Heather Rabbatts to become first female to sit on FA Board

Thursday 22 Dec 2011
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The FA Board has today (22 December) approved the appointment of Heather Rabbatts CBE and Roger Devlin as two new independent non-executive directors.

A nominations committee submitted their unanimous recommendation to the Board, and the appointments will now be put to The FA Council for ratification early in the New Year.

Rabbatts, aged 56, will become the first female to ever sit on The FA Board and has more than 20 years executive and non-executive experience from both the public and private sector and across a breadth of industries, including local government, media, financial services and football.

Devlin, aged 54, is an experienced non-executive director and has operated as a senior executive within the corporate sector for globally recognised, large-scale organisations, with expertise in the banking sector, sport, media rights, property and hotels.

David Bernstein, Chairman of The FA, said: “I am naturally delighted by the decision of the Board to endorse the appointments of both Heather and Roger. This is an important moment for The FA and represents a significant change to our governance structures.

“I would like to thank the Board, Council and Shareholders for their support to date, and I look forward very much to working with Heather and Roger in the future.”

Rabbatts, who was born in Kingston, Jamaica, trained as a barrister but made her name as the youngest council chief executive and subsequently went on to run the London Borough of Lambeth in 1995. She then left the public sector and worked in the private sector primarily in media, before becoming the Executive Deputy Chair of Millwall FC in 2006.

Rabbatts has held a number of non-executive directorships including Governor of the BBC, Trustee of the Bank of England, a non-executive at Grovenor and the Royal Opera House. She was awarded a CBE in the 2000 New Year Honours list.

She said: “Having worked across media, business and football I hope to bring those experiences to my work at The FA. In particular, over many years, including my time at Millwall, I have worked across communities to both improve participation and to develop talent.

“I am obviously delighted to be joining the Board at The FA and working with colleagues to support the future of football in England.”

From The FA

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