Humphrey Cobbold is non-executive chair of PureGym Group, having handed over the role of CEO of PureGym to Clive Chesser on 1 January 2025.
He joined the company in January 2015 and oversaw rapid growth and international expansion which took the business from 84 gyms in the UK (@ January 2015) to more than 650 today across the UK, Denmark, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia and the US.
As well as guiding more than 300 organic new site openings, Cobbold oversaw the group's acquisition of LA Fitness in 2015, Soho Gyms in 2018, Fitness World in 2020, and Blink Fitness in 2024. He also managed the sale of the business from CCMP to Leonard Green Partners in 2017 (valuing PureGym at more than £600m) and secured £300m investment from KKR in 2021 to support expansion.
He was previously CEO of Wiggle Ltd, the online retailer of cycling and triathlon-related products, which he led while growing revenue from £30 million to over £170 million over four years from 2009 to 2013.
Cobbold has extensive experience gained through former roles, which include director of strategic development and an executive committee member of Trinity Mirror (now Reach Plc – the UK's largest newspaper publisher); investment director at Candover Partners (European PE Investment Firm); and as co-head of the UK media and corporate finance practices for McKinsey, where he worked for 15 years.
He has lived and worked in the UK, New Zealand, France, Spain and South Africa, as well as having experience in the US, across Europe and in Latin America. He speaks French reasonably fluently and Spanish badly.
Cobbold holds an MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University where he was a senior scholar and an MBA with Distinction from Insead Business School.
Having been a keen sportsman, he still exercises and cycles regularly and keeps as fit as he can in body and mind. He has been married for more than 30 years and has three grown up children.
Expertise:Tactical business expansion and leadership
As CEO of David Lloyd Leisure, Russell Barnes leads one of Europe's premium health and wellness groups, bringing extensive experience in driving growth and innovation in the leisure and entertainment sectors.
Before joining the company in 2015, Barnes held senior leadership roles at Merlin Entertainments, overseeing international developments for brands including Madame Tussauds, Sea Life, and Legoland Discovery Centres.
He now leads David Lloyd Leisure on its mission to help members live life better, with a focus on physical and mental wellbeing and a sense of belonging. With 134 clubs in the UK and Europe, the company was recognised last year as one of the Sunday Times Best Places to Work for the second consecutive year.
When he's not working, he has a passion for cars, classic rock music and cheering on Crystal Palace.
Expertise: Growth and innovation
Anna Bjurstam has been a leader in the wellness industry for 35 years.
Starting her career in fitness in the late 80s, she became a Nike sponsored aerobic instructor, venturing into spinning and personal training in the early 90s.
From 1997 she was part of the leadership team developing the SATS fitness chain in Sweden and has since continued working in fitness clubs, as well as adding all facets of wellness to her skillset.
Today, her experience spans a variety of wellness fields.
She has a master's degree in finance and a passion for quantum physics and science, as well as a biogeometry diploma and female health diploma. She is also an experienced shaman.
Bjurstam sold Raison d'Etre in 2013 and today is strategic advisor and wellness pioneer for Six Senses and Raison d'Etre, as well as working as an independent consultant, investor, serial entrepreneur.
She sits on a number of boards, including the Global Wellness Summit advisory board.
Expertise: New concept development, investment
Greg Oliver was appointed CEO and MD of Fitness and Lifestyle Group (FLG) at its inception in 2016, having been CEO of Goodlife Health Clubs since 2010.
In his 40 plus-year fitness career, Greg has owned and managed multi-club chains and corporate health businesses, contributing significant M&A and strategic expertise.
He also founded Debit Success, one of Australia and New Zealand's largest membership billing and software services.
FLG operates in four countries, has five gym brands under its umbrella – Fitness First Australia, Goodlife Health Clubs, Jetts Fitness New Zealand and Thailand, Zap Fitness and Barry's, with a total of around 320 locations – as well as digital fitness brand Emily Sky Fit.
The combined health club business has more than 585,000 members who do around 60 million workouts a year. It also employs around 6,000 people.
Oliver's current board positions include Fitness and Lifestyle Group and all its subsidiaries.
