Director of Place & Communities and Strategic Lead, Marketing, Communications and Insight
for Wesport
Wesport is the Active Partnership for the West of England, working across Bristol, Bath & North-East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire to inspire active lives and increase opportunities for people to be physically active.
Moon Charity Practice has partnered with Wesport since 2020, initially supporting a range of trustee appointments, developing into executive and trustee appointments. This long-standing relationship has deepened our understanding of Wesport’s culture, values and leadership requirements.
Wesport partnered again with Moon to recruit two key positions: Director of Place & Communities and Strategic Lead, Marketing, Communications & Insight.
The challenge
The Director of Place & Communities role was a critical leadership appointment, responsible for building relationships across local, regional and national networks, creating partnerships and helping organisations to effectively collaborate to address complex challenges across movement, physical activity and sport, local government and the third sector.
Alongside this, Wesport sought a Strategic Lead for Marketing, Communications & Insight to strengthen its ability to use data, evaluation and storytelling to demonstrate impact and influence change.
These appointments formed part of an organisational restructure designed to support the delivery of Wesport's evolving strategic plan and future direction. For both roles, the challenge was finding candidates with the technical and sector expertise required, alongside the values, collaborative mindset and confidence to "work in the grey" that are central to Wesport's approach.
Our approach
Moon delivered a combined advertised and targeted search campaign.
Within the charity and sport sectors, many talented candidates were already known through partnerships and professional networks. As an independent search partner, Moon provided a discreet and objective route for engaging prospective candidates, protecting relationships while ensuring a fair and transparent process.
The Director of Place & Communities search was nuanced. The ideal candidate needed to combine experience of sport with community engagement and partnership working creating a highly specialised talent pool.
The appointments
Sarah Mortiboys - Director of Place & Communities
Having worked alongside Wesport previously through her role, as CEO, at Bristol Sport Foundation, Sarah brought over 25 years of cross- sector expertise and experience married with a clear understanding of the organisation's mission and approach.
An experienced CEO, board-level leader and Non-Executive Director, Sarah demonstrated a deep understanding of how sport and physical activity can improve lives. Her track record of partnership building, systems leadership and influencing stakeholders made her an outstanding fit for the role.
“Very excited to get started with Wesport. I just wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you for your support and professionalism during this process. Outstanding.”
Emily Messenger - Strategic Lead, Marketing, Communications & Insight
Emily Messenger led social media strategy, audience engagement and communications, using data to better understand audiences and communicate impact at ASDAN. Throughout the recruitment process, Emily was assessed alongside external candidates and demonstrated a strong skills and values alignment with the role, ensuring confidence in her appointment having robustly assessed her against external candidates.
“Moon have taken the time to grow their understanding of Wesport, our values and the type of people who thrive here. Over a number of years, they have consistently delivered high-quality appointments that strengthen our ability to create active lives across the West of England.”
Together, these appointments support the delivery of Wesport's strategic priorities and strengthen its ability to influence, collaborate and demonstrate impact across the West of England.