Success Stories

Sport, recreation and active community leaders across the sector are using ActiveXchange to move from gut feel to evidence-based decision making. Here’s what they have to say.

An essential addition to our Tennis program

A very exciting (and essential) addition to our Year-round Community Tennis program as we work hard to increase tennis infrastructure across Canada. 

Access to this incredible network will give us the evidence-based data to lobby for the preservation and investments needed to grow tennis participation coast to coast to coast.

Alison Anderson

Manager of Community Projects – Tennis Canada

How Hockey ACT uses data intelligence to drive gender equality and inclusion across their clubs and programs.

Supports better tourism value determination and helps plan for future growth

We can now better determine the tourism values of non-ticketed events like Craft Revival utilizing data gathering from ActiveXchange, a tool that supports better tourism value determination and helps plan for future growth.

Paul Pepe

Manager of Tourism – City of Thunder Bay

Eliminates all guess work

Absolutely brilliant, instantaneous access to user data that eliminates all guess work from evidence-based safety recommendations for community members. This data assists us to make best practice decisions for communities to improve safety in, on and around the water.

It allows us to plan more efficiently for maximum impact of drowning prevention education and safer rock-based fishing from the limited project funds available.

Josh Carmine

Aquatic Research Educator – Drowning Prevention Auckland

Wonders of Winter Festival logo

How the Wonders of Winter festival uses Movement Data to better understand its audience and grow its reach every year.

Provided us with a stronger evidence base

The insights we’ve gained from ActiveXchange’s analysis of our sport, leisure and recreation landscape have provided us with a stronger evidence base with which to make decisions. The team have been great to work with; engaging, accessible and knowledgeable. I look forward to continuing our work with ActiveXchange as we deliver sport and recreation opportunities for our community.

Michael Casey

Acting Manager Future Communities – Cardinia Shire Council

Better evidence-based decisions

We wanted to learn more about our users and the surrounding community to make better evidence-based decisions when adding, removing, or changing programs and services.

Reviewing membership types, activities, and category definitions gave us solid benchmarking against industry standards and a consistent framework for comparing periods with like-for-like information.

Hayden Cooney

Business Systems Coordinator – Town of Victoria Park

The modules bring clients the opportunity to better reach their audiences

ActiveXchange’s Movement Data and Partner Match modules bring clients the opportunity to better reach their audiences. 

The modules deliver us greater audience segmentation, and connect the dots of motorway journeys by delivering insights around our audience’s point of origin and their movements when on site.

James Byard

Marketing & Partnerships Director – i-media

How Basketball England uses data to prove impact and grow the game.

Delivered real value & results

I love the ActiveXchange platform and regularly use the data to guide our strategies across key focus areas. It’s user-friendly and allows us to clearly tell our story.

It’s been instrumental in our statewide facilities audit and in conversations with clubs, leagues, councils, state government, stakeholders, and schools.

It’s delivered real value and results aligned to our strategic plan. I highly recommend all sports, leagues, councils, and recreation organisations to explore the platform and see the benefits firsthand.

Adam May

GM Finance & Commercial – Basketball South Australia

The assistance provided by ActiveXchange has been invaluable

The Future of Softball Program would not have been possible without the support and insight from ActiveXchange.

The ActiveXchange Sport platform was the catalyst for us to deliver this project and the assistance provided by ActiveXchange has been invaluable. We also acknowledge and thank the Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing for the grant support and belief in our project, and we are grateful for the collaboration with the City of Onkaparinga.

James Harris

State Operations Manager – Softball South Australia

A small investment for a huge benefit

Your team’s input was critical to some late design modifications that enhanced the customer experience and improved the financial performance. A small investment for a huge benefit.

Warren Green

Managing Director – Warren Green Consulting (Parramatta Aquatic Centre opening)

How the City of Belmont equips local sporting clubs with data to strengthen planning, programming and community reach.

Enables sports to make data informed decisions

The expansion of the SportWest data strategy for the industry in partnership with ActiveXchange is a critical strategic priority for SportWest and the industry that enables sports to make data informed decisions and better inform clubs, stakeholders, partners and government.

Troy Kirkham

Chief Executive Officer – Sportwest

SportWest​ logo

Helps inform decision-making from a wider network perspective

Movement Data gives us enhanced understanding of the role that sport and recreational infrastructure plays in relation to community outcomes, participation trends, and helps inform decision-making from a wider network perspective.

Shane Brodie

Places and Spaces Manager – Sport Waikato

A key tool in our decision-making process

By leveraging customer data based on real-time location analytics, we’ve been able to make more informed commercial decisions.

