British Cycling Ventures' Darren Henry: Proving a new model for how governing bodies can be structured

0:03David Cushnan:And welcome along to the Leaders Worth Knowing podcast, the sports industry show from leaders where we talk to the people worth knowing in the business of sport this week. I am David Cushnan. On the show today, Darren Henry from British Cycling. Darren has looked after the commercial team at British Cycling since 2021 and now as managing director heads up British Cycling Ventures. This is the new commercial offshoot that British Cycling created and which got up and running at the start of the year. Part of a new structure for the governing body that, as you will hear, provides much more agility and more room for commercial innovation.

0:46David Cushnan:A really interesting, bold new model. It's a fascinating conversation about the rationale behind that new structure, what it does for British cycling as a whole, and at a time, of course, when the separation of commercial activity from sporting and governance activity within federations is very much in the news. Darren also provides an update on plans to secure strategic investment in British cycling ventures and its key IP, for example, the Tour of Britain, the women's edition of which is getting underway, and what it's like working with Andrew Umbers and the team at Oakwell Sports Advisory, who British Cycling are working with to secure that strategic investment.

1:32David Cushnan:We also talked about the potential for the Tour of Britain, the big moment looming for cycling in the UK next summer when the Tour de France Grand Depart happens, how British Cycling works with key partners like Lloyd's, and how the organisation is building and nurturing its membership model. Started, of course, as we should, by congratulating Darren, a member of this year's recently announced Leaders Under 40 class of 2026. You can see the full list on the Leaders website and we will be celebrating them all at Leaders Week London this October. So sit back and enjoy half an hour or so in the company of Darren Henry, the Managing Director at British Cycling Ventures.

2:18David Cushnan:Darren Henry, the Managing Director of British Cycling Ventures is in the studio. Darren, it's lovely to see you. You too. Good to see you. How are things and how are things as a newly anointed member of the Leaders Under 40 Class of 2026 and congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Very humbled, I suppose, to receive that award. So yes, good, lovely recognition from peers and colleagues past and present to be included in that. Fabulous. Many congratulations. We look forward to the celebrations at Leaders Week London. You are here today in the midst of a very busy summer of cycling and a very busy summer for British cycling in general.

3:05David Cushnan:New CEO just announced, Pete Bonfield, who starts in November. And lots going on. Give me your sort of overall assessment, if you would, of 2026 so far from a British cycling point of view. Yeah, it's been fantastic. Another fantastic year of significant growth. I think we've been on a, it's probably worth me kind of couching that in the context of our commercial and organizational transformation that we've been on. So we kind of go back to say London 2012 when cycling had experienced, I suppose, massive growth. The household names, Laura Kenny, Jason Kennys, Bradley Wiggins, Victoria Pendleton, etc.

3:52etc. British Cycling then was flying and we had a number of, well Sky was our lead partner, significant growth in events, participation, membership, etc. Fast forward a couple of years towards Rio then actually there was I suppose further growth, HSBC came on board as a major partner and things were looking really positive. I suppose it was at that point, fast forward again a couple of years beyond that when actually things really had to change there was a COVID cost of living crisis and clear decline in the number of events participation etc and HHSBC had finished their partnership so yeah things had to change and I say all this because actually that and the word change quite intentionally because we went on a program of change all around modernization and kind of three key change objectives as part of that so we had to create efficiencies we had to invest in our growth which was linked to digital transformation and a number of creation of new commercially compelling assets and ultimately we had to grow revenue and which obviously is an era i've been responsible for fast forward to answer your question of where we are now um a fundamentally a really different organization that is yeah in a in a and you know we've still got a way to go but we're in a really different place and um commercially uh we are yeah doing um doing really well uh we have lloyd's came on board as our lead partner and we have grown commercial revenue by 286 over the last three years i think uh recently i heard that 85 % of Olympic and Paralympic new commercial revenue came in from British Cycling, which just, again, shows the strength of what we've been doing.

5:52So the point being investment into our success has led to, or investments have led to success off the field of play, which we're delighted about. And we got more we got to do as part of that journey.

