Neil Hart is a vastly experienced football administrator and innovator, having successfully filled high-profile roles on both the football and community sides of the industry with clubs in the Premier League and EFL.

A native of Lancashire, Neil assisted in spearheading the highly-respected community programme at Watford Football Club for eight years before returning to the North-West to join Burnley in 2013 as Community CEO.

At Turf Moor, Neil established Burnley FC in the Community as a high-impact charitable organisation which grew to employ over 100 staff and deliver multi-million-pound funding into creating and delivering vitally needed community facilities and projects.

Burnley FC in the Community engaged with over 33,000 individuals in and around the town as one of the most effective community programmes in the country.

Neil’s success with the charitable arm of Burnley Football Club led to him taking over as Chief Executive Officer at Turf Moor in March, 2019.

As one of the youngest CEO’s in the Premier League at just 38, Neil led the Clarets through the challenges of the COVID pandemic to maintain their top-flight status and supported with the takeover of Burnley FC in early 2021.

Following the arrival of new ownership at Burnley, Neil then moved to Bolton Wanderers as CEO in July, 2021 and has since played a leading role in supporting the club in driving up revenues, ticket sales, increasing fan engagement and working closely with the Board and First Team Manager in rebuilding the club both on and off the pitch.

Stewart qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst and Young before moving to PricewaterhouseCoopers where he spent eight years in the corporate finance team.

He then became a partner in a private investment firm where he served as a non-executive director on the boards of several companies in various industries, including 12 years as a director of Motherwell Football Club.

He joined Rangers in 2015, overseeing the recovery of the club and its return to financial sustainability and on-field success.  He has served on the Board of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) on several occasions since 2003 and has previously been a member of the SFA’s Professional Game Board.

 

 

Wrexham AFC CEO Fleur Robinson is an accomplished commercial leader with a huge passion for putting football at the heart of the community and making a positive difference to people’s lives.

Fleur joined Wrexham in June as the Club’s new high-profile co-chairmen, Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, sought an experienced footballing person to help deliver an ambitious mission statement, growing the Football Club in tandem with their targets for success on the pitch. Previously, Fleur spent more than 25 years at Burton Albion – holding the position of Commercial Director as the Brewers’ rose up through the Football League and spent two years playing in the EFL Championship.

A major highlight of Fleur’s career was becoming a founding Trustee of the award winning Burton Albion Community Trust, a thriving community involvement programme which inspires, engages and educates local people and welcomes 8000 participants a week.   She is also proud that the club was awarded for three consecutive years, the Family Excellence Award which recognises “the extraordinary quality of the family experience”. During her time with Burton, she also led the huge transformation of the commercial side of the business. This included the launch of the club’s corporate hospitality and conference facilities, initiatives to increase match day attendance and sponsorship opportunities to bring increased funds into the club.

Fleur is currently elected to the 120-member FA Council and, having been involved in football since the early 1990s, has seen a great deal of diversification over the years.  Fleur is an Ambassador for BTEC and supports education particularly the transition for further education through her own development ‘Inspiring Your Future’ workshops. In December Fleur received the Football Black List award for Administration for the second time.

 

 

 

 

Ben Mansford was appointed CEO and a Director of Blackpool Football Club in November 2019.

A graduate in Law, Ben is a qualified solicitor who specialised in sport, prior to becoming a Vice President at global sports management and media group Wasserman for many years.

He was appointed Chief Executive of Barnsley in 2013 and spent three years in the role at Oakwell, with the club achieving promotion to the Championship and a Football League Trophy success in his final season. Ben’s switch to Leeds United in 2016 then resulted in him playing a major role in the Whites’ resurgence.

In June 2017, he became CEO of Maccabi Tel Aviv, with the Israeli giants winning the championship in record-breaking fashion during his time there, as well as qualifying for the group stages of the Europa League.

Joining Forest Green Rovers in 2018 as the youngest CEO in English football, Henry has overseen a vast range of innovation projects and growth success in the last three years at the ‘world’s greenest football club’. Notable news during this time include investment from the likes of Hector Bellerin, tripling sponsorship revenue and quadrupling retail income. This culminated in winning League Two CEO of the Year at last year’s awards.
Henry’s background before football was anything but traditional – leaving school at 16, hiring an office above a skip yard, before growing and selling two businesses. He also invests in property. He is a commercially-biased business leader, who operates a culture of Autonomous Accountability.

