James Ellender is the CEO of ActiveXchange, a multi award-winning and rapidly expanding data technology company headquartered in Sydney and with offices in the UK, Canada and the USA. ActiveXchange provides facilities, sports and government with a data intelligence partnership, leveraging millions of physical activity data points each week to guide better planning, investment and operational decisions.
James has grown up in the industry, starting on the frontline in 1998, worked as a personal trainer, group fitness instructor, sales and gym manager, built a contact centre, lead regions and states, working all the way up to senior executive roles for some of the largest leisure operators across Australia and New Zealand. Over the years James has been part of opening some of the most iconic sport and leisure facilities in Australia, supporting new programs and initiatives to tackle major health issues, partnering with 100’s of Government Agencies, and sat on many reference groups and steering committees all committed to driving continuous improvement and making a difference in the sport, leisure and health sector. Throughout the journey, James grew increasingly frustrated at the lack of evidence behind decisions and the continual mismatch of facility and program to community profile needs, and the continuous missed opportunity in making the most of funds and investment.
Today, James uses his role at ActiveXchange to make an impact on one community, one sport, and one facility at a time, alongside 100’s of organisations connecting to SportsEye, ActiveXchange’s Network, to harness the power of collective data to drive decision making which fosters proactive decisions, intervention and both health and commercial outcomes.