6:04David Cushnan:I remember we had John Dutton on the podcast in the months before Paris 2024, where he was talking about some of that transformation that was underway at that point. but sort of he was outlining what had to happen and his intention, the organization's intention to create this new commercial arm, which then became British Cycling Ventures, which you now head up as managing director. And that sort of came into effect at the start of 2020... Towards the end of last year. The end of last year, so end of 2025 into 2026. but was obviously in the thinking for a long time and quite a quite a bold move for a national governing body in an Olympic sport, a very prominent governing body in an Olympic sport to make that move and do some fundamental restructuring.

7:06David Cushnan:Just talk us a little bit because you were right there as you say running the commercial division before taking on the management of this new commercial entity. Talk us through the process of that restructuring and what the, I suppose, what the overall rationale was for actually creating something brand new as an offshoot. Yeah, sure. I mean, I think it's worth saying like the context, the context being that, and we're not alone in this, governing bodies have competing pressures and challenges so commercial to participation to elite performance high performance membership etc so as part of a evolving or a kind of operating optimal operating model we actually saw that the best way to structure that was into three different areas so we have a group CEO and we have a new CEO joining as as you referenced British Tech and Ventures which I oversee which is essentially everything commercial from sponsorship right through to sales revenue generation as you typically expect ticketing hospitality events etc events event delivery and marketing as well and consumer brand etc and membership forms part of that as well and that for us was quite a radical move we never actually had up to that point all those units sitting in one place so that was really important and we've evolved that the second kind of strand is the federation so within that the areas that you would come to expect around participation high performance etc and business services and then the final strands or third pillar or bucket is linked to the foundation which is the charitable arm to the organization I think what's important to kind of stress and yes that was why we did it but there's just a number of other reasons we probably touch on which is that actually it allows us to be much more agile and be much more commercially focused and minded in a way that actually you know to to my point earlier there's competing and conflicting objectives not to say that we've forgotten about those but actually it elevates the need to be much more commercially minded which is exactly what we're doing that as part of that the final piece in that jigsaw i suppose is linked to investment so we are um looking for and we appointed oakwell to help us in the process of of securing capital which i'm sure we're going to talk about but it allows us to have a separate vehicle which is just slightly separate from um the uh the group structure that allows us to secure and inject capital um as part of it as you were going through that process of creating that new structure how how bold did it feel at the time yeah i mean uh john doesn't you referenced um we we constantly joke but you know he's saying about being brave and bold and that's that's exactly what it it feels and it still feels right and we've had um a number of people across sport getting in touch to to ask about how did how did we do that how did we set up why did we do it etc so yeah and we're look we're still working our way through that now um but uh it's evolving and we still i genuinely believe it's the right way for us to um to be set up and we're seeing i suppose the success out the back of that not just hopefully we'll come to fruition in our investment discussions but equally commercially um and you may have seen the recent launch of sofa to saddle for example which again was just done through a different lens and which i think is really important and tell us a little bit about um british cycling ventures itself and and how it's formed you know number of people sort of how and where it works with the other departments and and what the what i suppose what the day-to-day reality of it is now that it is a real a real structure and a real entity in its own right yeah i think you know what's really important is that we don't become an island as part of the group so we're still linked to the wider purpose of bringing the joy of cycling or british cycling and various subjects but we just have a much sharper and clearer commercial focus so the areas within that as i said are commercial marketing and events event delivery and operations and sales as and and we are yes servicing and supporting other parts of the organization but importantly it's about mindset and the mindset about creating value is one that the team are probably quite sick of me talking about but actually it's how we're creating value for not just our partners and potential partners but our members our different audiences i think the reality with cycling and british cycling is the fact that we've got seven different disciplines of the sport in one so unlike some of my and our peers who are essentially looking at one sport we have seven different disciplines which is almost as said like seven different sports with that comes very different audiences and focuses so that is a strength in a number of ways in the way that bmx um connects with a much younger demographer than say road or track um but equally you know in limited budgets at times that means you've got to be you force yourself to be even more creative in the way that you can um speak to those different audiences.

12:40David Cushnan:It was interesting what you were saying about the rationale for setting this up. And there will be people listening who are hearing you describe the model who inevitably, their thoughts will turn to one of the big stories of the summer. I'm not sure if you've heard about it, Darren, but what's going on or what has been going on with FIFA and its attempt, ill-communicated, ill-fated to set up a commercial entity, a commercial offshoot, to house revenue generation and, you know, major, major events. And, you know, won't ask you to comment directly on what's going on over there, because it's a very different type of organization, a global governing body versus a national governing body.

