Management Team

Ian Watmore
Chief Executive
Ian Watmore joined The FA in June 2009 from his post as Permanent Secretary for the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills. Prior to this he was Head of the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit in Number 10, and previously in the Cabinet Office as Government Chief Information Officer.
He joined the Civil Service after 24 years in the IT industry in 2004 from Accenture, where he was UK Managing Director. He holds a degree in mathematics and management studies from Trinity College, Cambridge.
Watmore is also on the Board of the English Institute for Sport, a Lottery and Sport England funded body focused on helping to prepare high performance athletes for the Olympics and other major sporting events.
He is married with four sons and is a lifelong Arsenal supporter. He now lives in the North West and watches Altrincham in the Conference when he is not watching his sons playing in the Cheshire/South Manchester leagues.

Darren Bailey
Director of Football Governance and Regulation
Darren Bailey joined the FA as Director of Football Governance and Regulation in March 2009.
Building on a coaching and football background including signing for Chelsea as an associate schoolboy at 14, Darren has continued to pursue twin interests in sport and law. In private practice he became Head of Governance and Commercial at a leading specialist Sports Law practice before going on to become the first in-house Legal Counsel at the International Rugby Board (IRB) in Dublin. Whilst at the IRB Darren developed the world wide regulations of the sport and oversaw all legal work associated with the 2003 and 2007 Rugby World Cups. He also moved into a wider role in legislative affairs which included building strong relationships with the European and international sporting family.
Darren now has responsibility for a wide range of matters within Football Governance and Regulation including discipline , anti-doping, integrity, equality and child protection, financial regulation, and on-field and off-field regulatory matters.

Adrian Bevington
Group Director of Communications
Adrian joined The FA as a press officer in November 1997 and held several positions within the Communications area of the organisation before becoming Head of Media Relations in April 2003.
In addition to managing the media team of the third most quoted organisation in the UK, Adrian has also been responsible for the whole Communications Division since August 2004.
Prior to joining The FA he enjoyed roles including that of trainee reporter with ICI’s company newspaper and Senior Publications Officer at Middlesbrough Football Club. At Boro’ he was responsible for the match day and monthly magazine, several books, while playing a senior role within the club’s PR and press team.
After the World Cup in South Africa, Adrian will take up a new role as Managing Director of Club England.

Sir Trevor Brooking
Director of Football Development
Sir Trevor signed for West Ham United as a professional in 1966, remaining at the club until retiring in 1984. He made 635 appearances, scored 102 goals and won The FA Cup with the club in 1975 and 1980. He played 47 times for England, scoring five goals and featuring in the 1980 European Championship and 1982 World Cup.
Trevor has been particularly well known for his match commentating and summarising for the BBC. He retired as Chairman of Sport England in October 2002 and was a Director of West Ham United before joining The FA as Director of Football Development in January 2004, where his responsibilities centre around player and coach development and includes FA National and Regional Coaches, the FA Tesco Skills Programme, all England Development Squads and FA Learning, The FA’s educational arm.

Danielle Every
Head of FA Learning
Danielle started her professional career in football immediately after university where she worked for The FA at Villa Park as a volunteer in the Media Centre during Euro 96. She then spent five years working as Head of Sports at production company, AVC Media Enterprises in Aberdeen developing educational and technical videos and DVDs for UEFA, FIFA, The FA and the SFA.
In 2001 she returned to England to take up the position of Assistant Technical Co-ordinator at The FA before developing the FA Learning brand and taking over the Head of Department role in 2005. She joined the Board of FA Learning Ltd in 2007. During her time in football Danielle has also been seconded to UEFA and FIFA to work on tournaments. She worked alongside the Technical Study Group at the Women’s World Cup in 1999 and as a Media Officer at Euro 2000 and Euro 2004.

Michelle Farrer
Director of Club England Team Operations
Michelle joined The FA in 1985 working in an administrative role in The FA’s Coaching Department. In 1987 she became PA to Sir Bobby Robson before being appointed as the England Senior Team Administrator in 1992. She has been responsible for the England Senior Team operational arrangements since this time and has worked with eight permanent and two temporary England Managers during this period. Michelle has recently been appointed Director of Club England Team Operations. This role, encompassing all England representative Teams, will commence after the World Cup in South Africa.

