Aspire Sports Trust is a registered charity that transforms lives through physical activity and sport.

In particular, we focus on improving the health, well-being, life skills and education of children and young people. We operate in the UK and Africa.

Our Objectives

Aspire Sports Trust develop and deliver physical activity and sport focused projects that:

Our Board of Trustees

Mike Gowen

Mike has been a trustee since he was approached about the exciting prospect of starting a charity which would transform young people’s lives through physical activity. He was voted in as Vice-Chairman for the first 18 months as the charity was being established and was appointed Chairman in May 2015. Mike is also a Sales Leader working in Information Technology who is passionate about growing sales people in a collaborative sales environment. The trust’s values, vision and mission really tap into Mike’s innate love for all sports both from a recreational perspective, but also as a Sport and Exercise Sciences graduate. As a proud father of two, Mike really believes that sport can be an invaluable part in helping young people develop and is enthusiastic about growing the charity over the coming years.

Paul Griffiths

Paul is an energetic and forward thinking person who became involved in the third sector due to his desire to have a positive influence on people’s lives. This, combined with his passion for sport and education resulted in him becoming a founding Trustee of Aspire Sports Trust. His skills are in business development, strategy and growth where he has a decade of business ownership experience . Paul played an integral part in forming what is now a key project for Aspire Sports Trust, Aspire to Africa which has raised tens of thousands of pounds worth of direct support to children, young people and schools in Tanzania. No surprise that Paul is a fan of all sports and when time (and family) allows, he plays cricket and is a keen golfer and runner.

James Trowman

James is currently the groups’ Director of Organisation Development and was one of the founder partners who established Aspire Sports in 2005.  His passion for using sport and physical activity to have a positive impact on peoples’ lives led to him becoming the secretary at the incorporation of the Trust.   Away from work James continues to participate in a range of sports and is actively involved with a number of local clubs.

David Ramsden

David has been a Trustee at Aspire since November 2014.  He is also Head of Structured Finance for the RBS Group in the Midlands and East of England, leading a team of 20 helping businesses in the region grow through acquisition and expansion funding.  David has three children and outside work loves anything associated with sports, fitness and travel.  

Baljit Kular

Baljit joined in June 2015. She is a primary school teacher and the English Coordinator at Nishkam Primary School, Handsworth; a multi-faith free school a part of the Nishkam School Trust.

She is truly passionate about wanting to raise the hopes and aspirations for all children, making available not just an excellent education, but building towards a compassionate, responsible new generation. 

John Charlton

John joined in April 2018.

John has over 16 years experience working within the IT sector, both for large enterprises and the SME market. He is director of an IT consultancy as well as a creative media business. Having worked with Aspire for the last 7 years he has seen first hand the impact that sport and health has on children and young people and joined the charity to help develop the systems and processes to support the growth of the charity and help reach more families and children involved in the programmes.

Michael Stead

Michael has been a trustee as Aspire since early 2017. He is a qualified solicitor specialising in commercial, IT and outsourcing contracts. Michael also works with start-up companies in technology and media sectors assisting them with aspects of company and commercial law.

Michael is married and lives with his wife in Birmingham. He enjoys swimming, football and is passionate about working with the Aspire Sports Trust to use sport and physical activity to the improve the lives of families and young people.

Our Ambassador

The Birmingham born star started playing cricket at the age of 7 at Aston Manor Cricket Club and then moved to Walmley Cricket Club at the age of 14. By the age of 18 he had played for Herefordshire as well as Warwickshire 2XI.

Chris made his mark at Warwickshire where he became a regular for the First XI in 2008. He topped Warwickshire’s bowling averages by taking 42 wickets at an average of 20.57 for the course of the County championship season.

In 2009 he was selected to play for the England Lions and made his International England Twenty20 debut on 12 January 2011 against Australia. Chris scored the winning runs as England won off the last ball with just one wicket left and one run required.

Chris is a dedicated young sportsman and a true professional. Not many people know that he was offered schoolboy terms at Walsall FC and turned it down to focus on cricket! 

Chris is a genuine inspiration to many children and young people and we are proud to have him as one of our Ambassadors.