I Trust Sport is a sports governance consultancy dedicated to improving the governance of international sport through collaboration.
I Trust Sport is a sports governance and compliance agency founded in London in 2013 which is dedicated to improving international sports governance through collaboration. I Trust Sport works with federations, sponsors, individuals and other bodies in sport on projects to bring about genuine change.
Rowland Jack set up the sports governance consultancy after becoming increasingly concerned that the poor standard of governance in sport is damaging its reputation and resulting in scarce resources being wasted or misused. He believes that the issues facing sport must be tackled to safeguard its future.
FounderRowland Jack founded I Trust Sport, a new sports governance and compliance company dedicated to improving international sports governance through collaboration.
Rowland supports International Federations, sponsors and other organisations and individuals on consultancy projects that have improving sports governance as their aim.
Recent projects include governance reviews of International Federations and strategic advice offered to sponsors of sport when they face reputational risk due to failings within the rights-holder organisation and sports corruption in general.
Rowland has given lectures on governance at universities and spoken at international conferences. Starting in 2020, he has been leading courses for the Sports Governance Academy.
From October 2015 to September 2016 he worked in-house at UK Sport, the national high performance sports agency, as a governance consultant helping to develop the new Code for Sports Governance in the UK.
Before taking on his role as a sports governance consultant he worked in sports marketing and communications for more than 10 years in several countries, including at six editions of the Olympic Games, summer and winter.
From 2006 to early 2013 Rowland was employed by communications agency Hill+Knowlton Strategies. At the Olympic Games in Beijing, Vancouver and London he was seconded to the organising committee media relations teams.
He worked on London 2012 public relations campaigns for Olympic sponsors including Visa, OMEGA and Holiday Inn. He also led projects to promote London 2012 milestones ahead of the Games in international markets. Other client projects at Hill+Knowlton Strategies included an Olympic bid and assorted sports sponsorship programmes.
From 2002 to 2005 he led communications for the International Skating Union in Switzerland. Later he managed the News Desk in the Main Press Centre during the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino.
Rowland started his career at Sport England, where he worked on the National Lottery funding programmes and managed the chief executive’s office.
Rowland has degrees from Oxford University and Loughborough University. He speaks French and some Portuguese and Spanish.
Rowland is also a Director of Governance United Ltd.
Senior ConsultantEd Hawkins has conducted more than 60 governance assessments of sporting organisations with I Trust Sport. He specialises in complex threats to the integrity of sport, such as racism, human trafficking, match-fixing and climate change.
Recent projects include governance reviews of the Summer and Winter Olympic sports and assisting international federations with guidance on policies and procedures.
Prior to joining I Trust Sport he co-wrote the 2021 William Hill Sports Book of the Year, Why We Kneel How We Rise, on racism in sport with cricket legend Michael Holding.
Why We Kneel, published by Simon & Schuster, was his eighth book. It included interviews with Black icon athletes Naomi Osaka, Thierry Henry, Usain Bolt, Michael Johnson and Adam Goodes.
Previous work includes Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy, an investigation into the anatomy of the illegal gambling industry in India and its impact on cricket. It was also shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year and won Wisden Book of the Year.
The 2015 book, The Lost Boys, was an investigation into the prevalence of human trafficking in football and involved him working ‘on the ground’ in Accra, Ghana, dealing with trafficking gangs.
Ed was involved in a review of governance at the International Cricket Council and advised the MCC and England and Wales Cricket Board on anti-corruption. He also liaised with FIFA’s Transfer Matching System on youth transfer regulations.
He has a strong interest in environmental frameworks for sport and has done extensive research on the mapping of these frameworks, asking what the consequences and challenges are for sport. You can read the paper here.
He has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows and spoken at conferences discussing corruption risks in sport.
