There’s more to Terry Collier than meets the eye, writes Brian Cook. These are the bare facts. He's 51 (in 2001), married to Lesley and has two sons, Miles, aged 29, and Drew, 28. He lives on the Herts/Essex border, close to Stansted Airport, so it's quite a drive to the office.
In recent years he has managed Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre, providing training facilities and residential services to a client base that included our national football, rugby, tennis, hockey, weightfting, judo and rowing squads. He has also managed the National Hockey Stadium in Milton Keynes, which is one of the country's most modem sports facilities.
He comes to the job of general manager of EBU impressed with the existing setup and eager to take it forward to give the best possible service to members. But let us look past that friendly business smile. You might feel it worth knowing that Terry is not a man to be pushed around, although quite a few people have had a go. Terry has been practising the martial arts of judo, aikido and kendo for some 40 years and holds international ranking and teaching awards.
Hopefully the passing years have made him a gentler giant, because he freely admits he now enjoys the after training pint much more than the pull-around. In any case these days he is putting most of his free time into studying for an Open University degree.
Terry is largely a man of art and sport. Immediately before his current appointment Terry was general manager of the Amateur Boxing Association, where he resolved many issues relating to the association's ability to receive grant aid funding. In particular he helped to secure a grant of £13.5 million from the World Class Performance branch of the National Lottery Sports Fund, as well as increased exchequer funding via Sport England.
But to bridge, which our new general manager confesses he does not play- yet! Of his first impressions he has this to say: "I am pleased that I have taken over an operation that would be the envy of any of the governing bodies of amateur sport - an organisation that effectively blends its commercial activities with its membership services and self funds its development activities rather than relying on the public purse."
He studied art and design prior to joining. an international art publisher and from there moved into marketing and then leisure management, initially via the arts and later encompassing tourism and sport. "I look forward to leading the enthusiastic team at Aylesbury and to improving our services to the widest possible membership base."