Joanna Jenkins

Joanna Jenkins is a member of Law Debenture's Governance Advisory team, where she provides board support and governance services to a range of clients across regulated sectors. She joined Law Debenture in 2022 and has recently qualified as a Chartered Company Secretary through the Chartered Governance Institute.

In sport, Joanna's work is focused on helping clubs and organisations build the governance structures that regulators and stakeholders increasingly expect to see. She plays a central role in Law Debenture's response to the Football Governance Act, supporting clubs across the football pyramid as they prepare for the Independent Football Regulator's licensing regime. That support covers governance health checks, licence application preparation, corporate secretarial services and the ongoing board and compliance documentation that clubs will need to maintain year on year once licensed.

Joanna contributed to Law Debenture's IFR compliance workshop for football executives, bringing a practical governance perspective to discussions about what good board function looks like at a football club and where the gaps between current practice and regulatory expectation tend to emerge. Her work is grounded in an understanding that governance in sport is not simply a compliance exercise: it is about building the internal accountability and transparency that protects clubs, their staff and their supporters over the long term.

Before joining Law Debenture, Joanna spent five years as Programme Coordinator for the Financial Times Board Director Programme, one of the most respected board development programmes in the UK. That experience gave her a distinctive lens on how boards work in practice, what effective directors need to understand about their responsibilities, and how governance frameworks translate from principle into boardroom behaviour. It is an insight that informs her approach to working with sports clubs whose boards are encountering formal regulatory governance requirements for the first time.

Joanna holds a BA Honours degree in French and Spanish and a Master's degree in International Relations from Cardiff University, bringing an international perspective to her governance work that is well suited to sports organisations operating across multiple jurisdictions.

Contact

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• Website: www.lawdebenture.com/our-people/joanna-jenkins