13:25But the model itself is one of the advantages,

13:33David Cushnan:is, and I guess the reasons for doing this, that it provides the entity, the creation of a new entity that is commercially focused and commercially minded, and as you said, agile, is a clear separation from the, by necessity, sort of slightly more committee-led, fundamental governance side of a governing body that's absolutely critical and needs to be there to manage and sanction the sport. And as you say, in cycling's case, lots of different disciplines and lots of different rule books and memberships and constituents. Is that, you know, how much of an advantage is that? And I guess you're seeing that playing out in real time now.

14:21David Cushnan:How much of an advantage do you think that will be moving forward for British cycling? Yeah, I mean, that's the rationale. And as you said, the reason, one of the reasons that we fundamentally set it up and i go back to my earlier point about the um the complex landscape of a governing body and that's why this just gives us that opportunity to a think differently act differently and be much more commercially minded but i still go back to the point we can't lose sight of what we're part of and what we're part of is something in british cycling that has a wider purpose about bringing the joy of cycling to everyone so can't be separate but it's really important it plays its own role within that for us and come back to the investment piece with investment that's very focused on our events and we see growing our event portfolio um which is where the investment we would be securing which is linked to is gives us an opportunity to just go that much quicker and faster and add more value to the overall product and proposition.

15:28David Cushnan:Tell us a little bit about the relationship with Oakwell, where you are on that journey towards one day strategic investment and what that might look like. Yeah. I mean, it's been a real learning for us, but we're a few months into the journey and I'm glad to say, I suppose that we've had some really interesting discussions and yeah, thought-provoking if I'm honest and as I said it's not for us this is not about just an injection of cash quite the opposite yes obviously that will help but actually it's how can we make the book go faster how can we create more value with the right partner that's going to help us to be able to to do that so we've had some fascinating discussions as part of it that in some areas have taken us off in different directions and you've got to be quite disciplined that you don't kind of get distracted by those but we're really clear as part of our I am and focus within the process with Oakwell that it's all about how can we grow our events and in doing so we can take our events and deliver on our event vision and take it to a completely new and different level that essentially allows us to connect with much bigger audiences than traditional audiences that maybe British cycling in the past has engaged with.

16:50David Cushnan:Here's a big question. What is British cycling selling? That's a great question. What is British cycling selling? Do you mean from an investment perspective? No, I suppose in general, because my sense of cycling as a sport is that there is a much closer link between the participation side and the elite side than in many sports, you know, by dint of general accessibility. You know, it's relatively straightforward to buy a bike and ride it. And once you ride it, you never forget. And then, you know, people I think can quite easily see, and it's, you know, it's, when you look at the elite side of the sport, you see something that does at least look somewhat familiar to you, even if you're, you know, doing a sort of, you know, a leisure ride on a weekend, even if it's a completely different level of performance.

17:46But I suppose the question is,

17:50David Cushnan:you've got assets and you've got events. There's also the purpose, the mission, the overall aim here. And I guess how much of that is something that you're presenting to, yeah, investors, but also on a sponsorship level to brands like Lloyd's? Yeah, no, 100%. It's critical, right? And it was what forced the program of change and modernization so if we take a step back from a commercial perspective so we the organization post hsbc spoke to 340 plus brands and had a higher first meeting rate than some of the top global sporting rights holders what would happen when it got to proposal stage it would fall off a cliff the rate of circumversion would fall off a cliff and the reason for that was because we hadn't the organization hadn't invested in its ip its assets and commercially compelling assets and for a number of years so intentionally we kind of came out of market at that point and we said we're going to do all of what i've just said new purpose modernization creation of new assets that are much more commercially compelling social impact at the heart of it and and that's what's led, I suppose, to us delivering what we have done commercially and with more clearly still to do.

19:13I think the critical part of that is, yes, the purpose has been consistent throughout that. And when I talk about the bringing the joy of cycling to everyone, there's an important emphasis, yes, on joy and the fact that it's ubiquitous, it's emotive. You know, I've got kids myself and that sense of, as you said, liberation, freedom, when I've seen them pedal away for the first time, It's just, there's nothing like it, right? And so that's on that. But then everyone, in reference to that, that word and their purpose, the big shift was about how are we going to engage with much bigger audiences than previously before?

