Andy has worked for youth organisations for significant parts of his career, providing accommodation and support to vulnerable young adults. More recently he was Chair of YMCA St. Pauls Group for seven years and led them through mergers and acquisitions to become the largest YMCA group in Europe. His career has included working for a large housing association in East London, as a CEO for a charity and as a trained mentor and coach.
Andy has had many voluntary roles, from chairing several Boards of trustees to supporting carers and working in a call centre for families in crisis. Over the years he has acquired significant senior leadership and management experience that includes designing strategies, leading complex change management processes, and building inclusive, multicultural teams of over 150 staff.
He started rowing from Ahoy in a Thames Waterman Cutter in 2014 and has loved every opportunity to row since then, including in the Great River Race. He was invited by the Ahoy Board to become a trustee in 2019 before stepping down 18 months later to take up a position as Director of Ahoy. Andy says: "Ahoy brings together my leadership and management experience, my support for the Ahoy ethos to provide opportunities to young adults and my love of rowing, it is an absolute privilege to observe how well our instructors teach young adults to gain River Thames water-based qualifications".
Nick has been working in the water sports industry for over 20 years and has had the privilege of working in some amazing locations, including Grease and Egypt. Nick grew up on the Isle of Wight, which is widely considered to be the home of sailing. Nick's passion started with sailing when he was 9 years old. This quickly led to more than a passion, and at the age of 16, Nick trained to become a Dinghy and windsurfing instructor at UKSA. As part of the course, he went to Australia to learn to windsurf. As you can imagine this was such an amazing opportunity at the age of just 16. Teaching within the watersports industry quickly became his desired profession.
Since then Nick has gone on to set up centres abroad. He worked as a lead watersports instructor at UKSA before moving to London. There he worked at Wimbledon Park Watersport Centre as the principal. Currently, he is working as the watersports manager at Ahoy. During his time at Ahoy, Nick has been involved in developing both the watersports programmes and further educational courses. He is heavily involved in the operational side of the charity and enjoys working alongside the RYA to enrich people's lives in the maritime industry.
“Sharing my love of watersports with others is why I do this. It made such a change to my life. I want to be able to give others the same chance I had growing up’’
