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Renna Nelis

General Secretary

Renna Nelis is the Secretary General of AIMS and a sports management professional from Estonia with more than 25 years of experience in sports administration, event management, and international cooperation. She has been involved in the organisation and development of major mass participation sporting events in Estonia since 2000, including the Tallinn Marathon and Maijooks, the country’s largest women’s running event. Renna served on the AIMS Board of Directors from 2021 to 2026. Since 2022, Renna has worked at the Estonian Centre for Physical Activity Competence, where she coordinates national and international programmes promoting physical activity and healthy lifestyles. Her work focuses on partnership development, community engagement, and increasing opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to be physically active. Renna has played an active role in several international sports initiatives, including the European Week of Sport and the European School Sport Day. She was part of the organising team of the 25th AIMS World Congress in Tromsø and previously contributed to the successful delivery of the AIMS World Congress in Tallinn in 2018. She holds a degree in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Tartu and has completed postgraduate studies in Business Administration, as well as further education in public health, sports management, and coaching. Outside her professional work, Renna is a passionate endurance athlete, having completed 22 marathons and an Ironman triathlon.

Al Boka

Treasurer

Email: aimstreasurer@aol.com

Al Boka became a committed runner while attending the University of Nevada - Las Vegas. He has run 37 marathons with his personal best of 2:45.05 at the age of 43; just three years after beginning running. Al had spent 22 years in the United States Air Force with more than half of that while living in France, England, Greece, Spain and Thailand. His travels honed his deep interest in worldly matters which became apparent after he began directorship of the Las Vegas Marathon in 1980. As the event grew and as a result of his own running in large international events he began focusing on attracting international participant to Las Vegas. Within 10 years he had grown the foreign attendance from zero to over 1,000. In 1992 the Las Vegas Marathon became an AIMS member. In 1996 he was nominated for the position of AIMS Treasurer by the outgoing AIMS Treasurer, Andy Galloway, and was duly elected. Since then he has developed procedures and policies which define and control AIMS finances. These controls over spending have greatly contributed towards AIMS’ growth from 120 to 470+ members.

Gary Friar

Communications

Email: gary@distancerunning.co.uk

Gary started producing Distance Running back in 1994 and has been working with AIMS since that time developing the magazine and more recently the AIMS website. He is a qualified stockbroker and worked on the Glasgow Stock Exchange floor from 1978 to 1981. He then joined Scottish and Universal Investment Trust (SUITS), a division of Lonrho, working firstly in Scottish and Universal Newspapers heading a team which launched a series of free distribution newspapers around the west of Scotland. He transferred within the group to Holmes MacDougall magazine division as Special Projects director. He published the 1982 Glasgow Marathon magazine and introduced Mars Confectionery to marathon sponsorship, who later went on to be the title sponsor of the London Marathon. He continued to launch and develop other titles within the group prior to starting his own company. In 1990 he set out on his own producing and growing publications for both major brands and owners of niche titles. In 1994 he was approached by an ex-colleague from Holmes MacDougall to get involved in publishing Distance Running magazine for AIMS, which at that time had around 100 members. He helped transform the publication from a black and white A5 yearbook to an A4 quarterly magazine, now with a worldwide distribution serving over 400 members. He also introduced various sponsors to AIMS and continues to develop the magazine and the AIMS web site, which now has over 482,000 visitors looking at 2,589,776 pages per quarter.