19:50We know through our research that 30.1 million adults ride a bike in this country at least once a year. That helps focus the mind on actually what it is then that we're trying to sell. So as a result, we create much more compelling assets and IP that are focused around that. That's not to downplay some of our more local community type initiatives. It just means that we're much more focused. So as an example, the Tour of Britain, which the Lloyd's Tour of Britain are the lead partner of. And straight away from the first conversation that we had with them, you know, come back to purpose. our purpose is about bringing the joy of psyching to everyone loy's is um is all about helping britain prosper straight alignment straight away on uh on those those missions and purpose naturally what it helps when you've got an incredible cmo and suresh balaji who is um focused on actually transforming the loy's brand and actually how can they reach communities across the uk well there's hardly any other property that goes from north to south west to east that takes in towns villages cities communities like the Lloyd's Tour of Britain does so that was really good alignment and how can we layer on other elements or programs there has been a creation journey here so some of the assets the IP we've gone a co-creation journey with Lloyd's for example so so for two saddle that I mentioned so we launched that about a month ago that was and I'll never forget it it was John, Tracy Power, social impact director and myself, where we looked at the data, which showed us that half of Britain, of half of Britain, sorry, spend over 18 hours a week on the sofa and 70 % want to be more active.

21:43We saw an amazing product in Couch to 5k and thought, well, hang on, there's an amazing opportunity here as well with something called Sofa to Saddle. And we went through a kind of rigorous kind of process to identify their audiences and develop the product etc but in conjunction with Lloyd's we've done that which is quite unique right in terms of the the co-creation of of IP and yeah we launched it last month we've already had over 6 ,000 downloads of it we had Joe Mahler I don't know if you saw Joe Mahler was in the the launch content with Victoria Pendleton but again that's really a change a behavioral change program that gets people ultimately to rediscover the joy of cycling and are more active.

22:28So there's just a couple of examples, I suppose, of where we've created either developed existing IP like the Tour of Britain, or we've developed new assets IP like Sofa to Saddle. And there's various others I could give you, but hopefully it's a good example of what we've done and why we're doing it. And we're constantly evolving that as well.

22:46David Cushnan:Yeah, absolutely. You mentioned the Tour of Britain. We are talking on the eve of the women's tour of britain and the men's to follow in a couple of weeks time how big can those two events become and what's your sort of vision for them from a from a commercial point of view but actually from a media penetration point of view yeah yeah no just the the potential is immense so without repeating myself um about the scale of the potential of the property and that there's very few properties if any that do take in the whole of the uk um and you know we brought the event back in house a number of a few years ago really to to to reinvent it um and one of the first things that we did was we said there was this was a men's race um and separate that was a women's uh race as well and we said then this is called the tour of britain and bring it all within one banner and one brand um and it's now the lloyd's tour of britain i think the potential is immense i think the potential of the women's race has immense potential and who knows one day could we see that becoming a grand tour race well who knows but it has the absolute potential to be able to get to to that um the the grand par coming up with the tour de france offers um potentially unprecedented scale so if we look back at Yorkshire and everyone still talks about that well actually you know we think that could be circa 12 million roadside spectators taking in the men's and the women's race of the Grand Depart this this coming um this coming year so that's like in a an Olympic style spike moment for British cycling potentially yeah I'd say the only difference or significant difference is that in conjunction with ASO we are actually delivering the race on our shores so unlike where the Olympics or Paralympics is on other shores.

24:47David Cushnan:But in terms of interest and potential and a moment for cycling to, frankly, be on the front pages, you know, let alone the back pages, it really feels like that's going to be one of the big moments. A massive moment within British society that we have to and will capitalize on. So, yeah. And then to link to the Lois Tour of Britain, as I said, it's like that's the obvious kind of next step for for growth than that i think coming back to the investment point actually to be able to grow the tour of britain to get to the meet the scale and ambition really that we aspire to that is going to require significant investment it costs us circa four million pounds to deliver the tour of britain the lowest tour britain that's quite a significant investment from the organization so yes we will grow that commercially through sponsorship etc which is the main form of income related to the event but actually how can we grow other forms of income related to it and i look at the london marathon which has done an amazing job for example but actually why can the loyce tour britain be the cycling equivalent to that so you know when the tour britain comes to town playing to that local community heritage so and people laugh at me internally for giving this example which is not a reflection by the way of my music taste but if for example we go to Sheffield, then why shouldn't the Arctic Monkeys be playing on stage when we go to Sheffield with the Lloyd's State of Britain?

