Mark Buckton - President

Mark Buckton is involved in sumo at various levels. As Editor-in-Chief of Sumo Fan Magazine he runs the only multi-lingual site on sumo on the net today. Also sumo columnist for The Japan Times Online, much of his time is now taken up by sumo in one way or another. Another sumo column in Eye-Ai (Japanese culture magazine available in Hawaii and Japan) and work as a contributor on sumo to various publications in Japan keep him at the sharp end of the sport so living in Tokyo is by far the best place to be to achieve all of the above.
    Originally from South Manchester, Mark is ex-RAF and very well travelled because of it. At his final 'post' now, Mark has been in Tokyo since 1997.

Olivia Nagioff - Vice President

Olivia Nagioff was born and brought up in London. Following a Ph.D. in Computer Science at Cambridge University, she has worked extensively in High Technology, including running a company making Computer Networking equipment, jointly with her husband, for 7 years.
    Her interest in Sumo having started slowly in her early childhood when the BBC covered a single Basho, it has now become a passion. In addition to watching live Sumo on the Internet, she helps translate "Le Monde du Sumo" into English and maintains a Sumo database with data from 1757 to the present.
   Other hobbies include studying the Japanese language and culture and watching a variety of sports, including cricket, equestrian events and tennis.

Paul Sharp - General Secretary

Paul Sharp was born and raised in Grimsby a small town on the East coast of England where he still lives and works full time as a window cleaner.
    He first started his love of sumo in the early 1990s when it was shown on Channel 4 TV in England and found himself in awe of the agility of these Japanese (mostly) behemoths and subsequently wanting to learn more of the traditions of this great sport with all its splendor but when it disappeared from English TV the love died for a time to be rekindled later with greater access through Eurosport and on the Internet through the Sumo forum and the many sumo games.

Jezz Sterling - Overseas Development Officer

I grew up in the North of England. At the age of sixteen, I left home to attend high school in Swaziland, Southern Africa for a couple of years. I then spent half a year hitchhiking around Europe, before going to University in East Anglia (UK), taking a BSc in Development Studies. I took a year out from my degree to take up a job as a Special Metal trader (which I was given when hitchhiking in France.) I finished my degree, and then returned to the world of Metal trading, which included business trips to South America, and parts of the former Soviet Union. On one occasion I drove to Almaty in Kazakhstan from England. The trip took two weeks to complete, and a few near-fatal incidents along the way.

I was finding it difficult to trade directly with Japanese companies (one of the main end-users of Special Metals), and so when the opportunity arose, I took a year out to become a teacher on the JET scheme. I was based in a small fishing village on the island of Noumi-jima in Hiroshima Prefecture. I immediately became a fan of Sumo, and of Japan. I ended up spending three years in Japan. During this time I invented and set up the very popular fantasy sumo game, known as "Bench Sumo."

For the next year, I returned to metal trading. However, I was missing my Japanese girlfriend, and so returned to Japan, again working as a teacher (this time for the Ford Motor company.) However, after our break-up, I returned to England for a while, before deciding to teach again, but in a new location. I now live and work in Hong Kong.

In addition to sumo, my interests include mahjong (Japanese, Hong Kong and Shanghai versions), cards and travel. To date, through work, school and pleasure, I have been fortunate enough to travel to over sixty countries in six continents.

Carolyn Todd - West Japan Liaison

Carolyn Todd was born and raised in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, north-east England. After graduating in English and Linguistics she taught English in Italy for 3 years, returning to the UK to study winemaking. After working for wineries in California and Australia, she returned to her roots, teaching English in Osaka, Japan. She now lives in Kyoto and works as a medical editor. With no previous interest in sumo, her first basho was merely a 'must-see Japanese experience', which, in the space of an afternoon, became an obsession. She is now a staff writer for Sumo Fan Magazine, which allows her to explain away all those sumo hours as 'work'.