Directors

Kim Forge from Australia was elected to the World Curling Board in December 2022 for a two-year term.

Forge was the Australian Curling Federation President from 2013–2022 and has worked on a number of World Curling commissions, including the Athlete’s Commission from 2016–2021.

As an athlete, Forge has represented Australia 135 times, competing in eight world championships — four world mixed championships and four world mixed doubles championships.

In 2020, Forge was selected as Australia’s candidate for the International Olympic Committee’s Executive Masters in Sport Organisation Management programme and was awarded a full scholarship from Olympic Solidarity. Forge graduated the programme with High Distinction in September 2022, after presenting research on the subject, “What are the best practices and most effective inclusion strategies to actively engage with culturally and linguistically diverse communities in curling?”

Helena Lingham from Sweden was elected to the World Curling Board in September 2022 for a four-year term.

Lingham was elected to the Swedish Curling Association Board in 1995 and served on the Board for 16 years. She was a representative of the Swedish Curling Association to World Curling for 12 years.

She served on the Board Nomination Committee at the Swedish Olympic Committee, first as a member (2005-2009), then as Chair (2009-2015).

Lingham is a women’s world champion from 1995. She also won a silver medal at the women’s world championship in 2001 and two bronze medals in 1994 and 2003. She is also a women’s European champion from 2002.

Lingham works at Tele2, a Swedish internet service provider and telecommunication company as Senior Program, Project and Change Manager.

Sergio Mitsuo Vilela from Brazil was elected to the World Curling Board in September 2022 for a four-year term.

Since 2019, Vilela is a member of World Curling’s Structural Review Group.

Prior to his election to the World Curling Board, he was a Board Member and Director for curling at the Brazilian Ice Sports Federation.

Vilela has represented Brazil as a competitive curler at World Curling events since 2015.

Vilela works in a financial institution in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and he is a Doctor in International Tax Law and Master in Business Administration.

Robin Niven from Scotland was elected to the World Curling Board in September 2021 for a four year term.

Niven is a Rural Entrepreneur with business interests ranging from farming, renewables, hospitality, retail, and sports all hosted on the family farm unit.

He is the past Director and Chair of Royal Caledonian Curling Club, and more recently Chair of British Curling, the Great Britain Olympic and Paralympic Curling Programme.

Toyokazu Ogawa, from Japan, was elected to the World Curling Board in April 2012.

As part of the World Curling Board restructure in 2014, Ogawa was elected as Director for an initial one-year term. Ogawa was re-elected to the position of Director, for a four-year term in 2015.

Ogawa is the chair and board liaison of the newly formed Technical Commission, which ensures outstanding ice conditions at all World Curling events. The commission also assists Member Associations in improving existing, or building new, dedicated curling facilities.

In September 2019, Ogawa was re-elected, unopposed, to the role of Director for another four-year term.

Jill Officer from Canada was elected to the World Curling Athlete Commission in 2018 and was elected as its Chair in 2022.

As the Chair of the Athlete Commission, Jill holds a place on the Board for her term.

The Athlete Commission acts as the link between high performance athletes, the Board, the Rules and Competition Commission as well as the IOC Athletes Commission. The role of the Commission is to communicate the interests of high-performance curlers and to act as the collective voice for those curlers.

Officer is an Olympic champion from 2014 and holds two world women’s championship titles (from 2008 and 2018). She also won a silver medal at the women’s world championship in 2015 and a bronze medal in 2010. She holds six Scotties Tournament of Hearts titles.