26:16It becomes more about the event, the experience and the entertainment.

26:21David Cushnan:As you talk to lots of brands, which I imagine you do in your job, on a nearly daily basis, and you mentioned there are over 300 that were in the organisation sites in the period, I guess between HSBC and Lloyd's. What's your sense, how demanding are brands at this moment in time in terms of justifying spend or wanting to know exactly what they are buying? And is that something that in your period selling this stuff that you've noticed a significant change? yeah i i i have i think one of the things that i pride myself and certainly instill within my teams is is taking that consultative approach and i i see too many times still in our industry when i speak to cmos marketing directors ceos etc when they're having conversations with with kind of rights holders as well there's still um too much of a sell straight to the the what as in the asset rather than kind of that more consultative approach around the why and the purpose of why we're trying to do this.

27:32But ultimately, that's all fine, but it's got to impact on key business metrics and have an impact on that. And Lloyd's is a really good example, and that's exactly where the conversation started with them around that. So yeah, I think it's evolving, it's changing, but I know that we are super focused on every conversation with every brand about how we're going to do that. But importantly, some people kind of lose, I suppose, focus on delivering and delivering well for existing partners. I'm really mindful of that. And actually, how do we deliver really well for Lloyd's and Shell, Elixir and Omodo and various other kind of commercial partners that we have is critically important as well.

28:14David Cushnan:Do you want to touch on other revenue streams that British Cycling has? There's sponsorship, there's media rights, the sort of traditional revenue opportunities. Membership was something that you talked about earlier. Just explain a little bit about, I suppose, the scope and scale of British Cycling's membership, what that does for you from a financial point of view. And also, I suppose, how you nurture a membership, try and build it, obviously, but nurture an existing membership at a time when you're also innovating, really trying to bring a lot of new fans, followers into the sport who maybe have different needs and maybe you have different ways of reaching those different constituents.

29:07David Cushnan:um again this is part of the sort of complex challenge of of being a governing body i suppose yeah yeah great question and i suppose let's look at it from a how our kind of key revenue streams at the moment so the way it's made up uh and we've made the transition of being more self-funded self-sufficient um we've tipped over 50 percent of having commercial sponsorship income and membership um on one side and the other is kind of government funding so sport england uk sport we've now um we're in a good place where we've actually kind of moved to a greater than 50 percent of self commercial income membership uh the we've invested a lot as i said our program of change in our digital infrastructure which means that membership was a key and critical part of that memberships we've got 130 000 members i'd say crudely 50 of them have membership for a really good insurance protection offering so when they're on a bike and then 50 percent um is more about their kind of racing um within the sport etc as part of the kind of and linked to our purpose about how we're going to connect with much more bigger part of society commuters non-riders non-riders at sporting level is a massive area of focus for us so actually membership in society is changing, right?

30:36To become much more subscription-based models. And actually, what we're looking at right now is how can we evolve that membership proposition to be much more in line with that and be much more about tapping into wider kind of initiatives and benefits beyond just kind of quite transactional potentially at times, which is exactly what we're

30:58David Cushnan:we're looking at at the moment and presumably the the data that you're able to collect from that membership feeds into your sponsorship decks and your sponsorship conversations um because that's that's presumably a really rich a rich source for you a hundred percent that's that is our loyal audience right and um so yeah we were i suppose we unlike say where i've worked previously at say man united or primarily football club where you know you've clearly got your um supporters you've seen ticket holders etc for us yes it's it's our members and but also we have these incredible supporters and fans of events like tour or britain so the way we can segment those different audiences and again based on um their interest which varies quite significantly as i said so a bmx um fan versus a a road fan is really quite different so the way we can segment those now and target them with really quite specific personalization, et cetera, is critical.