Expertise: Strategy, M&A
Martin Seibold is a health and fitness industry expert with more than 20 years' experience in senior roles in Germany, UK, Benelux, Asia and Australia.
After being part of the management team building Fitness First in Germany, Seibold moved to the UK in 2006 where he supported the restructure of Fitness First UK, moving into global roles thereafter in various operationally-focussed functions.
He went on to drive the repositioning of Fitness First UK (2013-17) and Germany (2017- to date) as CEO, by investing in people, simplifying processes, modernising the product, nurturing community factor and renovating clubs.
These strategic moves lifted the companies to new levels under his leadership enabling further growth.
Over the last four years he and his team have built LifeFit Group into a multi-brand organisation by acquiring various best in class gym chains and the rights to leading boutique fitness brands.
They successfully led the company through the COVID-19 crisis, rebuilding revenues fast and increasing the portfolio through mergers and acquisitions.
In summer 2024 Seibold led the sale of the group by Oaktree Capital Management to Waterland Private Equity Investments and a 'build and buy' strategy is now in place with multiple deals underway to grow the business.
Expertise: Business transformation and growth
Rebecca Passmore joined PureGym in October 2017 as UK operations director and is now group chief operating officer. She leads PureGym's UK, Danish and Swiss businesses.
Passmore is an experienced leader with over 20 years' in retail and leisure across food, general merchandise, DIY and now fitness. She joined PureGym directly from Wickes where she held the role of store operations director. Prior to Wickes, she held various senior roles in Asda, TKMaxx and Aldi.
Passmore completed an Executive MBA at Harvard Business School and has a degree in Business Management from the University of Nottingham.
Expertise: Operational excellence
Juan del Río is the CEO of Iberian fitness operator, VivaGym Group.
He has a background in international business spanning a number of sectors, including health, food, leisure and fitness and worked in Colombia and Chile before joining VivaGym.
del Río has a background in business administration and economics from Richmond, The American International University in London.
He also holds an MBA from SDA Bocconi and a Diploma in Corporate Finance from London Business School and a Post Graduate Diploma in Entrepreneurship from the University of Cambridge.
His career path led him to Colombia, where he became CEO of Telepizza, growing it from 65 to 110 restaurants in just over two years.
He was then headhunted to become CEO of BodyTech, the largest fitness chain in Chile, Peru, and Colombia.
He joined VivaGym as CEO in September 2016, with the mandate to strengthen the culture of the business and accelerate growth.
He has overseen significant expansion, including acquisitions like Fitness Hut in Portugal and Duet Fit in Barcelona.
He has also navigated the company through the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on maintenance and patience during a challenging period.
VivaGym Group was acquired by Providence Equity Partners in June 2024.
Expertise: M&A, growth, company culture, operational efficiencies
The UK's most famous Angela started her journalism career aged 17, as a young reporter on Devon newspaper, Western Morning News, before moving to radio and television, presenting the news on BBC South West. She became the first female to be given a permanent role presenting national news in 1975, when she joined the BBC's Nine O'Clock News.
Having earned a reputation for being a serious newsreader, she took the nation by surprise in 1976 when she joined comedians Morecombe and Wise on their TV Christmas Show for some iconic high kicks during a dance routine.
During the course of her career she has presented a wide range of TV programmes, including Top Gear, Come Dancing, the Eurovision Song Contest, TV-am, The One Show and Rip-Off Britain.
In 2023 she progressed to week nine of the BBC's dance competition, Strictly Come Dancing – at the age of 79 – with dance partner, Kai Widdrington, who is working with her on Let's Dance! – and delighted the nation by performing the splits with ease.
Expertise: Media, dance and health
Marc Magliacano is a Managing Partner for L Catterton, the largest dedicated consumer private equity firm in the world, with 17 offices and over US$35 billion under management.
As a Managing Partner in the firm's flagship buyout fund, Magliacano has led investments in the health, wellness and related sectors since 2006.
He sits on the L Catterton senior leadership council, as well as being a permanent member of the firm's investment committee and has led many of the fund's health and wellness investments, including Peloton, Thorne, Xponential Fitness, Equinox, CorePowerYoga, Pure Barre, iFIT/NordicTrack, Classpass, EGYM and OneSpaWorld, among others.
