ground breaking swimming lesson scheme which has since been replicated by other operators.
David then moved to the Audit Commission as a leisure specialist and during a ten year spell inspected leisure and cultural services in over 60 local authorities and was involved in delivering Comprehensive Performance Assessments. This has given him a unique insight into the leisure and culture landscape in local authorities and he is co-author of the Audit Commission’s national study, ‘Public Sport & Recreation Services’. He was seconded for a year to Strategic Leisure as a Principal Consultant.
More recently David has been involved with submitting tenders on behalf of a major leisure contractor and was head of education and leisure at The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. Here he developed the society’s policy which supports the benefits of physical activity and that they outweigh the risks. David has a good understanding of the education sector from working as a school business manager and as a secondary academy school Governor.
David’s spare time is almost exclusively focused on sport be it his own interests (hockey, tennis and swimming), coaching hockey or supporting his children’s sporting interests which include horse riding, swimming, hockey, and modern pentathlon. He has been a volunteer for over 25 years.
Following his appointment, David said; “I am absolutely delighted to be joining the SLC. I have admired the work of Duncan Wood-Allum and his team for some time and look forward to making the consultancy’s services more accessible to clients in the midlands and north. The leisure and culture sector is going through a period of radical change and SLC offers its clients support and solutions to help them improve services in challenging financial circumstances”.
Duncan Wood-Allum, Director of SLC commenting on David’s appointment said, “David has a deep understanding of both the public, third sector and private sectors that our clients need in this ever changing environment. Crucially, he shares our values and will make a significant impact in enabling SLC to provide the very best in strategic advice to the Sport, Leisure and Culture Sectors across England and the UK as a whole.”