Sport Resolutions Annual Conference 2022 in association with Winston & Strawn LLP

Holly HamiltonPresenter

Award-winning broadcaster can be found on BBC One, BBC Two and BBC News, where she is best-known as a presenter on BBC Breakfast & BBC Sport. Originally from Co. Down in Northern Ireland, she has spent over a decade working on some of the UK’s biggest television networks.

As one of BBC Breakfast’s most energetic presenters, Holly’s career has taken her from the famous red sofa to the green grass courts of Wimbledon where she’s been part of the BBC’s coverage from the All England Club over the past two years, presented live from the red carpet of BBC Sports Personality of the Year and anchored BBC Sports day from a number of exciting venues across the country.

Away from sport, Holly is the presenter for BBC holiday series, Getaways and is a familiar face across BBC Northern Ireland. In 2019, she fronted NI’s Children in Need live show, hosted Open for Summer from The Open in Portrush alongside Colin Murray and became the first woman to host long running comedy panel series The Blame Game.

Despite her Irish roots, Holly Hamilton’s career began in Scotland where she worked for Scottish Television (STV) for several years and was part of the original news broadcast team on the channel’s flagship political programme Scotland Tonight. She also worked as News and Sport Editor for Downtown Radio and Cool FM where she was part of the Breakfast show voted Radio Show of the Year”(CIPR Awards).

Christopher Quinlan KC

Christopher is a sports and criminal law King’s Counsel.

He is an accomplished trial advocate and Crown Court Recorder. He is a highly experienced chair of numerous sport tribunals. He has written several sporting reviews commissioned by national governing bodies. He chairs World Rugby's Independent Judicial Panel and also the Football Association’s Independent Judicial Panel Chair. In January 2023 he was appointed the inaugural Chair of the English Football League (‘EFL’) Club Financial Review Panel.

Christopher led a review of the structure, composition, and operation of the British Horseracing Authority (‘BHA’) Disciplinary Panel, Appeal Board and Licensing Committee. The resulting ‘Quinlan Review’ made far-reaching recommendations to bring the process in line with current best practice. The BHA accepted all 24 recommendations.

Christopher led an independent review into events at Wrexham Tennis Centre which was published in January 2019. In summer of 2020 Christopher conducted an independent review and evaluation of the safeguarding policies and procedures of UK Athletics. Christopher is currently overseeing and managing the British Gymnastics (‘BG’) specialist Independent Complaints Process (‘ICP’) handling a wide range of safeguarding complaints.

Christopher is an experienced member of the Sport Resolutions administered National Anti-Doping Panel as well as Sport Resolutions' National Safeguarding Panel. 

Dominique Leroux-LacroixSession 1 Speaker

Canadian and Swiss Attorney-at-law, sports enthusiasm, University of McGill Law graduate, B.C.L./LL.B., member of the New York State Bar Association.

Dominique is currently Head of the Legal Affairs at the International Testing Agency since October 2018. Prior to that she was Head of the Legal Anti-Doping Services at the Union Cycliste Internationale for 7 years. Dominique has developed an in-depth knowledge of anti-doping and its legal framework and intricacies.

Jeff BenzSession 1 Speaker

Jeffrey Benz, Esq., FCIArb, CEDS, is a dual-qualified English barrister and U.S. attorney as well as a sought-after ADR practitioner with JAMS based in London and Los Angeles. Following a career as a litigator with a large international law firm, Mr. Benz worked in-house at global sports, entertainment and technology entities, including in executive leadership positions. Since 2001, he has mediated and arbitrated several hundred complex, domestic and cross-border disputes.

Mr. Benz brings the high energy and unflagging persistence of a former competitive athlete to drive resolutions. As an arbitrator, he shapes the process with an eye for efficiency and fairness. Who’s Who Legal: UK Bar shared, he is “’widely recognised for his first-rate arbitration practice’ and clients note he is ‘in a class of his own’ when it comes to complex sports disciplinary disputes.”  In 2016, the BBC noted that Mr. Benz is “widely regarded as amongst the most experienced judges” in world sport.  He has been recognized as “Lawyer of the Year” for arbitration in Los Angeles and as one of the Best Lawyers in America (Best Lawyers, 2021, 2022). Mr. Benz was a member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport Ad Hoc Division at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.

David GrevembergSession 2 Speaker

David Grevemberg is the Chief Innovation and Partnerships Officer, a critical role in expanding the Centre for Sport and Human Rights (CSHR)’s drive to embed respect for human rights in sports organisations and events around the world. David works with the CSHR team to lead projects that drive positive change in sport, including education and training initiatives and overseeing development of major new initiatives.