Jenni Fitzgerald
Head of Off-Field Football Regulation
Jenni joined The FA in 2003 from The Standards Board for England. As Head of Off-Field Football Regulation she leads a team responsible for matters including The FA’s Doping Control Programme, off or on-field discrimination, media comments, providing investigatory support to the Equality and Child Protection team and any other off-field regulatory issues. Since joining The FA Jenni has played a key role in the complete revision of the doping control regulations and ensuring the introduction of a sport-specific whereabouts regime for players and clubs in order for The FA to remain a leading organisation in the field of doping control. Jenni is a member of the UK Anti-Doping Independent Administrative Review Panel and is an ex-police officer.

Simon Freedman
Head of Marketing
Simon spent ten years in various commercial roles in the food and drink industry, latterly overseeing football marketing in the UK at Coca-Cola covering the Football League and FIFA World Cup sponsorships.
He joined The FA in 2007 as Head of Marketing to oversee all marketing activity across all key assets, including Wembley Stadium.

Jonathan Hall
Director of Football Services
Jonathan heads up The FA’s Football Services Division and its two sub-divisions, the National Game and Professional Game Departments. The Football Services Division was created during the 2008/2009 season to oversee all football administration matters in both the Professional Game and National Game under the guidance of The FA’s Professional Game Board and National Game Board respectively and to act as the primary contact with stakeholders across the game. The Division’s responsibilities include overseeing the National Game Strategy to drive participation in the grass roots, the National League System, the Women’s Super League, the Respect Programme, FA competition administration, refereeing, league sanctions, player registrations and liaison with UEFA on UEFA club competitions.
Jonathan is also one of the FA’s two nominated trustees on the Football Foundation and the FA’s director on PGMO – a joint venture with the Premier League and Football League which oversees officiating in the Professional Game.
Prior to joining The FA in September 2004 as its Director of Governance, Jonathan was Secretary and Legal Officer at the RFU after spells at the sports management company, IMG, and law firm, Baker & McKenzie.

Alex Horne
Chief Operating Officer
As The FA’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) since July 2008, Alex is responsible for the delivery of all Corporate Services across the Group including Finance, Legal, HR, IT and Public Affairs. ‪ He is leading on the National Football Centre development project, and previously led on the integration project which saw The FA relocate to Wembley Stadium in 2009.
As Managing Director of Wembley Stadium (Dec 2006 - Sep 08), Alex was responsible for the delivery of the stadium’s events and all areas of its day to day operation after ensuring a smooth handover from stadium constructors Multiplex. ‪ He remains on the Wembley Stadium Board.
Prior to joining The FA in 2003 as Finance Director, Alex trained at Coopers and Lybrand as a Chartered Accountant before moving into the business recovery practice which included two years living in Bangkok working on financial restructuring assignments. In 2001, Alex returned to London to join a Business Regeneration practice, working on a number of business improvement and corporate turnaround assignments. ‪

David Lampitt
Head of Football Integrity
David joined The FA in 2003 and has worked for the last six years in the area of football governance. He has been involved in a number of key projects for The FA, including the delivery of a fast-track disciplinary system for on-field conduct, as well as the introduction of a revised approach to the regulation of agents and the transfer market. He has responsibility for a department responsible for Financial Regulation, Agents and Betting. He also sits as an expert member of UEFA’s Club Licensing Committee. David is a qualified accountant and prior to joining The FA Group, David worked for Ernst & Young in London and Coopers & Lybrand in Paris.

