The Rugby Football Union has today confirmed Ben Calveley as its new Head of International and Public Affairs. Calveley will join the RFU on June 13 from UK Sport, where he has been Head of Corporate and International Relations.
Calveley is one of a number of appointments made following some reorganisation of the RFU by John Steele, who moved to Twickenham as chief executive last year from UK Sport.
Calveley will take responsibility for all the RFU’s relationships with governments in the UK and overseas and will also co-ordinate and manage the Union’s interactions with other key international stakeholders in rugby and other sporting organisations at home and abroad.
He will report to Peter Thomas as Director of Communications and will therefore play a key role in ensuring the RFU’s marketing and communications activities are aligned and impactful in the lead up to the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
John Steele commented, “Although we are the governing body of the game in England we are part of a global game so this is a growing area of importance for us, and indeed for all sports. Our reputation and relationships with governments and quasi-governmental organisations will be critical to our success and our collaboration and involvement with other domestic and international rugby stakeholders equally so. Ben is one of the leading people in this emerging area and we are delighted to have been able to attract him to the RFU.”
During the four years spent at UK Sport, Calveley expanded his responsibilities beyond straightforward public affairs to include communications and international relations – an area that witnessed significant growth during this period as he led a team advising all Olympic and Paralympic sports on how to increase their influence internationally.
Calveley joined UK Sport from PMP, the sports consultancy, where he led the football division and managed complex domestic and international sport projects involving multi-disciplinary teams including advising on how to develop grass root and elite sporting systems in a number of international markets, working with Sport England to monitor and evaluate impact of community funding awards and working with Premier Rugby Limited (PRL) on eligibility criteria for top division clubs.
Prior to that he was a sports development manager for Merseyside Sport driving sports participation programmes in the North West.
Calveley played rugby at Southport and then Waterloo RUFCs and represented Lancashire at colts level.
UPCOMING SJA DATES
Tue Apr 5: SJA Olympic Question Time. Click here to find out more
Wed Apr 13: SJA 2011 Annual Meeting, at offices of UK Sport, Russell Square. Strictly SJA members only.
Wed Dec 7: SJA 2011 British Sports Awards – note the date in your diary now.
All details subject to alteration. Keep checking sportsjournalists.co.uk for updates