We Are JoggingBuddy

Tony Piedade

Founder & CEO

Tony founded JoggingBuddy in September 2009. Himself an active runner with a number of marathons ticked off the list (in his younger years). Now a self-confessed “plodder” Tony enjoy running 3-4 times a week.

Roger Black MBE

Advisor

British Olympic Medallist

Roger Black is one of Britain’s best known and loved athletes. He is an amazing public speaker and has a passion for getting people active. Roger won 14 major athletics medals throughout his career including Olympic 400m silver in 1996 and 4x400m World Championship Golds In 1991 and 1997. He is now owner of RogerBlack Fitness and partner with fellow Olympian Steve Backley at BackleyBlack.

James Foster

Advisor

VP- Running, Adidas

20 years of consumer marketing experience gained in Entertainment and Sporting Goods with brands like Sony, Universal and adidas. Currently the Global VP for Running Product Marketing for adidas based in Germany. Prior to this James was GM for a number of sport categories including Olympics, Swim, Tennis and Rugby and over the years has led business units at county and European level. A lifelong runner from track to marathon and passionate believer that running has the power to change lives.

Sonia Samuels

Advisor

Team GB Marathon Runner

Sonia is a Team GB Marathon runner having competed at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. She has represented Great Britain and England on many occasions since her debut in 1997 and is proud to boast representative honours across all surfaces (Road, XC and track). Outside of the Olympics, she came 5th at the 2018 Commonwealth Games (marathon) and 16th at the 2013 World Championships (marathon). She is also one of the UK’s fastest ever marathon runners with a personal best of 2:28.04

Since the age of 12 running has been a huge part of her life. Outside of running achievements and success running has provided a healthy lifestyle, mental wellbeing and a far reaching circle of friends across the world.

Matthew Brooke

Advisor

Managing Director,
Tough Mudder UK & Spartan

Matt’s passion for sport, health and wellbeing is at the heart of everything he does and through his 10+ years in the industry he’s been able to harness the power of sport first hand to help shape lives, forge communities, spread enjoyment and genuinely make a difference to our world.

Matt is both the current Managing Director of Spartan and Tough Mudder UK – the leading global brands in Obstacle Course Racing and Mud Running – and a keen sports enthusiast. An avid Rugby player and runner, Matt is also a passionate, results driven and resourceful management professional who has been fortunate to hold roles in organisations such as Tour de France owner A.S.O (Amaury Sports Organisation) and global challenger agency CSM Sport & Entertainment. During that time, Matt has been involved in array of sporting programmes from grassroots pilots and community initiatives through to large-scale mass participation events and elite professional sports.

When not playing in the mud at work, Matt might be found training in the gym, watching his beloved Saracens play rugby or chewing someone’s ear off on the benefits of protein consumption. That said, on the weekends you are most likely to find him undoing all the good of his daily weekday workouts as he socialises with family and friends.

Michael Capiraso

Advisor

Michael Capiraso is a visionary, transformational leader whose results-driven focus and holistic team-building have delivered sustainable growth across sports, entertainment, and consumer goods brands. Michael led large-scale operations, strategy, and brand building efforts at the NFL, Major League Baseball, Calvin Klein, Cole Haan, and WPP before ascending to his role as President & CEO of New York Road Runners (NYRR), organizers of the NYC Marathon.

During Michael’s tenure at NYRR, the organization’s annual revenue nearly doubled to over $100,000,000; reserves/endowment grew by 100% to $70 million: the number of participants in NYRR events, youth and community programming doubled to approximately 700,000. Michael was integral in establishing multi-year ($100M) partnerships with TCS and New Balance; developed the partnership with Trust for Public Land in NYC building playgrounds in schools in underserved communities; opened the NYRR Run Center; planned and implemented NYRR profitable virtual racing platform. As President & CEO as well as Board member, he built a high-performing diverse team. Under Michael’s leadership, NYRR solidified its position as the world’s largest Marathon with 53,000 finishers, globally broadcast to 700 million HH, $40 million charity raised annually, $415 million in annual Economic Impact for NYC. Michael established a mission-driven vision for the organization, focused on serving the running community. Michael embodies that mission himself, participating in 28 consecutive New York City Marathons while raising more than $100,000 for NYRR Team for Kids charity. Michael has a proven track of building dynamic management teams, setting the vision and strategy and delivering record growth.

Dr Anne Grunseit

Advisor

Senior Research Fellow,
Sydney, Australia

Dr Anne Grunseit is a Senior Research Fellow at the Prevention Research Collaboration and the Australian Prevention Partnership Centre located at the University of Sydney, NSW, Australia. Anne has over 20 years’ experience and technical skills in quantitative and qualitative research in health and social research, and currently specialises in the evaluation of scaled-up interventions to prevent lifestyle-related chronic disease.

In particular, Anne has expertise in evaluating large scale interventions which address physical activity and diet, including state-wide mass communication campaigns and behavioural support programs. She leads the Australian arm of an international collaboration examining knee health among recreational runners and is on the evaluation advisory groups for a community-based program to improve chronic pain management in rural and regional communities and a policy-based initiative to raise the minimum legal age for the purchase of tobacco products in Tasmania.

She is currently the coordinator and teacher of the Public Health Program Evaluation unit of study in the Masters of Public Health at USYD and regularly conducts evaluation workshops for the NSW Ministry of Health and its pillars.

Paul Owen OBE

Advisor

Paul has spent a lifetime in sport having served on the British National Olympic Committee for over 20 years whilst working as an NGB Chief Executive Officer. Other roles have seen him advise at seven Summer Olympics and three Commonwealth Games, as well as carrying out a period as CEO of an International School.

Currently Paul is working on the Tokyo Olympics, serves as a non-executive director of Get Berkshire Active and works as an Ambassador for the Mental Health Charity Sport in Mind whose mission is: “To improve the lives of people experiencing mental health problems through sport and physical activity”

Paul Runs, Cycles and Kayaks when time allows.