Hockey Ireland welcomes Richard Fahey as interim CEO

Hockey Ireland is delighted to welcome Richard Fahey to the role of interim Chief Executive Officer for the organisation.

Richard will commence in the role from Monday 28th March, succeeding Jerome Pels who is moving from the role he has held since January 2017 to take up an equivalent position with England Boxing.

Richard has held several senior management posts within Irish sport over the past twenty years, most recently as Chief Executive of Tennis Ireland.

He was formerly Director of Club Licensing and Facility Development at the Football Association of Ireland, providing him with experience in both individual and team sport environments. Richard is also a board member at the Dublin City Sport and Wellbeing Partnership.

During his time with Tennis Ireland, tennis enjoyed a significant growth in participation as he drove improvements in governance, built relationships with clubs and helped develop new competitive opportunities for players.

He has also played a key role in facilitating the development of tennis and football facilities at local and regional level across the country including the FAI National Training Centre at the National Sports Campus.

A key task for Richard will be to build on the work done to date by Jerome and all the team in Hockey Ireland and to bring a new perspective and experience to our sport as we continue our journey to deliver for our players, coaches, umpires, volunteers and clubs.

Richard said: “I am very much looking forward to commencing my role as interim Chief Executive Officer of Hockey Ireland and working closely with the staff, the Board and with everyone involved in Hockey on the island of Ireland to further develop this wonderful sport”.

Hockey Ireland chairman Trevor Watkins added: “Hockey Ireland are very pleased to welcome Richard to lead us in what is an exciting time for our sport. Richard’s skills and experience are a perfect fit for Hockey Ireland. The Board looks forward to working with Richard as we continue to implement our strategy and take advantage of the opportunities before us.”

The search for a permanent CEO will be advertised shortly on the Hockey Ireland and Sport Ireland website.