Executive Board
The Director General for Customer Services at the Home Office joined the WRU as Chief Executive Officer in January, 2024.
Before joining the Civil Service, Tierney was a Business Development Director at Serco, where she also held a number of operational roles, including Regional Director and Chief Executive of Suffolk Community Services.
Prior to this, she was a Director at University Hospitals of Leicester and Aberdeen City Council and was previously Marketing Leader for IBM’s Global Services Business.
She has Welsh connections, as her father hails from Barry in South Wales, and she is a life long supporter of Welsh rugby.
Joined the Group in 2015 and was appointed Head of Rugby Performance in 2016. Geraint is now Community Director.
He had returned to Wales in September 2015 as the Group’s Elite Coach Development Manager. Previously he had spent 10 years working abroad, with Rugby Canada as High Performance Manager and then Sevens Head Coach, before joining the Australian Rugby Union as Program Director of Sevens and Men’s Sevens Head Coach in June 2014.
He is a former Wales assistant coach, who has also coached at Llanelli, Cardiff Metropolitan University and Cardiff Blues.
He played for Cardiff and Llanelli, featured at every representative schoolboy level and was capped by Wales A.
Huw Bevan joined as Performance Director (interim) in April 2023.
Bevan replaces Nigel Walker OBE in the role, after he moved to become interim WRU CEO in January this year.
He is a former Cardiff Rugby and Ospreys strength and conditioning coach and has held senior elite sports performance positions within multiple organisations in rugby and cricket during an illustrious career.
Joined the Group in 2010.
He started his legal career at the international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London, before joining the commercial legal department at UEFA (the European football governing body, based in Switzerland) working predominantly on Champions League, Europa League and UEFA European Football Championships matters.
He left UEFA to become the Senior Solicitor at The FA Group and was responsible for a broad range of legal matters in relation to both The Football Association (including in relation to the 2010 FIFA World Cup) and Wembley Stadium.
In 2015, he was named as The Lawyer magazine’s ‘In-House Lawyer of the Year’.
He played rugby throughout his time at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf and has played for Dinas Powys, for teams in London, Thailand, Hong Kong, Australia and Switzerland and for the University of London.
In July 2021 he was unveiled as the WRU’s Commercial and Legal Director having previously held the role on an intermim capacity. He continued with his position as WRU Group General Counsel, but with added responsibilities for the Group’s commercial activity. He also continued as WRU Company Secretary, a role he has fulfilled since August 2018.
Lydia Stirling was appointed to the Welsh Rugby Union Executive Board as its new People Director in July 2021.
Stirling, whose family hail from Dinas Powys, is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development and joins from multi-national engineering and consulting business Arup, where she was Head of HR for the Consulting UK, India, Middle-East & Africa region.
She was also previously HR Business Partner at Mclaren Racing.
Stadium Manager
Joined the Group in 2013.
He joined after a military career spanning 20 years during which he rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in The Royal Welsh. He served on multiple tours of duty in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq and he was decorated for his actions in combat in Iraq in 2007.
During his military career, he held high-profile military appointments in both training and operational environments including time as a Battalion Adjutant, Company Commander and Battle Group Chief of Staff with the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Welsh.
He played rugby for Neath College, Glynneath and his Regiment.
Leighton Davies was appointed Chief Financial Officer at the Welsh Rugby Union Group in March 2024.
His appointment was the first senior management appointment of new Group Chief Executive Abi Tierney’s tenure.
Davies was previously Global Controller at Purolite, an Ecolab Company, having previously spent seven years with them as Finance Director, International Operations.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and a graduate of Cardiff University who hails originally from Crynant in the Dulais Valley.
After training as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst Young he embarked on a varied international career spanning sectors across Chemicals, Aviation, Transportation, Media and entertainment and also Life Science and Bioprocessing.
Before Purolite, he worked at the BBC as a Finance Director for three years. Prior to that he held senior finance roles at GE Aviation and Network Rail.