Prior to joining L Catterton, Magliacano was a senior investment professional at North Castle Partners, a private equity firm focused on consumer investments that benefit from healthy living and ageing trends.
During his eight years at North Castle, he led investments in the consumer healthcare, nutrition and wellness and fitness sectors.
Magliacano received a BS in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business with dual degrees in finance and operations and information management and has an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Expertise: Driving growth through strategic investment and sector expertise
Sophie Lawler was appointed CEO of Total Fitness in June 2018, bringing 25 years' industry experience to the company where she began her fitness journey in 2001.
Lawler is known for her people-powered approach and passion for leadership, going so far as to deliver Total Fitness' leadership programme personally to all levels of the business.
Since 2020, she has also stepped into a more public role, highlighting the essential nature of the sector through 300 media appearances across broadcast, print and digital, including nationally on BBC Breakfast, BBC News, Sky Business and Bloomberg, reaching audiences of over 900 million people.
Lawler is dedicated to her purpose – to "build a business big enough to hold the potential of the team" and has overseen 25 per cent growth in the company's core health club membership base since the start of FY22, which has underpinned revenue growth of 34 per cent over the same period.
She has received national recognition for her success in transforming Total Fitness, with a string of accolades since 2020, including being an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist 2025.
Expertise: Company culture and growth
Oli Patrick is co-founder of fitness education business Future Practice, wellbeing director of medical business Latus Health and Clinical Director of luxury hotel business, Pillar Wellbeing.
A physiologist and health assessment expert, focussed on the measurable health and performance outputs of lifestyle, he consults on wellbeing strategy directly with organisations globally, including Nike, League Managers' Association, PureGym and UK Coaching.
In his earlier career Patrick formed the largest team of physiologists and nutritionists in the UK as head of physiology at Nuffield Health, before co-founding Viavi, the world's most advanced health assessment clinic on London's Harley Street.
At Nuffield, Patrick designed and delivered some of the largest corporate wellbeing initiatives across the UK.
He is host of the popular Energy Equation Podcast from High Performance, where he uses advanced heart rate variability technology to run personalised stress, sleep, and fitness assessments on well-known guests.
Expertise: Designing life-changing wellness interventions
As well as being CEO of GLL, Peter Bundey is chair of the GLL Sport Foundation, the UK's largest independent athlete support programme.
He's worked in the sport, leisure and culture sector for more than 35 years and has been with GLL for over 25 years.
Bundey has been involved with a range of high-profile national and international projects, such as international sport projects, policy reviews, organisational development, performance planning and facility management.
He has presented industry evidence to UK Parliamentary Select Committees at the House of Commons on two occasions, during sessions on the Olympic and Paralympic Games and Social Enterprise within the public sector.
Bundey has also supported the British Olympic Association with training camp preparations in Brazil and given expert advice on Olympic and Paralympic legacy in Tokyo to the National Diet of Japan Session on Olympic Legacy, as well as presenting to the Japan National Sport Council and Tokyo City Government.
Previously, he was chair of the Pro-Active East London Sports Board (CSP), honorary industrial advisor to London Metropolitan University, national council member of Social Enterprise UK and a national assessor for Sport England's National Management Awards.
Expertise: Public sector leisure trusts and Olympic legacy
Neil Randall is CEO of Urban Gym Group, a leading operator with 50+ clubs and studios, including its core brands, TrainMore and Gymbox.
He joined the company in November 2022, bringing with him a wealth of experience in the fitness industry.
Prior to this, Randall held several senior leadership positions, serving as COO and CEO of Anytime Fitness UK, where he was focused on the brand's rapid growth and expansion.
Before that, he worked as COO at Go Mammoth, a social sports organisation.
Randall's career began as a professional cricketer, an experience that has shaped his leadership style. He is recognised for his strong focus on teamwork, people development, and his ability to inspire and coach teams.
Under his leadership, Urban Gym Group has expanded significantly, including the acquisition of Gymbox in London in October 2024, further strengthening its market presence.
Expertise: Growth, operational excellence and franchising
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