The Sport and Recreation Alliance has launched its new initiative, Board Members for Sport (BMS).

The scheme has been set up to allow business people - who are looking to become independent board directors within the sport sector - to talk to key representatives of governing bodies and other sports organisations to discuss potential development and career opportunities at board level.

More than 60 people from sport and recreational bodies attended the launch of BMS at the Lord's Cricket Ground this week. The launch was the first in a series of networking opportunities as part of the initiative.

Joy Tottman, governance and compliance officer at the Sport and Recreation Alliance said: "Most of us already know that the sport and recreation sector is an exciting place to work, but it's also a sector that's undergoing a lot of challenges, changes and developments.

"The idea of Board Members for Sport is that talented individuals in business can develop their careers at board level, whilst sports bodies will gain access to a big pool of untapped talent and skills to contribute to the effectiveness of their boards - a win-win situation for everyone involved.

"There's a great need, for example, for governing bodies and sport organisations to become more forward thinking, fast-paced, commercially-minded and less reliant on funding and grants.

"Bringing independent people onto boards from backgrounds other than sport can really help to achieve this."