Geoff Newton awarded OBE in the 2023 New Year’s Honours
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Former Chief Executive at the Tennis Foundation and Vice-Chair of the British Paralympic Association, Geoff Newton, has been awarded an OBE in the King’s New Year’s Honours list.
Newton received his OBE for services to sport having been at the forefront of promoting disability sport for the over a decade.
“I am delighted to be awarded an OBE for my work in helping to promote opportunities for disabled people, and striving for both sport, and society in general, to be more inclusive,” said Newton following his inclusion on the New Year’s Honours list.
During his tenure as the CEO at the Tennis Foundation, between 2011-2018, where the focus was on young people, disability tennis and disadvantaged communities, Newton was responsible for implementing a framework for Britain's disability tennis performance and development programmes. His guidance and efforts saw British players win global medals across wheelchair, deaf, learning disability and visually impaired tennis, with British wheelchair players claiming a record six medals at the Rio 2016 Paralympics whilst representing ParalympicsGB. The Tennis Foundation later merged with the LTA at the end of 2018.
Newton has also served on the Board of the All England Club for many years and was instrumental in advancing the integration of wheelchair tennis at Wimbledon. He played a pivotal role in introducing wheelchair singles events to The Championships schedule in 2016, when Gordon Reid won the inaugural men's singles crown, as well as in the introduction of quad singles and doubles events added in 2019 after a successful quad doubles exhibition was played at The Championships in 2018.
To this day, Newton continues to have an active interest in the development of tennis in Britain and is currently the President of Tennis Yorkshire.
Newton previously worked as Director of Olympic Opportunity at the London Development Agency, where he was responsible for the social and economic legacy of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Since 2013, he has served as a Board Member and Vice-Chair at the British Paralympic Association, where he continues to devote his time to advancing the development and promotion of sport for disabled people.
