Meet the team

We have a team of dedicated Sports Partnership Managers help you reach your fundraising goals. They have decades of combined sports fundraising experience behind them.

Many sporting clubs and athletes have raised millions of dollars with the help of our expert team. It's their job to support your fundraising campaign.

Patrick Walker

Chief Executive Officer

Patrick joined the Sports Foundation as CEO in 2014, following a successful business career as a member of the leadership team of global consulting firm PwC.

He has played sport all his life – including cricket, rugby union and athletics (javelin) at school - but his first love was and is football (soccer), which he played at semi-professional level and still plays weekly in the local Masters competitions.

Patrick is passionate about the social and community benefits of sport, and has dedicated this phase of his career to raising funds to help more Australians enjoy the positive health and social impacts of sports participation.

Our Partnership Managers

Our partnership managers are dedicated to helping ensure your sport has the funds it needs.

Ryan Holloway

Chief Partnerships Officer

Ryan has been helping raise funds for sport for the past 4 years. With a passion for sports, Ryan believes in the many benefits it provides to both individuals and communities. This passion attracted him to the Australian Sports Foundation so he could assist sport long term and foster a culture of philanthropy and fundraising in the industry he loves.

A country boy gone city, Ryan has been in the sports industry for over 15 years and has worked for professional clubs in the NBL and NRL as well as in the events industry. With a sound understanding of the unique challenges that each sport faces with regards to funding, being able to assist this gives Ryan the drive to help the sporting community at all levels.

Jaime Firman

Head of Fundraising Support

As Head of Fundraising Support with the Sports Foundation, Jaime uses her 18 years’ experience in sports philanthropy to provide fundraising guidance and expertise to a wide range of partners including NSOs, SSOs, professional sports clubs, schools, councils and hundreds of community sports clubs across Australia.

Jaime has been involved in sport all her life as a participant, volunteer, official and administrator, with AFL, Basketball and Netball being her favourite sports. Since obtaining a degree in Sports Management at the University of Canberra in 2003, Jaime has been focused and passionate about ensuring that lack of funding is never a barrier to sport participation, development and performance.

Michael Burke

Head of Sports Fundraising

Michael joined the Sports Foundation in 2018. He is passionate about fundraising and bringing communities together through sport. He has over ten years’ experience in fundraising and community engagement roles in the sports, tertiary education and nonprofit sectors. Michael holds a Bachelor of Sports Management and a Graduate Certificate in Business (Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies) from the Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies at QUT.

Our partnership manager, Michael, spent 2 hours with us explaining foundations and the pitfalls. We were so impressed with him, and then he came back a few weeks later. He went above and beyond expectations.

GRASSROOTS CLUB

Our Team