Story added: 8th August 2017

The Football Association (FA) has announced the first ten successful graduates from its first Women’s Leadership Programme, which includes the Community Sports Foundation’s (CSF) Head of Development, Jackie Thornton.

Led by The FA and supported by all of the football authorities, the programme is run in conjunction with the Institute of Directors, with the aim of giving participants the necessary skills to sit on football boards by providing tailored programmes depending upon their sponsoring organisation.

Mrs Thornton successfully graduated from the programme, which consisted of an induction, one day workshops on leadership and self-awareness, governance and the role of the board, finance, strategy and commercial and influencing, networking and coaching, earlier this year.

She will join Scunthorpe United’s Leanne Mayo, Manchester CFA’s Deb Owen, the Isthmian League’s Kellie Discipline, Jenny Horsfield of the Cambridge United Community Trust, Tottenham Hotspur’s Nikki Kelly, recently-appointed Brighton boss Hope Powell, Anna Mitchell of Portsmouth, Prepared PR’s Lisa Smith and Doncaster Belle’s Faye Lygo.

FA CEO Martin Glenn commented:

“As leaders in football – both men and women – it’s time to recognise that diverse talent makes business sense. This is an active, creative intervention which is benefitting the industry as a whole.”

Graduates are from Premier League, English Football League and WSL clubs, alongside the LMA and County FAs. Six out of 10 of the graduates are already Board Directors and the other four hold senior executive roles working alongside professional club boards and club foundation boards.