Andy Devaney
The new ukactive CEO will not be walking into a sleepy corner office with a fern and a filing cabinet. Cameron Saunders arrives at a time when the UK physical activity sector is trying to make a louder, sharper case for itself — to government, to business and to a public that knows exercise matters but is not always given the easiest route to it. In that sense, ukactive has not hired a caretaker. It has hired a builder.
Saunders joins the trade body in April, replacing Huw Edwards, who announced last October that he would step down after six years in the role. It is a significant appointment for an organisation that sits at the crossroads of fitness, public health, leisure, wellbeing and policy, and one that now seems intent on broadening both its influence and its confidence.
A leadership hire with a different shape
There is no traditional fitness-sector ladder in Saunders’ background, and that is precisely what makes the move interesting.
He brings more than 20 years of senior leadership experience across entertainment, media and public-interest organisations — a career built not merely on running big operations, but on getting large, competitive personalities to sit in the same room without throwing cutlery. That skill alone has its uses in any trade body worth the name.
At 20th Century Fox UK, Saunders served as Managing Director and led the company’s commercial growth while building what is described as a high-performance culture. He also sat on the Board of Cinema First, the film industry’s UK trade body, where he helped align cinema operators and film studios around shared priorities. In other words, he has previous form when it comes to bringing an industry together and turning lofty talk into practical outcomes.
That matters for ukactive. The physical activity sector has never lacked passion, but like many sectors with a public good at its heart, it has sometimes needed a clearer commercial voice and a more coordinated way of pressing its case.
David Stalker, Chair of ukactive, said: “I am delighted to welcome Cameron to ukactive. His leadership record and his experience bringing an industry together will help us to build on our work to improve our services and grow our sector’s impact.
“Cameron joins ukactive at an important time for our sector’s future and I look forward to working with him and our members to capitalise on the clear opportunities we have to get more people active across the UK.”
Why ukactive has looked beyond the usual playbook
Saunders’ CV is not short of heavyweight names. He has held senior positions at Sky, Paramount, Showmax Africa and Channel 4, and also served as Group Strategy Director at the advertising agency Engine.
That is a serious mix of brand-building, audience growth and commercial strategy. It suggests ukactive has gone looking for a chief executive who understands not only how to lead an organisation, but how to sharpen its message in a crowded marketplace.
That feels relevant now.
The physical activity sector is no longer just talking to itself. It is speaking into debates around NHS pressure, workplace productivity, community health, mental wellbeing and economic growth. Any new ukactive CEO must be able to carry those arguments beyond gym floors and leisure centres. Saunders appears to have been hired with exactly that in mind.
A credible voice on wellbeing, not just business
There is another part of his background that gives the appointment a little more substance than a standard boardroom reshuffle.
Alongside his commercial career, Saunders served as Chair of The Film & TV Charity, where he led industry-wide action on mental health and wellbeing. That included commissioning major research into workforce mental health and building cross-sector coalitions around shared standards.
That matters because the modern physical activity conversation is no longer just about sport, weight loss or treadmills lined up like obedient soldiers. It is about prevention, resilience, mental health, quality of life and the role movement plays in keeping a country functioning more sensibly than it often does.
Saunders seems to understand that broader picture.
He said: “Physical activity is one of the most powerful and most underinvested tools we have for improving national health, productivity and wellbeing – and ukactive is uniquely placed to make that case.
“With unparalleled access to expertise across the sector, there’s a real opportunity for ukactive to act as a trusted convenor, catalyst and national voice – raising its influence, relevance and impact with members, government and the public alike.
“I can’t wait to use my experience to drive forward ukactive’s mission. Together we can get more people more active, more often — and having more fun doing so.”
Not just a boardroom man in running shoes
It also helps that Saunders is not talking about physical activity as an abstract policy instrument.
He is an avid runner who traces his inspiration back to working on the re-release of Chariots of Fire during the London 2012 celebrations. Since then, he has become an endurance runner, raised more than £200,000 for charity and built a community on Instagram around that journey.
That may sound like a small detail in a leadership announcement, but it is not. In the health and fitness industry, authenticity still counts. A ukactive CEO does not need to be a gym evangelist or some Lycra-clad prophet of dawn boot camps, but it helps if the person in charge knows the difference between promoting movement and merely marketing it.
Saunders appears to do.
What this means for the physical activity sector
This appointment lands at an important time for ukactive and for the wider UK fitness industry.
The sector has long argued that it provides more than places to train. It supports healthier communities, eases pressure on public services, creates jobs, improves mental wellbeing and gives people a fighting chance of living better for longer. The challenge has always been making that case with enough force, unity and credibility to influence policy and investment.
That is now Saunders’ task.
His background suggests he is comfortable with scale, with messaging and with the difficult art of coalition-building. If he can translate those skills into the physical activity sector, ukactive may find itself with a stronger national profile and a clearer voice in the rooms that matter.
The hiring of Cameron Saunders is, then, more than a personnel update. It is a statement about where ukactive believes the sector is headed next: broader influence, tougher advocacy and a more persuasive case for movement as one of the country’s most valuable assets.
That is a sizeable brief. But then again, nobody appoints a new ukactive CEO for a gentle jog around the park.