One of the biggest advantages has been identifying specific times and locations where car parking charges would generate significant pushback. With this information, we’ve successfully adapted our approach – choosing not to charge at certain times – to reduce opposition and maintain public goodwill, all while still meeting our revenue goals. It’s become a key tool in our decision-making process.

Wesley Pemberton

Head of Culture – Enfield Council

A game-changer for our data intelligence strategy

ActiveXchange has been a game-changer for our data intelligence strategy. With you (Charles Marsh) on board, the expansion potential just leveled up. Excited to see what’s next!

Rodrigo Gomes

President & CEO – Northern Virginia Volleyball Association

Northern Virginia Volleyball Association logo

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Chris Patterson

Group Chief Product Officer & General Manager, North America

Chris joins ActiveXchange with 15+ years of professional experience in operations, business intelligence, and product-oriented roles. He has delivered tech-based products, digitalisation strategy and leadership in large enterprise (regulated/ government environments) and innovative and entrepreneurial small to medium businesses.

Chris holds a B.Sc – Engineering from Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada and an MBA from the Smith School of Business at Queen’s. Chris is a lifelong athlete, professional coach (alpine skiing & sailing), and volunteer club/ advisory board member.

Alex Burrows

Group Chief Product Officer & General Manager, North America

Alex has 15 years experience across the UK, Europe, Australia and NZ of leading award-winning teams that have successfully re-defined how the sport, leisure and fitness sector uses data and plans investment into community programs and infrastructure.

This is underpinned by the development and application of innovative market and business intelligence platforms that have been used by multiple governments, 100+ sport governing bodies, 3,000+ facilities, and influenced how over 30 million people are active today.

Richard Boyle

Group Chief Operations Officer & General Manager, Asia Pacific

Richard has a senior operations executive background focused on problem solving, building successful teams and promoting healthy culture within organisations. He has worked for a number of global organisations, with hands-on experience opening international offices on the ground and remotely. He played a key role in the growth experienced by Ai-Media, navigating its expansion into global markets and spearheading its journey to an ASX listing.

Being a father of two and having type-1 diabetes, Richard knows how important movement and health are and is excited to bring his skill set and experience to ActiveXchange.

Ben Jones

General Manager, UK & Europe

Prior to joining ActiveXchange, Ben was CEO of Active Norfolk for 9 years. Ben’s an innovative and intuitive leader with a successful background in the achievement of organisational transformation, growth and high-performance. He has a deep understanding of public, private and VCSE sector priorities, and the opportunities related to data driven collaboration.

Ben leads the day to day operations at ActiveXchange, while driving success from our key partnerships, which often transcend sectors.

Matthew Hook

Group Chief Financial Officer

Matthew is a strategic and commercially focused finance executive focused on corporate strategy, developing commercial growth and operational awareness, driving transformation, outsourcing and enhancing internal controls, cash management and financial planning.

He specialises in management information, cash management, business intelligence, change management, financial planning & analysis, strategy, procurement, business development, controls and systems design & implementation.

Charles Marsh

Head of Partnerships & Market Expansion, North America

Charles is a seasoned business leader with extensive experience driving market growth for high-tech software companies on a regional and global scale. He has played a key role in launching data and AI-focused software products, across multiple industries and scaling startups to successful exits. His leadership approach is rooted in strategic vision, resilience, and a dedication to empowering others to succeed.

Charles is a sports enthusiast (with a bias toward rugby!), deeply committed to giving back through mentorship, coaching for youth sports and has raised significant funds for charitable causes through marathon running & community initiatives.

Andy Thwaite

Head of Commercial & Brand Engagement, North America

Andy is a commercial executive who has spent two decades in the business of sports technology, working for leading sports marketing agencies (IMG, WPP), media companies (Turner Sports) and rights holders (PBR).

Andy has a track record of bringing digital marketing innovation to sports, including the use of ad-tech to enable sports audience data to be commercialized through sponsorship and advertising.

As an ex-player and now parent and coach, Andy has a deep passion for community sports.

Grant Wright

Lead Software Engineer

Grant is a Software Engineer with 10+ years of experience building scalable, event-driven systems on Azure and .NET. He leads platform modernization by empowering teams and driving strategic impact, always balancing technical excellence with maintainable, future-ready solutions.

Grant is known for bringing clarity to complexity and fostering engineering practices that scale.

Ries Brink

SQL Developer

Ries brings to the team the unique background of having a Diploma in Sports and Exercise Technology and 10+ years of experience in both software and database development.

Ries has a passion for both sport and data and hopes to combine the two to help ActiveXchange to improve people’s health and wellbeing.

