Mark Darbon named as new CEO of The R&A

The current chief executive of Premiership Rugby club Northampton Saints, Mark Darbon, 45, has been named as the new CEO of The R&A, one of the most powerful positions in golf.

Darbon, who will also become the new secretary of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, will start the roles in November.

He succeeds Martin Slumbers, who announced he was standing down after nine years in the post, earlier this year.

Northampton Saints won their first Premiership title since 2014 this year.

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 USA, 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. He served as an expert adviser to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 2013 to 2018.

Mark Darbon

Following London 2012, Darbon 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, Mr 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.

Darbon is a keen golfer, playing to a Handicap Index of 3.1, and is a member of Northamptonshire County Golf Club and Saunton Golf Club. He is a former Under-21 England hockey international and a Full Blue for hockey at Oxford University. He is a non-executive director of England Hockey and Women’s Premiership Rugby.

He is also married with two children and plans to move his family to St Andrews when he takes up his new role.