31:59And our digital transformation journey in partnership with LX Air has allowed us to do that. So we're becoming much more sophisticated than clearly we have been before. And actually, in some ways, in some areas, just catching up to put in the kind of the basics in place.

32:14David Cushnan:Seems to me that one of the many challenges that anybody working at a national governing body faces is particularly at the moment, particularly those like British cycling that are clearly innovative and doing new things, is figuring out how to make all the different rhythms that you're working to work. So there's obviously an Olympic cycle and you're, no pun intended, an Olympic cycle that you're heading towards LA in 2028. So at a sort of national team level, elite level there's a program building towards that you've got your own ip increasingly uh that is either annual or ongoing there's a membership that's even more sort of ongoing and sort of a day-to-day um responsibility i suppose to to keep nurturing again within the new entity of british cycling ventures how are you how are you sort of navigating those different rhythms because I imagine that is a challenge that's fairly high up in your mind.

33:22Yeah, it's a daily challenge and one that as an exec team as well, we talk about consistently, we talk with our board as well to make sure that we're navigating those kind of complex priorities. But we've got to be ruthless as well and being really clear about what the priorities are. So I'm really clear about what those commercial priorities are as part of British Cycling Ventures, but equally not losing sight as well of some of our wider organizational priorities that we absolutely play and plug and play into as well. So yes, a daily challenge. We continue to navigate it, but equally having alignment with exec, with board is critical.

34:05And I think we've done, we're in a good place in that certainly as well.

34:09David Cushnan:A couple more questions, Darren. One, just going back to the formation of British Cycling Ventures, you're, well, I guess you're, you know, well over a year into the planning of it. You're in the reality of it now for, you know, well over six months. What advice would you offer to other national governing bodies who are looking at this model and thinking, actually, yes, this is a way to have more agility, as you say, have maybe a bit more control, creativity within your commercial program at a time when we know a lot of national governing bodies, particularly, you know, in and around Olympic sports are finding it challenging.

34:55David Cushnan:What's the best thing they can do to pull off this kind of restructuring effectively? Yeah. Yeah, well, I and a number of people have inevitably been in touch and asked this exact question. And a couple of things I say, which is don't just do it for the sake of it. Because yes, it does make sense to certain organizations, but to certain others, it doesn't. I'm really aware that we have something called the bike. And the bike is touches so much of society, right? So it's more than just winning medals at Olympics and Paralympics and elite performance that's not to say that's not important it's critical but it's so much more than that that some Olympic and governing bodies just haven't got that mass appeal that we do in the 30.1 million people that are referenced in society that ride a bike so I think that's really important context the other piece of advice I would say is focus on actually if you are going to do it being really clear on the commercial assets and IP that you actually have to sell and validate whether those actually are commercially compelling or not not just based on feel do it based on the insight the audience insight the data and speak to to brands speak to people to get an understanding of of that whether that is going to be um uh successful commercially or not so i think it's really important to distinguish as i said between um who potentially could do it um and equally if you are going to do it being really clear on what it is that you have to sell and the best way to be able to structure yourself in line with the wider organization and its requirements.

36:37David Cushnan:Final question. If we're sitting here again in a year's time, and you're more than welcome to come in again in a year's time, and I ask what the key achievements have been, what would you say about the next 12 months? Yeah, so I think investment is really critical as part of that journey and how we evolve and find the right investment partner. I'd say we continue to invest and grow the overall profile of a number of events, including the Lloyd's Tour of Britain. We grow some of our programs initiatives like Sofa2Saddle that I mentioned. And we've equally welcomed on a number of new commercial brands and partners to the ecosystem.

37:28I'd also talk about our membership as well. And going back to what I said, I do think there's immense potential to capitalise on the likes of the Grand Depart and the Tour de France as part of it. So I would love to see a world where we've evolved that proposition to be much more modern, much more less transactional and being able to engage with bigger parts of society that allows us to connect with them in different ways.

37:53David Cushnan:Good stuff. Darren you've got a tour of Britain to embark on so we will leave you to it we look forward to seeing you at Leaders Week London congratulations again on the Leaders Under 40 Award and thanks for being with us today thank you very much really enjoyed it and we'll see you soon