Joshua Wilkinson

full stack developer

Josh is a full stack developer bringing experience from multiple industries and technologies to create modern, performant software. He has a keen eye for detail, and is passionate about building applications that are intuitive.

In his spare time he can often be found working on personal software projects to keep his skills sharp, playing guitar, or trying out new board games with friends.

Sara Ebrahimi

Senior Data Science Analyst

Sara is experienced in analysing data and developing predictive models using a variety of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence techniques. She recently received her master’s degree in construction engineering and management from the University of Alberta.

Sara’s expertise in using Data Visualization to translate data into valuable insights and embedding these into business processes supports a range of ActiveXchange data intelligence partners.

Michael Clinton

Customer Success Manager, Asia Pacific

Michael has a strong background in the sport and health sectors, completing his Sports and Exercise Science Degree in the United Kingdom.

Originally on the frontlines for health and leisure operators across the UK and Australia, Michael has over 5 years of experience shaping individuals’ health and wellness and has forged a deep connection in linking people to higher levels of activity. Michael’s passion to provide a flawless customer experience ensures our clients receive the best value from their product.

Sydney Dechamplain

Account Manager - Client Success

Sydney joins ActiveXchange with 7+ years of experience working in Aquatics Leadership and Recreation Planning (including for Strathcona County), bringing a wealth of frontline experience to our clients.

Sydney holds a BA in Sociology and Psychology and is an advocate for the importance of universal access to sports, recreation and leisure. Her background as a competitive dancer has instilled in her a passion for physical activity and its transformative powers. Using data driven decision making, Sydney helps clients achieve their goals.

Stephanie Ang

Sales & Customer Success Support

With Stephanie’s data expertise and passion for helping the community become more active, she supports the ActiveXchange team to build strong client relations and undertake data processing and analytical modelling.

Monique Stewart

Marketing Executive​

Monique has 10 years of marketing & communications experience, with the majority of her career spent in the sports licensing and merchandise industry. She has worked closely with many of the major Australian sporting codes and teams, including the NRL, Football Australia and Cricket Australia, as well as international brands such as ’47 and Nitro Circus.

Monique shares the team’s passion for sport & physical activity, and can usually be found at a netball court in her spare time.

Justine Drake

Finance & Administration Officer

Justine is a strong administrative professional with a Graduate Certificate in Management (Professional Practice) focused in Business Administration and Management, General from Charles Sturt University. 

She is an experienced Office Manager, skilled in trust accounting, administration, accounts payable, management and customer service.

Simon Haire

Advisor - Sport & Government

With over 20 years experience in the sport and leisure industry, Simon has developed a vast range of expertise. He has frequently demonstrated strategic leadership through an ability to identify opportunities and cases for change.

 Over the past 4 years, he has managed a range of project engagements as a strategic consultant. This has included working with local government, state government and state sporting organisations on analysis, strategy and implementation of sport and community infrastructure initiatives.

Alexandra Ash

Chair - Asia pacific

Alexandra is CEO of YMCA Australia and President of Royal Life Saving Society Australia. She’s also been CEO of Gymnastics Australia and Executive Manager of YMCA Victoria for Recreation. Therefore Alex brings a wealth of c-suite leadership expertise across community sport and recreation.

John Oxley

Chair - UK & Europe

John is an influential leader across the UK’s recreation and activity sector. He’s currently CEO of Life Leisure (leisure operator in Stockport) and previous COO of Places Leisure, managing over 100 facilities.

He has developed and delivered CIMSPA-endorsed transformational leadership programmes, and is passionate about physical activity, sport and wellbeing.

Mike Roma

Chair - North america

Mike has an MBA from the University of Alberta specializing in Leisure and Sport Management and has held numerous leadership positions in the recreation and parks sector over the past 20 years.

Mike is a past President of the Alberta Recreation and Parks Association and the Canadian Parks and Recreation Association. 

Darryl Baker

sernior developer

With a software development career spanning nearly three decades, Darryl started his software development path with kitchen design CAD software in C++ in 1996, before moving into embedded systems for ATMs, encryption devices, and large-scale document processing. He later worked on high-reliability, low-latency financial data systems in London, and transitioned into .NET, earning Microsoft certification along the way. 

His experience spans SaaS modernisation, mobile development, and cloud migration, recently helping move services to Azure. 

With expertise in multi-threaded, embedded systems and mobile apps, he enjoys solving complex problems, and occasionally fixing electronics when he’s not doing that in code. Darryl’s social life included being a DJ and being the singer and keyboard player in a Ska band at the end of the 90s.