Chair & Independent Non-Executive Directors of Men’s Professional Rugby Board appointed
Mike McTighe has been appointed Chair of the new Men’s Professional Rugby Board, taking up his role with immediate effect.
Mike is joined on the board by two Independent Non-Executive Directors (INED), Rachel Baillache and Ged Roddy MBE.
The Men’s Professional Rugby Board was created as part of the new Men’s Professional Game Partnership by the Rugby Football Union, Premiership Rugby and the Rugby Players Association. To lead this partnership into the next era, a new Professional Rugby Board (PRB) has been established to replace the Professional Game Board so that all rugby decisions are brought under one roof and to oversee the strategy. The eight-year partnership aims to create world-leading English teams and thriving professional leagues with players and fans at the heart of it.
As Chair, Mike brings a wealth of leadership, board and regulatory experience from both public and private companies. He is the Chairman of Openreach Limited, Together Financial Services Limited and IG Group plc. He was also appointed to Chair the Telegraph Media Group Limited in March 2024. Mike spent most of his executive career at Cable and Wireless, Philips, Motorola and GE.
For over 20 years he has held various non-executive director roles in a range of regulated and unregulated industries whilst also spending eight years on the board of Ofcom and one year on the board of Postcomm. Mike has held many chairships over the years, including chairing several UK and US public company boards.
Incoming INED, Rachel Baillache is a qualified accountant and was a member of KPMG’s global executive for nine years with a remit covering people, performance and culture as well as external and internal communications and ESG.
She has taken her extensive experience in strategy design and implementation, governance, risk and crisis management into her non-executive career. She is the senior independent director at the LTA and Chair of the Audit Committee. She also serves as a member of the Committee of Management for the Wimbledon Championships. She is a member of the Board at UK Sport where she also chairs the Audit and Risk Committee and previously served as a member of the Board of Somerset County Cricket Club. Rachel has an interest in both elite performance and grassroots participation, with her roles giving her experience and a perspective from across the sporting system.
Ged Roddy was a member of the executive board of the FA Premier League, and on the UK Sport Board which during his tenure pioneered mission 2012 ahead of the London Olympics. He has also worked at a senior level at three leading Universities – Bath, Southampton and Manchester.
He has held senior leadership positions and non-executive board roles with the Lawn Tennis Association, Sport England, UK Sport, the English Institute of Sport, Sports Coach UK and FIFA. He has managed and coached professionally in football and rugby union, including being an A licence football coach with over 30 years of coaching experience.
Mike McTighe said: “It’s my privilege to be taking on this role at such an important time for English Rugby. The enthusiasm from all quarters to reshape the men’s game is palpable. I look forward to getting to know better all the stakeholders in the coming days and weeks.”
Rachel Baillache said: “I am very much looking forward to joining the MPRB. I hope to bring my perspective from working in other sports to help address both the real challenges but also tremendous opportunities there are for English rugby."
Ged Roddy MBE said: “Being part of the newly established Men’s Professional Rugby Board is a great honour. I’m looking forward to working with Mike, Rachel and the rest of the board; we have a great opportunity to drive professional rugby forward.”
In addition to the Chair and INED positions, the RFU and Premiership Rugby will each have three voting members – Wayne Barnes (senior RFU representative and RFU Board member), Bill Sweeney (RFU CEO and RFU Board Member), Conor O’Shea (RFU Executive Director of Performance Rugby), Simon Massie-Taylor (Premiership Rugby CEO), Nigel Melville (Chairman of the Premiership Rugby Investor Board) and Chris Booy (Chairman of Bristol Bears). The RPA has two seats on the board (one voting and one observer respectively) – Christian Day (General Secretary) and Judith Batchelar (Chair of the Management Board) to ensure that players are central to decision making for the professional game.
