Members 2022-2026

The IWG Global Executive currently has 12 members.

Annamarie Phelps, CBE OLY

Co-Chair – United Kingdom

Location: London, United Kingdom

Annamarie is Vice Chair of the British Olympic Association and President of European Rowing. She is an advocate for safe and inclusive sport for all and formerly Chair of British Rowing, the British Horseracing Authority and Vice Chair of the British Paralympic Association, where she helped steer all organisations through considerable change in structure and governance. Annamarie is a member of the ExCo of the European Olympic Committees where she chairs the Gender Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Commission as well as being a member of the IOC and ANOC GEDI commissions. 

Annamarie has a particular interest in safeguarding and well-being; she chaired the Cycling Independent Review Panel into the culture and climate of British Cycling’s high-performance programmes and supported the DCMS ‘Duty of Care Report’, 2017. She is an Associate Consultant to Safe Sport International and serves on the Governance and Safeguarding working groups for World Rowing and the Legal and Ethics Panel of the IPC. Annamarie is a former World Champion in Rowing and represented GB in Women’s eights at Atlanta Olympic Games 1996.

Raewyn Lovett, ONZM

Co-Chair – New Zealand

Location: Auckland, New Zealand

One of New Zealand’s leading sports administrators, Raewyn Lovett holds significant positions within numerous organisations. She has extensive experience in sporting governance, having Chaired New Zealand Netball for 7 years, Chaired the Trans-Tasman Netball League for 4 years and Chaired Aktive – Auckland Sport & Recreation for 5 years. Raewyn is currently Co-Chair of the International Working Group (IWG) on Women and Sport 2022-2026 and Deputy Chair of the board for Sport New Zealand. She was Co-Chair of IWG 2018 – 2022 during New Zealand’s time as host nation.

Raewyn’s other current governance roles are Chair of Quotable Value NZ Ltd and Dunedin Venues Management Ltd and trustee on the boards of Medicine Mondiale Trust and CHT Healthcare. She is also on the board of TAB NZ. Raewyn holds an LLB degree and in 2015 she became an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for her services to netball. Raewyn is a highly-regarded commercial lawyer and a partner of Duncan Cotterill.

Rosa Diketmüller, PhD, Assistant Professor

NGO Representative: International Association of Physical Education for Girls & Women (IAPESGW)

Location: Austria, Europe

University of Vienna/Austria, Department of Sport Science: Sports pedagogy & gender studies

President of IAPESGW – International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Girls and Women

Rosa studied Physical Education, Geography & Computer Science and was a teacher in schools for several years. She did her PhD in Sport Science in the area of sports geragogy. Since 2001 she is Assistant Professor at the University of Vienna, since 2019 Vice Study Program Director. Main areas in research and teaching are sport pedagogy & didactics; gender & diversity studies, and health promotion.

Since 2021 she is President of IAPESGW (founded 1949), was Vice President of the Austrian Society for Sport Science (ÖSG), board member of the Austrian Women’s Forum Physical Education and editor of its annual journal ‘Girls in Physical Education’.

In 1997 she founded the Austrian Platform Women in sports, is scientific advisor of 100%Sport (Austrian Competence Centre on Gender Equity in Sport), member of the Austrian Steering Group on Gender Equity in Sports, leader of the Working Group on ‘Gender-based violence in Sport’ and former member of the European Expert Pool on sexual violence in sport.

She was partner in European projects, like ‘CASES: Child abuse in sport’, ‘VOICE: Voices for truth and dignity’, ‘SMS – Sports – Media –Stereotypes’, ‘Gender based violence in sport’ and conducted national projects in the area of gender equity and health promotion in different settings.

Diane Huffman

NGO Representative: WomenSport International (WSI)

Location: Ontario, Canada

Diane Huffman is focused on enhancing opportunities for women in sport and has spent the past 20 years, both in her volunteer commitments and in her professional career, influencing action toward a more fair, equitable and accountable sport sector. Diane is a sport development consultant, and special advisor to the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports. She believes that increasing women’s leadership within the sport sector will be an assurance of a more safe, inclusive and equitable sport environment.

Diane’s expertise includes partnership, organisational and policy development as stepping stones toward a fair and ethical sport. She has enabled advocacy groups to challenge existing policy gaps and promote behavior to ensure the safety of youth and women.

Game Mothibi

Regional Representative: Africa

Location: Gaborone, Botswana and Tokyo, Japan

Game Mothibi led Botswana’s successful bid for the IWG Secretariat 2014-2018. Appointed IWG Secretary General, Game and her team went on to deliver the global secretariat programme and the 7th IWG World Conference 2018 in Gaborone, Botswana. Game started her advocacy for women in sport and sport development as a volunteer, working at the Botswana National Sport Council for several years before eventually becoming a board member of the National Olympic Committee. She has also served as Secretary General of Botswana Table Tennis and was the general team manager for the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games. She has broken barriers for women in sport in Botswana and has influenced key policy changes, including the UNESCO Charter on Physical Education where she advocated for the inclusion of language pertaining specifically to women and girls.

Dr. Rosaura Méndez Gamboa 

Regional Representative: Americas

Location: Costa Rica

Dr. Rosaura Méndez Gamboa is a leader of the Costa Rican University of Sport which has allowed her to hold multiple positions at the national and international levels. Since 2011, she has been part of the Executive Committee of the International Federation of University Sports (www.fisu.net), being the first Latin American woman to hold a position in the world sports organisation. She is vice president of the Federation of University Sports of Costa Rica, chairs the World Committee for Gender Equality in University Sports and represents our country in the Ibero-American Women and Sports Network attached to the Council of Ministers of Sports of Ibero-America.

