Kay Cossington, MBE

Co-Founder and CEO of Bay Collective

Kay Cossington, MBE is widely regarded as one of the most influential architects of modern women’s football in England, recognized for combining elite-performance strategy with the governance and commercial acumen needed to build a sustainable sport. Over a 20-year tenure at The Football Association (FA), she played a central role in shaping the long-term vision that underpins the modern success of the women’s game, helping establish England as a global leader through a model of structured, high-performance growth.

In 2025, Cossington moved to Sixth Street, a leading global investment firm with more than $140 billion in assets under management, to launch Bay Collective, the women’s multi-club platform created to drive the global growth of the women’s game. As Co-Founder and CEO of Bay Collective, she is responsible for steering and implementing platform-wide strategy. Bay Collective’s portfolio includes Bay FC, representing the Bay Area in the National Women’s Soccer League (USA), and the Women’s Super League 2 club Sunderland AFC Women (England). Backed by Sixth Street’s scale and business-building expertise, Bay Collective’s mission is to build a progressive and sustainable ecosystem of women’s football clubs and to ensure female athletes receive the strategy, resources, and recognition they deserve.

A defining element of Cossington’s impact on global women’s football has been her commitment to “what it takes to win.” At The FA, she established the first dedicated Women’s Technical Division and drove the strategic plan Piccadilly to Podium, designed to create a clear, end-to-end pathway and a “conveyor belt” of talent. Her leadership also included one of the most pivotal appointments in the modern era: recruiting Sarina Wiegman as Head Coach of the England women’s national team, a deliberate high-performance investment aligned with a broader ambition for international success and long-term value creation across the women’s football ecosystem.

The results of this approach are historic. Under the performance environment Cossington helped build, the Lionesses won UEFA Women’s Euro 2022, England’s first major senior international title, before lifting the inaugural UEFA Women’s Finalissima in 2023 and reaching the FIFA Women’s World Cup final later that year. The team then reinforced its position at the pinnacle of the international game with back-to-back European titles, winning UEFA Women’s Euro 2025.

Cossington has also been recognised for understanding how elite success accelerates systemic growth. The Lionesses’ achievements drove record TV audiences, sell-out crowds at Wembley, and increased confidence from partners and investors, delivering a halo effect that boosted participation, strengthened grassroots investment, and elevated the visibility and value of the domestic game.

Beyond competition and commerce, she has consistently championed leadership pathways advocating for women in executive roles and collaborated across clubs, commercial partners, and international bodies including FIFA and UEFA to strengthen the wider football ecosystem. In 2024, she was awarded an MBE for services to football.