Parkour Earth Appoints Mikkel Rugaard as Independent Director

Following an extended global public recruitment process, the Parkour Earth Board has appointed Mikkel Rugaard of Denmark as an Independent Director* for an initial four-year term.

Mikkel has been involved with parkour since 2005, growing up with the ethos and values of, and a close personal relationship to, the Yamakasi founders. He has a physical education degree and a master's in architecture and industrial design. From 2009 until 2020, Mikkel was the co-owner and CEO of Danish parkour organisation Street Movement. He has been essential to the development of ‘parkour design’, co-authoring the European Standard for parkour equipment and developing and implementing many groundbreaking parkour spaces himself. He has also contributed significantly to coaching in Denmark, including incorporating parkour into the school curriculum.

Mikkel is deeply involved in sports politics, being a former board member of the Danish Institute for Sports Studies and a co-creator of the Danish National Platform for Street Sports. Mikkel now runs his own design studio focusing on spaces and objects for the moving human body. He still moves, being a firm believer that the lived experience is essential to the quality of his process and designs.

Parkour Earth CEO, Damien Puddle has said "It is very exciting to have someone of Mikkel's calibre join the Parkour Earth Board. We and the global community will benefit greatly from his array of skills and experience in coaching, business, design, and governance. Mikkel's appointment is valuable and highly necessary for supporting Parkour Earth's growth at this pivotal stage in our development."

"During the recruitment process, there were several people that we invited to apply who were highly professional candidates and would contribute towards Parkour Earth's diversity goals. Unfortunately, though interested and flattered, the timing didn't suit them. Mikkel and the rest of the Parkour Earth Board are acutely aware that his appointment does not greatly increase the federation's diversity goals. The Board, therefore, wish to state publicly their collective and individual commitment to resigning before the end of their terms, should other capable and more diverse candidates step forward in the future."

*A Director appointed by the Board free of any close connection of the National Member Federations of Parkour Earth.

Photo by Jacob Ammentorp Lund.