Specializing in women and sports, she is particularly known for her activism in favour of equal opportunities between men and women in the world of sports. She is the first woman national road cycling champion in her career and her leadership since 2012.

Dr. Etsuko Ogasawara Ph.D

Regional Representative: Asia

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Dr. Etsuko Ogasawara is the founder and Executive Director of the Japanese Association for Women in Sport, and is a professor of sport management at Juntendo University in Tokyo. She is a leading researcher and sought after keynote speaker in the areas of job satisfaction in coaching, women and sport issues and swimming; a sport in which she has had extensive involvement, including as a member of the national coaching staff at the 1988 Olympics. Etsuko is a co-founder and executive board member of international affairs Japanese Association for Sport Management. A member of the IWG since 2000 and co-chair from 2002-2006, Etsuko’s work has been recognised internationally with the 2012 International Pathfinder Award from the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport in the USA. She was recently elected as a president of the Asian Association for Sport Management, a position she will hold until 2020.

Sallie Barker

Regional Representative: Europe

Location: Greater Guildford Area, United Kingdom

Sallie has worked in sport for over 30 years. She originally trained to be a teacher and holds an MA in Physical Education. Sallie then worked at the GB Sports Council and Sport England for 12 years before joining the Sport and Recreation Alliance in 2002, where she was the Head of Operations. Sallie retired in 2015 and is now able to use her time on her passion – volunteering and working for her community. She is Finance and Governance Director on the Board of World Lacrosse, Chair of British Blind Sport and was recently elected onto Guildford Borough Council as Deputy Mayor.  For her services to sport, Sallie was made an MBE in the 2017 New Year’s Honours list.

Carolyn Ngiraidis

Regional Representative: Oceania

Location: Republic of Palau

Carolyn D. Ngiraidis has sat on the Executive Committee of Equity Commission Oceania (ECO) since 2016, starting 2023 is the ECO representative to IWG Executive Committee. She has extensive experience as an athlete, coach, administrator and sits and held various civil society boards for telecommunication, development bank, organic farming, labor and women groups as well as currently Vice-President for Palau Softball Federation, Secretary General for Palau Baseball Softball Confederation and on the executive board of World Baseball Softball Confederation Oceania. Carolyn held the position as President of Palau Women and Sports Commission from 2009-2021, which rolled out various programs that led to improved health and physical activity. Her driving passion in sports and in all levels in her community has always been encouraging young women and girls to be self-disciplined and to challenge oneself to the many opportunities in front of them, to grow and to step up to various leadership roles.

Carolyn was educated in Hawaii, USA and has lived in Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, Guam and Honolulu. She speaks English, native Palauan and Chamorro (Spanish) and is an avid outdoor person with love for the Ocean and the environment. Palau being a matrilineal society, womens voices are strong and heard.

Lilamani De Soysa

Co-Opted Member

Location: Lausanne, Switzerland

Lilamani de Soysa’s work in the Women in Sport movement began when she was inspired after attending the IWG World Conference in Montreal in 2002. She implemented the International Table Tennis Federation’s Women’s Development Programme, which later won a Sport Accord Award and also initiated a Women and Sport Management seminar, held in Lausanne. A professional in international relations, Lilamani spoke at the International Olympic Committee world conference in Marrakech and the UN conference on sport and gender. Lilamani is a native of Sri Lanka, with Swiss dual nationality. She holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of Lausanne, speaks English, French, Sinhalese and Russian fluently, and has studied Italian, Mandarin and Japanese. After working for over four years at the Tsukuba International Academy for Sport  Studies in Japan, a legacy programme of the Japanese government for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, she is now working as an International Sport Consultant in Lausanne.

Fiona Allan, ONZM

Co-Opted Member

Location: Auckland, New Zealand

A strategic leader with more than 18 years’ experience in central and local government, and sport, Fiona Allan has recently stepped down as Chief Executive of Paralympics New Zealand (the New Zealand Paralympic Committee), a role she held for 14 years. Fiona is a passionate advocate for Para sport and remains on the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) Women in Sport Committee. She was previously Secretary General of the Oceania Paralympic Committee and Chair of the highly successful 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships in Christchurch, as well as being a member of the Global Women Network. In the 2018 Queen’s Birthday honours, Fiona was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her work as a champion of Paralympic sport. 

Louisette-Renée THOBI ETAME NDEDI

Co-Opted Member

Location: Cameroon, Central Africa

Louisette-Renée THOBI ETAME NDEDI is a staff executive of international institutions of sport and physical education. She was a top athlete. In 1992, she was at the start of the 100m hurdles event at the Barcelona Olympic Games.

She is the 7 ^th Secretary General and the first woman to hold this position in the institution’s history. Strong of her dynamism, she worked for a long time within several structures in her country of origin; in 1998, she had to coordinate sports and cultural activities at the level of the University Institute of Technology (IUT), the Faculties of Letters and Human Sciences (FLSH), then Economics and Applied Management (FSEGA). Head of the Information and Conferences Service for 6 years, she ended up Head of the National and Intra-African Cooperation service in 2006 on behalf of the University of Douala. Teacher of Physical Education and Sports, she was a national trainer within the national athletics team of Cameroon.

She returns to CONFEJES where she was for 3 years, from 2017 to 2020, Deputy Director of EPS / Sports programs. Caring for the cause of women and young girls, she will take on the responsibility of coordinator of GTCF actions (CONFEJES Working Group for the Promotion and Participation of Women and Young Girls in Youth Sport and Leisure Activities) during this same period. mandate. She represented the institution at several international meetings where her dynamism and her commitment to women’s causes were praised.