Governance

Her Excellency The Most Honourable Dame Cynthia A. Pratt, ON, GCMGPatron

Dame Cynthia Pratt is the 12th Governor General of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas and His Majesty The King's representative in the islands. To Bahamians she is simply "Mother", a name given to her on a softball field in 1981 and never set down since. She grew up in Nassau's inner city and found on the basketball court her first glimpse of a wider world: she played basketball, netball and softball for The Bahamas, led the national softball team to a World Games bronze medal, and spent two decades coaching and teaching physical education in Bahamian schools — to this day helping young Bahamians into university on sporting scholarships. Her path led through nursing, ministry and Parliament to Deputy Prime Minister, and now to one of the Commonwealth's senior constitutional offices, standing where The Bahamas and the United Kingdom meet. Her patronage reflects a belief she has lived rather than learned: that sport builds character, binds communities and opens doors, and that the friendship between our two countries grows strongest when it reaches the next generation.

H.E. Smita RossettiBritish High Commissioner to The Commonwealth of The Bahamas

Smita brings over two decades of experience spanning diplomacy, national security and international development. In her previous role as Head of the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund for the UK's Cabinet Office, Smita led this £1.3 billion integrated fund to tackle the most significant threats to UK national security, from Serious and Organised Crime to Cybersecurity. During her overseas experience, Smita has served as Deputy Ambassador to Morocco and as Governance Adviser in Jerusalem supporting implementation of the Oslo Accords. Smita speaks fluent Hindi, Arabic, French and Italian. She moved into the public sector from the City where she worked for a leading strategy consultancy, Monitor Company. She has co-founded one of the most successful charter primary schools in South-West London where she also served as Chair of Governors for many years.

Nick Maughan CBEFounder and Trustee

Nick Maughan CBE is a British-born Bahamian philanthropist and investor. For more than twenty years he has funded and built programmes in youth development, sport and conservation in the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and Africa. At the request of the Government of The Bahamas he established and chairs the Bahamas Boxing Academy in Nassau, a national youth sports institution serving young people from across the islands, inspired by the model of BoxWise, the UK's largest boxing-based youth charity, which he founded in 2020. He is a trustee of Tusk Trust and of the Centre for Social Justice Foundation, a former trustee of Dallaglio RugbyWorks, and Patron of Womb Transplant UK, StreetDoctors and Spotlight on Africa. He is Chairman of Little Whale Capital in Geneva. He founded The Bahamas-UK Sports Academy, funded its establishment, its early years' operating costs, and its first $1 million matched-funding programme. Grant decisions rest with its independent board.

Andy CookTrustee

Andy Cook is Chief Executive of the Centre for Social Justice in the UK, an independent, non-partisan policy institute he has led since 2016, with a national network of more than 800 frontline charities. He led Game Changer, the CSJ's 2023 national inquiry into youth sport, whose central recommendation — a Right to Sport for every secondary pupil — was endorsed by the Youth Sport Trust, StreetGames and Coach Core. Before the CSJ he co-founded and ran TwentyTwenty, a youth charity named Charity of the Year at the Lloyds Bank Foundation Charity Achievement Awards. Through the CSJ Foundation he oversees grant-making to frontline charities and the stewardship of major donors' giving. He has been Chairman of BoxWise since 2026 — which, like all organisations connected to the Academy's trustees, is ineligible for its grants — and is a board member of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and a judge of the King's Award for Voluntary Service. He knows The Bahamas well, having visited for several years with BoxWise. He takes no part in any decision involving an organisation connected to him.

Rick Ogden MBE DLStrategic Adviser

Rick Ogden MBE DL is Chief Executive and co-founder of BoxWise, the UK's leading boxing-based youth charity, which he has grown from a single programme to more than 130 community venues in partnership with England Boxing and local boxing clubs, with evaluation embedded in every programme. He is a trustee of the Bahamas Boxing Academy. Before BoxWise he spent his career in the fire service, rising to Chief Fire Officer of Cumbria, where he was appointed MBE; he is a Deputy Lieutenant of Cumbria and a recipient of the British Citizen Award, with deep experience of safeguarding, emergency response and frontline delivery. He advises The Bahamas-UK Sports Academy on programme design and evaluation (pro bono), holds no vote and takes no part in grant decisions.