Mark Darbon has been appointed Chief Executive of the R&A and Secretary of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews.
Mr Darbon will succeed Martin Slumbers in the role of leading the governing body and organization that runs the Open and AIG Women's Open and invests in developing golf around the world in November. He will also be the Secretary of the 270-year-old club with more than 2,400 international members.
A former senior member of the London Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012, Mr Darbon is leaving his role as CEO of Premier Rugby club Northampton Saints to take up a position based in St Andrews.
Mr Darbon (45) led Northampton Saints to their first Premiership title since 2014 last month and implemented a commercial strategy that helped the rugby union club bounce back from the pandemic to record back-to-back seasons.
“I am delighted and honored to take up these positions with The R&A and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and to move on to golf, a sport I have always loved,” he said. “The IR&A is a world-renowned organization and does a lot to ensure that golf thrives from the grassroots to the professional game. I look forward to working with a highly talented team of staff, the Club's membership and an impressive list of partner organizations to achieve even more success in the coming years.”
Niall Farquharson, Chairman of the R&A said, “We are very impressed with Mark's knowledge and experience of the global sports industry and his ability to develop successful teams and deliver great events. We believe he will be an excellent leader for The R&A and The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and will play a key role in helping us achieve our goal of ensuring a bright and sustainable future for golf.”
Mr Darbon began his career as a management consultant at Marakon Associates, before joining Diageo plc where he held a number of strategic and commercial roles, living and working in markets around the world, including the USA, Russia, China and Australia.
After switching to a sports events organization in 2009, Mr Darbon held several senior roles with the London Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games and eventually became Head of Olympic Park Operations, overseeing the Olympic Park which had nine competition venues and 20,000 staff and he was accepted. 250,000 viewers per day for all 2012 games. He continued to serve as an Expert Advisor to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 2013 to 2018.
After London 2012, Mr Darbon was Senior Vice President of Tough Mudder Inc in New York and was involved in planning, promoting and organizing mass participation events in North America, Latin America, Europe and Australasia.
Prior to joining Northampton Saints as CEO in 2017, Mr Darbon served as CEO of Madison Sports Group, a sports events and content company that developed an international award-winning series of professional cycling events and, in doing so, delivered a series of innovative sponsorships. programs and media rights agreements in sports.
Mr Darbon graduated from Worcester College, Oxford University, where he studied geography.
As well as being a keen golfer, playing to a Handicap Index of 3.1 as a member of Northamptonshire County Golf Club and Saunton Golf Club, Mr Darbon is an England Under-21 hockey international and a Full Blue hockey player. at Oxford University. He is a non-managerial director of England Hockey and Women's Premiership Rugby.
Mr Darbon is married with two children and plans to move his family to St Andrews when he starts his new role.
For more information, please visit www.randa.org
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