Fitness industry veteran Harm Tegelaars has returned to the fitness industry by joining the board of directors at Hussle.

Tegelaars founded the Cannons Group in 1980 and built it from one club into a national brand with more than 3,500 employees and 60 sites – which were absorbed into the Nuffield Health business. He is also a former president of Europe Active and a founding director of the Fitness Industry Association – now known as UK Active.

At Hussle, his remit will be to drive the growth of the fitness marketplace's portfolio of consumer partnerships and to use his understanding of the sector to deepen the relationship Hussle has with operators.

Hussle has currently has consumer marketing partnerships in place with a number of major companies, including AXA Health, The AA, BUPA, AMEX, O2 and Tesco Clubcard.

Tegelaars said “The fitness industry and its growth has been a lifelong passion for me.

"I’m delighted to return with Hussle, and I look forward to building on the incredible marketing collaboration opportunities that the team have created.

"For too long, our sector has missed out on the exposure and revenue that other sectors can bring through their marketing power and geographic reach.

"Health and fitness are the greatest rewards that any sector can provide to its customers, and we at Hussle bring the benefit of the network scale required to make that possible.”

Hussle CEO, Jamie Ward, added: “Harm will help us dramatically increase investment in the sector through consumer marketing partnerships.

"Harm is genuinely one of the true innovators in our sector having launched organisations that continue to thrive today such as Nuffield Health Fitness & Wellbeing and ukactive.

"We look forward to harnessing his drive and energy in making Hussle the go-to partner for UK operators seeking growth through marketing partnerships such as AXA Health, BUPA and many others.”