BIOGRAPHY

Professor Jo Maher | CEO & Founder, JMSA 

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Jo Maher is the CEO & Founder of JMSA and a nationally recognised leader in high‑performance sport, women’s sport policy, and sector innovation. She is the former Pro‑Vice Chancellor for Sport at Loughborough University and Professor of Practice in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences. Jo serves on the FA Council and National Game Board, chairs the FA Development Committee, and is an independent expert on the DCMS Board for Women’s Sport.

 

Across a 17‑year career in Further Education – including seven years as Principal & CEO at Boston College and Loughborough College – Jo delivered over £50m in capital programmes and supported partnerships with 15 national governing bodies, enabling pathways for more than 2,000 elite athletes annually. She launched Loughborough’s £2m+ Women in Sport Research & Innovation Hub with Vitality, now a Flagship Institute addressing the global research gap where 94% of studies exclude female athletes. Under Ministerial Direction, she also led world‑first reforms to female athlete insurance, securing landmark changes to miscarriage cover and driving wider policy shifts across the industry.

 

Jo negotiated the relocation of the NFL Academy to Loughborough, delivered £18.5m+ of capital and performance innovation projects with UK Sport and multiple Olympic and Paralympic NGBs, and co‑created the £15m East Midlands Institute of Technology. A qualified teacher, assessor, former Chartered Scientist and internationally published academic, she specialises in professional competence in sport psychology and has supported high‑performance environments in professional football and Olympic‑level sport.