R&A raids title-winning Premiership club to land new chief executive

Mark Darbon is swapping the oval ball game for the one with small dimpled balls to become the The R&As new executive later this year.

The 45-year-old, who is currently the CEO of English Premiership Rugby club Northampton Saints, will join the St Andrews-based governing body in November after being appointed as the successor for Martin Slumbers.

Darbon’s switch to golf comes after he had been in line to become the new chief executive of the Scottish Rugby Union before pulling the plug on that move at the last minute following a change of mind.

Mark Darbon, the new CEO of The R&A, poses for a portrait at The Belfry in Sutton Coldfield. Picture: Richard Heathcote/R&A/R&A via Getty Images.

He will also take over from Slumbers, who announced earlier this year that he was stepping down after nine years in the dual roles, as secretary of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews.

Darbon, a keen golfer who plays off a low handicap, led Northampton Saints to their first Premiership title since 2014 last month after implementing a commercial strategy which enabled the club to bounce back from the pandemic to achieve record revenues in consecutive seasons.

He is also a former senior member of the team leading the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in 2012.

“I am thrilled and honoured to be taking up these positions with The R&A and The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and to be moving into golf, a sport I have always loved,” said Dardon, who currently plays his golf at both Northampton County and Saunton and is also a former England under-21 hockey international.

Mark Darbon, the Northampton Saints CEO, is leaving his post at Franklin's Gardens to become The R&A's new chief executive in November. Picture: David Rogers/Getty Images.

“The R&A is a globally-renowned organisation and does so much to ensure that golf prospers from grassroots through to the professional game. I am looking forward to working with a hugely-talented team of staff, the club membership and such an impressive array of partner organisations to achieve even more success in the years to come.”

A graduate of Worcester College, Oxford University, where he read geography, Darbon started 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 all over the world, including the US, Russia, China and Australia.

Having transitioned into sport event organisation in 2009, he held several senior roles with the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games and was latterly head of Olympic Park operations, overseeing the venue which housed nine competition venues. He went on to serve as an expert adviser to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 2013 to 2018.

Following London 2012, he was senior vice president of Tough Mudder Inc in New York and was involved in planning, promoting and staging mass participation events in North America, Latin America, Europe and Australasia.

Before joining Northampton Saints as CEO in 2017, Darbon served as CEO of Madison Sports Group, a sports events and content company which created an award-winning international series of professional track cycling events and, in doing so, brought a series of new sponsorship arrangements and media rights deals to the sport.

Niall Farquharson, chairman of The R&A said: “We were greatly impressed with Mark’s knowledge and experience of the global sport industry and his ability to develop successful teams and deliver fantastic 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 to achieve our goal of ensuring a prosperous and sustainable future for golf.”