Alistair Maclean
Group Legal Director and Company Secretary
Ali joined The FA in January 2004 from Bird & Bird solicitors. He was appointed as The FA’s Head of Legal in July 2004 and Company Secretary in November 2008. On the integration of The FA Group, Ali was appointed as the organisation’s first Group Legal Director taking responsibility for all non regulatory legal matters across The FA and its subsidiary companies. The remit of the Group Legal team is broad covering all issues of corporate support (company law, finance, data protection, competition law, venue operations), commercial work (sponsorship, media, concerts and intellectual property), regulatory support and litigation. As Company Secretary, Ali is responsible for overseeing the corporate governance issues of The FA Group and Council.
Ali’s greatest piece of football memorabilia is a picture of him and Ray Clemence (The FA’s Head of National Teams) in oddly matching grey jumpers taken when Ali was 8 years old and he attended a football course which included meeting one of his Tottenham heroes!

Adrian Martin
Group Finance Director
Adrian trained as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen before moving on to work for BSkyB in 1997.
He joined The FA as its Financial Controller in 2002 and was promoted to the role of The FA’s Acting Finance Director in 2006 and then Group Finance Director in 2009. Adrian is married with two children and is an Arsenal supporter.

Roger Maslin
Managing Director WNSL
Roger was appointed Managing Director of WNSL in July 2009. He was previously Acting MD since August 2008 in which time the stadium has hosted 33 major live events including England football internationals, The FA Cup Final, a whole host of rock and pop concerts - such as Oasis, Madonna and Take That - the Race of Champions and the NFL.
Roger has spent over a decade working at the stadium after being appointed as Wembley Finance Director in February 1999. Before this Maslin was Financial Controller and Director of major breweries including Courage, Guinness and whisky giants United Distillers.

Mel Millner
Group HR Director
Mel Millner is the Group Human Resources Director and joined The FA in 2007. Mel has over 25 years HR experience covering all the key HR generalist activities, with particular experience of managing change and restructuring, gained within the manufacturing, retail hospitality and public sector areas.
Mel is continuing to lead on embedding the integration of The FA Group following the relocation of The FA to Wembley Stadium in August 2009.

Graham Noakes
Head of Professional Game
Graham heads up the Professional Game Department of Football Services, reporting into Jonathan Hall. Since joining The FA in 1995 Graham has at various times had responsibility for FA Competitions, Registrations, Disciplinary, Players’ Agents and Refereeing.
Graham is Company Secretary of the Professional Game Match Officials Ltd and has represented The FA at the Professional Football Negotiating and Consultative Committee since 1996.
Prior to joining The FA Graham spent 8 years with The National Computing Centre selling IT services to the public and private sector.

Hope Powell
England Women's Head Coach
Hope Powell was appointed as the first-ever full-time National Coach of the England Women’s team in June 1998.
An experienced international with 66 caps for her country and 35 goals, she was the youngest-ever England Coach and the first female.
In 2002, Hope was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list and became the first woman to acquire the UEFA Pro Licence coaching award in 2003.
Hope lead England to qualification for the FIFA Women's World Cup in China in 2007. After coming out of a group with Japan, Argentina and Germany - and being the only team to hold the eventual winners Germany to a draw - England reached the quarter-finals where they lost out to USA.
In 2009, Hope led the England Women's team to the Final of the European Championship for the first time since 1984.

Kelly Simmons
Head of National Game
Kelly Simmons is The FA’s Head of National Game. She is currently leading the implementation of the FA National Game Strategy which will invest £200 million into grassroots football over the next 4 year period. She was previously Head of Football Development, establishing the FA Football Development Department and delivering the FA Football Development Strategy 2001-2006. Prior to that she was responsible for Women’s Football. Kelly is a member of the UEFA Grassroots Panel and FIFA Women’s Committee.

David Thomson
Group Events Director
As Group Events Director, David brings a wealth of knowledge and experience of live event and venue management. With overall responsibility for all events within Wembley Stadium and the management of other FA events around the country, David will continue to develop the annual calendar of Stadium events and the professional and efficient performance of the event day teams.
A past international athlete, David represented Scotland at track and cross country from 1982 to 1988.

Stuart Turner
Head of Broadcast
Stuart has been Head of Broadcast at The FA since 2004 when he was recruited into the Commercial Division from Sky Sports. He was involved in the purchase of sports rights at Sky for four years, so a classic case of poacher turned gamekeeper. Stuart has worked in sports rights and marketing for the whole of his career having also worked at Sports Internet Group and Clubcall.