Welsh Gymnastics are delighted to announce the appointment of its new Chair, Bev Smith who will take over from outgoing Chair Helen Phillips MBE. Bev hasn’t wasted anytime and has stepped straight into the role.
Bev was born in Cardiff and went to Llanrumney High School, where her enthusiasm for sport was
encouraged and nurtured.
Bev has gymnastics in her DNA, having started her sporting life as an artistic gymnast at Cardiff Olympic Gymnastics club. She competed for W
ales and Great Britain and moved to London with the dual-purpose of working with the GB national coaches whilst teacher training at St Mary’s Co
llege, Twickenham. Whilst there Bev was awar
ded a Churchill Fellowship to study gymnastics coaching in the USSR and USA, which augmented her development as a coach and judge at national and international level.
Bev’s career was quite eclectic. She taught PE, worked as the Development Director for We
lsh Gymnastics, managed the Sport Development Unit at Cardiff County Council and eventually gravitated back to education, at Cardiff Metropolitan University where she worked as a Principal Lecturer in the School of Sport and later retired from the university as Dean of Quality and Standards in August 2018. Retirement didn’t last long since she joined Welsh Gymnastics as the interim CEO, in the run-up to the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Bev enjoys an active lifestyle and sustains professional connections with a wide range of sport-related networks. She has been an outstanding independent director on the board of Welsh Gymnastics. She commented “I am deeply honoured to have been offered this opportunity to lead the board, and it is a responsibility I do not take lightly. I feel privileged to have worked with our previous chair, Helen Phillips MBE, and look forward to working with the board, to take her legacy forward.”
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