Nigel Walker OBE appointed Interim Basketball England CEO

By Sam Neter on June 26, 2025

Basketball England has announced the the appointment of Nigel Walker OBE as Interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO), set to start on Monday 30th June.

A former international athlete and rugby player, Walker has held roles at Welsh Rugby Union as Executive Director of Rugby, acting CEO and Performance Director, spent 11 years as National Director of the English Institute of Sport (now UK Sports Institute) and enjoyed a 10-year career at BBC Wales as Head of Sport, among other roles.

He will fill the role for up to six months as BE undertakes “a full, open and transparent recruitment process” to identify the right person to take on the position permanently.

“I am delighted to join Basketball England on an interim basis and to have the opportunity to work with the organisation’s excellent staff and our partners,” Walker said.

“Over the next six months I will focus my efforts on ensuring we deliver our strategy with a particular emphasis on growing the membership, improving the service we provide to our existing members and nurturing our most talented players.”

Basketball England Chair Paul Blanchard added:

“It is my great pleasure to welcome Nigel to the organisation as we look forward to a new season. It is a real coup for the organisation to have him join us on an interim basis.

“His focus will be on growing our membership base and ensuring that we service our community better as well as improving standards across the game and ensuring our sport continues as the most diverse and inclusive in the UK. He is a highly talented and respected figure in sport, and I am confident he will serve the us and basketball well as we start the search for someone to take on the role for the longer term.”

Walker also served on the UK Sport board for four years (2006-2010) and was a member of the Commonwealth Games England Board (2015-2022). In addition, he held independent roles with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and was on the Birmingham 2022 Operations Board.

His appointment follows the departure of Stewart Kellett from BE last week.

Do you like our work?

We have a tiny favour to ask. In 2018 we set out to make Hoopsfix sustainable by building our relationship directly with our readers. Up until now, Hoopsfix has been creating editorials, videos and podcasts to provide sorely missing coverage of the British game and its distinct culture and community.

We have funded Hoopsfix with our freelance work creating basketball media, but sadly that means not only does it fall behind our client’s priorities, but some of those clients are the same organisations we need to report objectively on putting us in a conflicted position.

We want to devote more time to our mission of helping British basketball reach its potential, and produce even more content for the basketball community by making Hoopsfix a sustainable 100% independent business funded directly by our readers through Patreon.

If everyone who enjoys our content chose to support us, our future would be much more secure. For as little as $3 per month, you can support Hoopsfix – and it only takes a minute.

We are tremendously honoured and humbled to have a community of people who value what we do, and we look forward to being at the forefront of the British game as it continues to evolve.

Support Hoopsfix