MatchFit Appoints Caz Nicholls as its First Managing Director as Part of Leadership Team Evolution
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MatchFit has unveiled its biggest ever leadership evolution, headlined by the appointment of Caz Nicholls as the agency’s first Managing Director.
Almost a year after joining MatchFit as a Director from the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) - where she served as Head of Comms - Nicholls has stepped up to become the operational and commercial lead of MatchFit. She will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the agency across both London (Shoreditch) and Manchester locations and will report into Co-Founders Donald Parish and Will Mitchell.
The move sees Parish and Mitchell each assume the title of Chief Executive and Founder alongside personal leadership mandates to power MatchFit into a new era as the industry’s specialist sports PR agency. Parish takes lead responsibility to drive new business development and the expansion of the MatchFit brand, whilst Mitchell will have a critical role powering forward future-proofing, agency special-projects and IP development.
Since founding in 2019, MatchFit has built a client roster of world-class brands, rightsholders and governing bodies including The FA, Topps, Manchester City, the ECB, LiveScore, EA SPORTS, Asahi and LALIGA. The agency has created award-winning sports work powered by a positioning of absolute specialism across consumer, grassroots and boardroom audiences in sport, and was the 3rd fastest-growing agency in the 2026 PRWeek Top 150 Consultancies report.
The new leadership team is set to significantly unlock MatchFit’s potential to scale and further develop capability to drive industry-leading sports PR work across its two locations in Shoreditch and Manchester. Since joining, Nicholls has sharpened the agency’s audience-first approach, deepening the use of fan and stakeholder insight to guide how creative and channel decisions are made. A key part of this has involved the implementation of MatchFit Scoreboard, the agency’s measurement approach for demonstrating the impact of audience-first campaigns.
Neil Wood has also been promoted to agency Director after three years of sustained excellence and growth leading award-winning work with the likes of Topps, Fanatics and Manchester City. He will play a key role shaping MatchFit’s offering for brands and rightsholders operating at the intersection of sport and culture.
Neil joins Cherrelle Jefferson Izod – existing MatchFit Director and lead of the Manchester office - in reporting into Nicholls. Since Jefferson Izod’s arrival the Manchester office has grown in headcount and created work for clients including the Rugby Football League, Sheffield City Council (for the World Snooker Championships), and premium beer brand, Asahi.
Caz Nicholls, Managing Director of MatchFit, said: “Being given the opportunity by Donald and Will to take MatchFit to its next level of potential is something I'm incredibly honoured and excited about. Having worked both in-house and agency-side, I've seen this industry from both perspectives, and I know exactly what makes the difference between good work and truly unparalleled work; it's the people behind it.
“I want MatchFit to continue to be the place where the best talent is nurtured and developed, and where every member of the team is empowered to create outstanding, audience-first work that drives demonstrable impact. My approach has always been to lead by example, with empathy and a high-support, high-challenge mindset. I'll be bringing that into everything we do, to ensure that comms is viewed as a genuine strategic partner, not just a channel.”
Donald Parish, Chief Executive and Founder of MatchFit said: “The world of sport is noisier than ever before, placing an ever-greater premium on the craft of specialist PR to make real impact. In Caz we have a Managing Director who truly embodies the sense of what it is to be MatchFit from a cultural, mindset and behaviour perspective, and a talent who is best placed to supercharge our work with the best rightsholders and brands in sport.
“With people in love with the craft of PR and inspired by their lives as consumers, fans and grassroots players, we have always been the agency that speaks the language of sport. Now, with our incredible new leadership team, I’ve n ever been more excited about MatchFit’s future as the leading sports PR agency in the UK.”
Will Mitchell, Chief Executive and Founder of MatchFit said: “As Donald and I have been on this MatchFit journey, we have always been on the lookout for incredible talent with the potential to take the next leap, and the impact Caz has made since her arrival has been extraordinary. She is the perfect person to drive MatchFit forward as our first Managing Director, bringing a unique blend of experience from her career in agency, in-house and governing bodies environments.
“In tandem with Neil and Cherrelle, who bring incredible expertise in the cultural and consumer worlds of sport, we’ve unlocked a world-class team which has the potential to create an extraordinary legacy for the agency. I can’t wait to continue working with Donald and this fantastic group to explode this exciting new era for MatchFit.”
In becoming MatchFit’s first Managing Director, Nicholls also joins Parish and Mitchell on the newly-established MatchFit board, which itself is augmented further by the appointment of Nigel Cushion as Non-Executive Director. Cushion joins as a business veteran with more than three decades of experience leading and advising companies at various stages of growth. As the Founder of the mentoring enterprise Nelsonspirit, he will be available to mentor all MatchFit staff across London and Manchester.