David joined the Centre after 6 and a half years as Chief Executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), the organisation responsible for the Commonwealth Games, Commonwealth Youth Games and many other initiatives that inspire Commonwealth athletes to drive the ambition and power of all Commonwealth citizens through sport.

Previously, David was Chief Executive of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, with ultimate managerial responsibility for the organisation’s successful preparation and staging of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. He was the chief liaison with national and local government and many other stakeholders, and played a leadership role developing and innovating a variety of sport, commercial, cultural, community engagement, corporate social responsibility and legacy programmes.

Before that, David was the Executive Director of Sport and International Federation Relations at the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) headquartered in Bonn, Germany. A former competitive wrestler, during his career he has also served as a coach, athlete agent, team administrator, consultant and Board member.

Cardelle SpanglerSession 3 Speaker

Cardelle Spangler is the managing partner of Winston & Strawn LLP's Chicago office. Over her 20-year career as an employment litigator and advisor, Cardelle has concentrated her practice on employment relations litigation and counselling matters.

She has represented clients in complex class action, collective action, multi-plaintiff, and single plaintiff employment litigation. Cardelle has substantial trial experience before state and federal courts, as well as arbitrators. She has successfully defended collective action lawsuits brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act; class action lawsuits brought under ERISA alleging breaches of fiduciary duties against corporate and individual defendants; claims brought under ERISA for denial of benefits and discrimination; claims brought under various state and federal statutes for age, race, sex, color, religion, and disability discrimination and/or harassment; and common law and/or statutory claims for unfair competition, misappropriation of trade secrets, and various torts.

Cardelle has also conducted harassment and other investigations, drafted employment and independent contractor agreements, and conducted labor and employment training.

Nekoda Smythe-DavisSession 3 Speaker

Nekoda firstly is a mother to her beautiful daughter Ryia, who she sees as by far her biggest blessing. Prior to motherhood, she has been an elite Judo athlete for the last decade, of which her greatest achievements include: representing Great Britain at the Olympics (2016); winning Commonwealth Gold (2014); taking world bronze (2017) and world silver (2018). She stands as one of fifteen British Judo athletes to have ever achieved this.

Prior to a concussion injury in 2019, she was on target to make the Tokyo Olympic games. She made the tough decision to forgo the Olympic race to put her health first and was blessed enough to fall pregnant with her baby girl who arrived a month after the Olympics commenced in 2021. She feels she won a different kind of medal the day her daughter was born! Now 7 months postpartum, her comeback is underway and she plans to be competing again by the end of 2022. In her free time she is also a student, ambassador, mentor and coach.

Alexandra NewmanSession 3 Speaker

Alexandra Newman is currently the Standards Manager at UK Sport (UKS). In 2020, she joined UKS as a Sport Integrity Manager and provided casework management and programme co-ordination of the Sport Integrity function, including the management of the end-to-end Eligibility Policy process. She also managed several sport integrity issues, including but not limited to misconduct and disrepute, anti-doping, crimes and betting. Alexandra is one of the co-authors of the UKS Pregnancy Guidance for Sports Governing Bodies and Athletes, which was published in November 2021.

Prior to joining UKS, Alexandra worked at UK Anti-Doping for nine years, most recently as the Performance Sport Education Manager where she led the development, delivery, implementation, and reporting of the Major Games Education programme to ensure core stakeholders met the requirements of the UK Clean Games Policy.

Baz MoffatSession 3 Speaker

After achieving a first-class honours degree and a Masters, Baz Moffat jumped into the boat and rowed straight onto the Great Britain national team. Over an impressive career she won several medals, including a silver at the 2007 World Championships.

After Baz hung up her oars she launched a successful international coaching business. Specialising in pelvic health, Baz has helped hundreds of women – from pro athletes to new mums – tap greater health and happiness by understanding mind, body and the interplay of the two.

Baz looks back fondly at her sporting career but recognises a lack of female-specific coaching limited her potential. Now a prominent voice in the women’s health movement, Baz wants to highlight and address the institutional gaps that stop women reaching their potential in sport and beyond. 

Dr Alun WilliamsSession 5 Speaker

Alun Williams has research interests that originated in muscle physiology, nutrition, and occupational performance in the military, which then spread to the genetics underlying inter-individual variability in sport performance. He has a PhD from the University of Birmingham and works at Manchester Metropolitan University Institute of Sport where he heads sports genomics research, applying that to human performance, injury risk, and how that interfaces with eligibility criteria for sex categories in sport.

Alun also has honorary positions at Swansea University and University College London. He has recently authored Expert Statements for the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) on scientific aspects of the eligibility criteria for trans and DSD athletes in sport. He served as an Independent Expert Witness at CAS in 2019. He has published over 100 research articles on sport science and medicine (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alun-Williams-5). He also used to play semi-professional rugby union and now blames his very average genetics for not making a career out of it.