Bloomsbury Football

About

Founded in 2018, Bloomsbury Football is a community‑focused organisation dedicated to making football accessible and affordable for every young person in London. Since its first session in Camden Town, it has grown significantly and now delivers weekly sessions across 8 boroughs, supporting more than 5,500 boys and girls. Its financial support model, offering 25% to 100% assistance, removes barriers and enables young people to lead healthier, happier lives through football.

The Brief

Prospectus supported Bloomsbury Football in recruiting two senior leadership roles central to its next phase of growth: a Director of Marketing and Growth to lead brand, marketing and commercial strategy as the organisation moves towards its ambitious goal of reaching 20,000 young people per week by 2028, and a Director of Programmes to oversee safe, consistent and high‑quality football provision across London.

Our Approach

To ensure a diverse and capable field, we considered candidates from the charity and social impact sectors as well as commercial settings including professional sports franchises, global sports brands and sports technology companies. This broadened the expertise available to Bloomsbury Football, combining mission‑driven leadership with commercial growth experience.

Drawing on our networks across both sectors, we built a competitive pool that produced strong shortlists. A total of 8 candidates were interviewed for the Programmes role and 9 for the Marketing and Growth role, from more than 150 applicants for each post. This made cultural alignment, values and long‑term suitability central to identifying leaders who could support Bloomsbury Football’s continued growth. The entire process from initial briefing to decision and offer took just under 3 months for both roles.

The Outcome

James Bennett was appointed Director of Marketing and Growth, bringing more than 20 years of experience driving brand performance for global media and technology organisations. With senior roles at Meta, Instagram and Microsoft, he now applies his expertise in scaling brands and leading high‑performing teams to support Bloomsbury Football’s ambitions.

Teresa Wolverton was appointed Director of Programmes, bringing extensive experience delivering large‑scale social impact initiatives in complex international environments. Having held senior roles at Sesame Workshop, UNICEF and UNDP, she brings strong operational leadership, safeguarding expertise and a commitment to effective, impactful delivery as Bloomsbury Football expands across London.

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