Executive search

UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) is the Arm's Length Body (ALB) of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS), responsible for tackling doping in sports and prosecuting violations of the World Anti-Doping Code (the Code). The organisation was launched in 2009 ahead of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and is currently located in offices at Loughborough University and Croydon. It was established to protect a culture of clean sport and further details can be found here.

UKAD is responsible for the implementation and management of the UK's National Anti-Doping Policy (the latest version of which came into force in April 2021), as well as ensuring the UK is compliant with the UNESCO convention, and the Code, for educating and informing athletes and athlete support personnel, and carrying out anti-doping tests across a number of funded and professional sporting bodies to determine and prosecute anti-doping rule violations. The National Anti-Doping Policy requires funded sports bodies in the UK to comply with the World Anti-Doping Code, and UKAD acts in a regulatory fashion to ensure compliance across some 300 sports.

UKAD has a staff of circa 75 and an annual budget of £11 million coming from grant in aid funding and commercial activity. In short, UKAD delivers its responsibilities through educating and testing athletes, developing intelligence, carrying out investigations, and prosecuting cheats. To support this we have a range of business functions. We operate nationally and internationally and take an interest in broader matters of sports integrity. The Board also wants to see greater insight and influence across the anti-doping, sports integrity, and public health domains. The UKAD Board has just set an ambitious new strategy for the organisation which it is looking to be delivered over the next four years.

Our current, highly successful and regarded, CEO is leaving in August of this year to take up an exciting new role with the International Tennis Integrity Unit.

The UKAD Board wishes to appoint a vibrant search and selection partner to attract high-quality candidates for the important, challenging and potentially high-profile role of CEO. It is very important to the Board that UKAD attracts a diverse pool of candidates across background, experience, and approach.