Meet our Sponsored Athlete

Rugby season is upon us again, and it brings some truly exciting news for DPAS.

If you’ve been keeping up with us over the past 12 months, you might already know about our partnership with Exeter Chiefs. You can read our first announcement here.

You’ll also be familiar with how attached we are to rugby here at DPAS. Founder Nigel Gooding is a well-known name in rugby circles, and a survey has shown that 99%* of DPAS employees prefer the sport over Football.

As part of our support for Exeter Chiefs, we’re thrilled to announce that we are sponsoring female athlete Abby Middlebrook for the 2021/22 season. Abby has been playing rugby since she was 12 years old, representing Devon County and England U18s in that time.

Our CEO Melanie Garnett went over to Sandy Park to meet with Abby recently, to kick off what is sure to be an exciting and rewarding relationship. Here’s what they had to say.

“It’s exciting to be sponsored by a female led company, and I’m grateful to be supported in my rugby career. It feels nice to be recognised as a leading female player and as an aspiring professional who aims to inspire the next generation. It’s great to know that DPAS are helping Exeter Chiefs to ensure they look after my data as a player. I’m really excited about the sponsorship, and I’m looking forward to seeing the girls support me on the side-lines this season.” – Abby Middlebrook, Exeter Chiefs

“We are really proud to be working with Exeter Chiefs and to be supporting them with their data protection compliance. As a Devon-based, internationally renowned company, it’s always exciting to work with organisations so close to home, especially those that we have such personal interest in. As a company which embraces diversity, and is led by a female CEO, we are thrilled to support and sponsor a female athlete.” – Melanie Garnett, CEO of DPAS

We’ll be supporting Abby and the rest of Exeter Chiefs throughout the season (and beyond!).

Check out our article talking about our training event with the Exeter Chiefs.

You can keep up to date with us by signing up to our newsletter, or following us on LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook.

*may not be entirely accurate, but to be fair, this won’t be far off!

related posts

Sophie Costain

Should All My Employees Be Able to Recognise a Subject Access Request?

Data protection is not just about cybersecurity; it relies on your employees recognising Subject Access Requests. The statutory one-month deadline begins the moment a request is received, even informally. Discover why training your entire workforce to instantly spot and escalate these requests is essential to avoid serious regulatory compliance breaches.

Read More »
Alex Haslam

DPAS Data Protection Bulletin – July 2026

Welcome back to our monthly DPAS bulletin, where we cover the latest data protection news and developments from around the world.

Ever wondered how a routine government spreadsheet leak turns into a two-year covert court order? How about why the police might feel your mother-in-law’s contact details were key to national security? Have you ever pondered how many working weeks it takes to read a cookie banner? Whether Wall Street knows about your last GP visit? Or if you’re in Australia (g’day) why an AI is sending notes on your worst rashes to faraway cloud servers?

Read about all this and more in our latest DPAS Data Protection Bulletin.

Read More »
Alex Haslam

Root Cause Analysis: A Practical Guide

A practical guide to data breach reporting under UK GDPR, covering when you must notify the ICO, how to report a breach (and what to do if you don’t need to), and when affected individuals need to be told. Includes the key steps, timeframes, and documentation requirements to keep your organisation compliant.

Read More »

Get a Free Consultation