Dr Ben Sanders is the Executive Director of the International Platform on Sport and Development (sportanddev). He leads the operating team and accounts to the sportanddev Steering Board who appointed him as Executive Director to sustain, strengthen and scale the reach and impact of sportanddev.
Born in Zimbabwe and bred in Cape Town, South Africa, Ben's passion and expertise is in sport for development and peace. He has supported sportanddev for over 6 years, and has worked locally and globally including with the United Nations, Commonwealth Secretariat and South African state. He has public and private sector leadership experience with expertise in strategy, fundraising, partnership development, monitoring & evaluation, research, policy and programme management. He completed the first PhD by publication in Sport for Development in Africa and has published and presented widely.
"Ben offers the unusual combination of extensive practical experience in delivering sport for development programmes and in-depth academic reflection. He exhibits Gramsci’s advice to radicals – to combine optimism of the will with pessimism (or at least scepticism) of the intellect. Such informed reflection makes for good practice and informed theory." (Professor Fred Coalter, Visiting Professor at Free University of Brussels and Leeds Beckett University)