With over 20 years in professional football, Mark is one of the most experienced and long standing CEO’s in English Football, having been CEO at Swindon Town, QPR, Brentford and Huddersfield Town AFC .

From 2011-2018, Mark oversaw the rise of Brentford from a mid-table League One club, to a financially stable, Championship club challenging at the top of the League. Mark was also involved in the development and planning for the new Brentford Community Stadium which opened earlier this year.
Devlin enjoyed a spell in The Republic of Ireland, with the Champions, Dundalk, in 2019. During his time, Dundalk not only retained their title, but also included experience of both the UEFA Champions League and Europa League, before returning to England to take on the CEO role at Huddersfield Town in January 2020.
Mark was also a member of the EFL Commercial Committee between 2014-2018 as one of three Championship representatives.

Starting her working life at the tender age of 17 as a main-frame computer operator for Hoskyns Systems, Carol moved on to CMC, installing and supporting data prep and distributed data processing systems. It was here that she met future husband Kevin when she was teamed with him on the British Leyland account. She’s been juggling a career in the IT industry with family-life ever since.

Carol’s firmly-held belief that companies have an obligation to give equal importance to nurturing their relationships with customers and staff, as to generating profit, has been at the heart of Synectics Solutions’ ethos since its inception. This is a subject that she’ll speak passionately about with little prompting.

In May of 2019 Carol took the reins as Chair of Port Vale FC, following her family’s acquisition of the League Two club. Carol has been the driving force behind the Vale’s resurgence on and off the field and helped to build the club’s reputation with its supporters and nationally within the industry.

When the first Covid-19 pandemic lockdown occurred in March 2020, football was suspended and Port Vale was no longer able to offer events or hospitality. At this point Carol oversaw the creation of the Port Vale Community Hub which brought together club staff, the Hubb Foundation, Synectics Solutions, Summit Hospitality, the Port Vale Foundation, volunteers and local businesses. To date it has delivered more than 170,000 meals to families in need across Stoke-on-Trent.

Carol is the co-Chair of the Stoke-on-Trent Opportunity Area Board which brings together senior leaders from schools, communities, business, and central and local government. They bring their experience, insight and ambition to Stoke-on-Trent and its young people. She also sits as a critical friend on the Stoke-on-Trent Children’s Services Improvement Board.

In the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2020 Carol, aged 62, was awarded an OBE for services to the communities of Stoke-on-Trent.

Alistair Mackintosh joined Fulham Football Club as Chief Executive in the summer of 2008.  He was previously Chief Executive at Manchester City Football Club and over a ten year period saw the Club travel from the Second Division back to the Premier League and from its Maine Road home to the City of Manchester Stadium.

Having trained as a Chartered Accountant with PWC, Alistair spent a number of years working for Sony before entering the football business.  He has also held Board positions at a radio station, a museum, a leisure centre group and a charity.

Neil Doncaster has been involved in football for the last 25 years.  He joined Norwich City in 1997 as Company Secretary and, four years later at the age of 31, became their Chief Executive. In his twelve years at City, the Club re-built its reputation with supporters, with season ticket numbers trebling over the period to 20,000 and the Club receiving a number of awards for community, business development and innovation.

While with Norwich, Neil was elected to the Board of the English Football League and subsequently to that of the Football Association. Neil joined the Scottish Premier League in 2009 and, following the merger of the Scottish Premier League and Scottish Football League in 2013, Neil became the first Chief Executive of the Scottish Professional Football League (“SPFL”).  Neil is the only person ever to have sat on the Boards of both The FA and The Scottish FA.

The SPFL recently announced new long-term and enhanced live broadcast rights contracts with Sky Sports and Premier Sports, as well as sponsorship deals with cinch, Loch Lomond Group, Papa John’s and Lottomart.  Despite the disruption caused by Covid-19, the SPFL announced record fee payments to the SPFL’s 42 member clubs in 2021.

Donna is an Executive Director of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and Director of Tottenham Hotspur Women Football Club. She has spent over 30 years in business management. She is also a Trustee of the Club’s charitable organisation, the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation.

Donna was previously with Lord Bell’s group of companies, Chime plc and was Deputy MD of Good Relations. She specialised in the field of corporate and financial communications and marketing, having also worked in public affairs. Early major campaigns included the privatization of BP, Thames Water and AEA Technology. She advised the Club over a period of 14 years prior to joining the Board in 2006, Donna currently oversees the Club’s Planning Consultations, Communications, Content and Marketing departments.

She graduated from the University of Cape Town in 1984 with a double Masters in Politics and English.