The Steering Committee is the board of OpenActive, taking a long-term and broad view in order to set and carry out the strategy of the initiative.
Allison Savich
Strategic Lead for Data and Innovation, Sport England
Allison has worked in the sport and physical activity sector for over 15 years, with a consistent focus on improving the experience of getting active. She is particularly passionate about addressing the inequalities that exist & encouraging positive change through the use of data, insight, behaviour change and innovation.
She currently leads the Innovation & Digital team at Sport England and is particularly passionate about reducing the systemic barriers that are stopping people from getting the benefits of being active. Outside of work she has set herself the challenge of learning olympic weightlifting and is enjoying the release this gives as you can’t think about anything else with weights over your head!
Allison has been involved in OpenActive from its inception and hopes that as a member of the Steering Committee, she can continue to support the sector to develop new skills and perspectives that ensures that the data infrastructure we are creating continues to meet the needs of both the organisations who are opening up their data, but also meets the needs of those that want to use the data in creative ways.
Barry Lloyd
Programme Lead, ParalympicsGB
Barry Lloyd is Programme Lead for ParalympicsGB’s Every Body Moves powered by Toyota campaign, and part of the organisation’s wider Social Impact team. His work focuses on empowering disabled people to become more active through inclusive opportunities, better accessibility information and system change across the sport and physical activity sector.
Since joining ParalympicsGB in 2021, Barry has led the repositioning of Parasport into Every Body Moves through a co-production approach involving the disabled community, delivery partners and lived experience insight at every stage. Applying the social model of disability throughout the programme’s development, the platform grew to a peak of more than 45,000 inclusive opportunities across the UK following the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, an increase from below 5,000 since joining.
Barry’s work sits across accessibility, behaviour change, partnerships and public impact. He has worked alongside partners connected to OpenActive and the wider Open Data ecosystem to support improvements in the consistency, quality and visibility of accessibility information available to disabled people searching for ways to be active.
Alongside leading major partnerships for Every Body Moves with Channel 4 and Toyota, Barry established and chairs ParalympicsGB’s Lived Experience Advisory Board, embedding co-production more widely across the organisation’s social impact work. He regularly contributes to policy discussions, APPGs and cross-sector forums focused on accessibility, inclusion and participation.
Before ParalympicsGB, Barry worked at Rethink Mental Illness on a Sport England-funded programme linked to the We Are Undefeatable campaign. He also founded Activ8Kids, an inclusive sports and activity business delivering programmes in schools and communities across Mid Wales and the borders with England.
Outside of work, Barry enjoys walking his dog AJ, motorcycling, football and rugby, particularly following Wales teams and Manchester United.
Eugene Minogue
Interim Executive Director, Play England
Eugene has worked in Local Government for the past 25-years in various executive, leadership, and strategic roles covering play, youth, parks, health and wellbeing, physical activity, leisure, and sport amongst other public services. Additionally, he has previously held roles at Sport England and Parkour UK, where he was CEO for 10-years. He is also founder of the ‘Know Ball Games’ campaign, which campaigns for the removal of ‘No Ball Games’ signs and has been an OpenActive Champion since May 2020. Eugene has an in-depth knowledge of the sector, which coupled with his broader experience in other related sectors gives him a unique perspective which will enable him to add significant value to the OpenActive Steering Committee.
James Cutler
Principal Consultant, Locatum
James is a commercially focused senior executive who has spent his entire career in the application of data and data enabling technologies to address real world problems sustainably. He has used satellite imagery to inform decision making in rural or mountain environments in Africa and Asia and leveraged web technology to use geospatial data to help transform business processes across land and property and financial services. He believes that finding, accessing and using data, particularly location data, has been and remains vital to building a more equitable and sustainable society, environment and economy. James aims to help OpenActive pursue this through supporting an innovative engagement agenda across multiple audiences.
Nishal Desai
Co-founder, imin
In 2014, Nish created OpenActive, alongside his co-founders at imin, after securing R&D funding to study and author a report on the use of open data to help get more people more active. He recognised a big problem in the sector wasn’t a lack of willingness to help better connect people to activity – but the way we were going about it was wrong, and that OpenActive was going to be a big part of the solution.
Today, he’s helped hundreds of organisations to use open data to help get residents active, generate more income through increased bookings and utilisations, and digitally transform to reduce inefficiencies and free staff time – as well as contribute to W3C standards discussions, strategy plans and funding bids. Every month, he’s talking to dozens of local authorities, public health, NGBs, leisure operators, sports clubs, parks, schools, sports brands and more about how they can use open data to get more people active. Nish has been involved in every twist and turn of OpenActive, and has a deep understanding of the technology, commercial, policy and political levers in motion, bringing this unique breadth of understanding to the OA Steering Committee.
Sam Roberts
Head of Data Adequacy, International Data Flows Team, DSIT
Sam Roberts is a UK government official specialising in data, digital and AI policy, with over a decade of experience in strategic planning, legislative development and negotiating international agreements. He is currently Head of Data Adequacy in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, where he notably led the UK’s recognition and adoption of the US Data Privacy Framework, enabling personal data flows worth over £115m per year to UK business.
Sam has held leadership roles across DSIT, DCMS, the Cabinet Office and the Government Digital Service, including Head of Strategy at the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation and Head of Open Data and Open Government at the Cabinet Office. His work has spanned international data transfers, AI governance, data ethics, open standards, and critical digital infrastructure resilience, including establishing specialist crisis response teams during the Covid‑19 pandemic.
He has extensive experience influencing stakeholders, building global cross‑sector networks, and leading multidisciplinary teams to deliver trusted, high‑impact policy outcomes and products.
Sasha Karakusevic
Strategic Advisor, NHS Horizons
Sasha Karakusevic works with the NHS Horizons Team, focussing on physical activity, economic inactivity and the development of neighbourhoods. He has a long-term interest in innovation and transformation.
Terence Eden
CEO, Open Ideas
Terence Eden is an open technology expert and innovation consultant. He is an active security researcher, with bug bounties against Google, Twitter, Samsung, and others. He is a long-time advocate of open source and open standards in government.
He was formerly the UK Government’s representative to the W3C and was an editor of the HTML5 specification. He speaks around the world on open standards, open source software, and open data. He also helped get four-and-a-half new emoji into Unicode.
You can read his personal blog at https://shkspr.mobi/blog/
Tom Withers
Portfolio Manager, Vesta Software Group
Tom has worked in and around the health and fitness sector for over 25 years. After completing a degree in Sports Science, he began his career in the fitness sector before moving into the supply of software and technology solutions to operators, partners, and sector stakeholders.
He is a former board member of the OpenActive Steering Committee and contributed to the first UKActive Digital Futures project, where he helped shape thinking around the sector’s digital evolution.
In his current role, Tom works across a portfolio of software businesses within Constellation Software, helping business leaders define long-term strategy and identify growth opportunities. This previously included six established brands serving the health and fitness sector, giving him a strong understanding of the supplier-side commercial drivers, operational realities, and market opportunities that influence the success of initiatives such as OpenActive.
A keen technologist with a passion for practical, impactful solutions, Tom is a strong advocate for the role of technology, data, and open standards in helping more people get active.
