We are incredibly lucky to have a truly talented team of fantastic staff and volunteers who help make our association the success it is.

Our roots as a community led organisation still run deep, with a large proportion of technical decisions being reached by our voluntary lead committee team and trustees. We’re a living wage employer, and our staff are vetted to the highest standards. Not only are they capable professionals, we ensure they’re also superb, kind people too.

We’re one of the only martial arts associations in the country with a dedicated staff team and offices.

We’re one of the only association’s in the country to have a dedicated office and full time staff.

This helps us offer a professional service to the many thousands of members who use BMABA as their national body.

Meet Our Team

Giovanni Soffietto

Founder & CEO

Giovanni is the award winning social entrepreneur behind both the British Martial Arts & Boxing Association (BMABA) and the Fighting Chance Charitable Foundation. Born into a life of poverty and starting the association with just £20 of capital, he is a living example of how martial arts can offer the opportunity to break free of poverty.

Giovanni has more than two decades of experience in martial arts as a participant, instructor and fighter. He’s also a tenacious (and now award winning) social entrepreneur, having established the BMABA Group of Social Enterprises, MartialHost and #MartialArtsDoneRight among others.

See Giovanni's Story

Sarah Shelton-Agar

Head Of Strategy & Charity

Sarah is one of the main faces behind the Fighting Chance Foundation. Her experience of working with high net-worth individuals combined with a superb acumen for building relationships and commercial activities make a superb fit for overseeing the day to day and longer term strategic development of the Foundation’s key charitable aims.

Sarah now works exclusively within the Foundation as the Chief Operations Officer, and oversees all day to day activity and support offered.

Niki Badenoch-Smith

BMABA Chief Operation Officer (COO)

To effectively operate as an association requires the management of huge amounts of data, instructors, clubs and participants across multiple channels. This responsibility primarily rests with the association’s core Operations Team. Niki joined the team as one of our first employees and now heads up the entire Operations Team for the BMABA. She is an intricate part of ensuring the memberships and insurances we deliver are available, set up promptly and professionally serviced. Without Niki and her team, BMABA wouldn’t be able to grow at the ferocious rate we’ve enjoyed over the past few years.

Kirsty Hawkins

Head Of Executive Operations

Kirsty is one of our longest serving members of the team and now plays a crucial role in running the BMABA’s Executive Operations. Kirsty graduated from Bournemouth University with a 1st Class Degree in Leisure Marketing and plays a key role in guiding our media and PR positioning as well as the wider development the association’s core operational model.

As part of the Executive team she is also key to a number of strategic level decisions working closely with Giovanni on matters of commercial and financial longevity.

Isabella Dickinson

Customer Services & Foundation Support

Izzy joined the BMABA team to work in a hybrid role between the core BMABA Operations and Customer Services team, assisting with all manor of day to day membership services alongside a new role, assisting the fledgling Fighting Chance Foundation, find its feet. Izzy’s work with the Foundation will include Research, Grant Applications, Awareness Campaigns and Social Media Management, among other duties.

Catherine Jenner

Operations Support

Cat has joined the core BMABA operations team in a critical role, assisting in student and instructor licencing alongside dispatch management and membership services. Cat works closely with Niki to oversee all day to day club management matters.

Victoria Munford

Customer Services

Victoria has joined BMABA to help us continue providing ‘best in class’ customer services for both our current and new members. Victoria assists Operations and Strategic in ensuring all of our clients have access to the best possible membership support services, as well as helping our new and joining applicants with queries and enquiries across all of our lines of enquiry.

Alice Henrietta

Social Media & Digital Media

Alice has joined our team straight from University to help ensure BMABA offers the best presence possible across social media and other digital communication channels. Alice is also assisting Strategic Operations and our Operations Lead in ensuring the most efficient possible turnaround for membership provisions and services by expanding our reach and channels within social media marketing and social media communications.

Takuma Yarwood

Operations Administration

Takuma joined our team in October of 2021 to help bolster our ever-growing workflow and increasing enquiries. Tak specialises in the on-boarding of instructors and new applicants alongside operational workflows. He’s also responsible for overseeing most of the day to day DBS checks ran by BMABA.

Catherine Myers

Finance

Catherine works closely with Giovanni and our Executive team to manage the association’s financial day to day running. This includes payroll and accounting, working closely with our accountant. Catherine is a valued part of the BMABA operation.

Our Committee & Voluntary Assembly

We would also like to also thank all of our extended team, including Anna and Tim who both work closely as trustees, alongside Aimee, Liam, Chris in Digital and our other contributors within the community and on payroll who help BMABA grow and thrive.

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