The first speaker in the new series was Ralph Rimmer (BA Economics 1987), CEO of the Rugby Football League. Ralph talked about his fascinating career since graduation, including how he has risen to take on one of the biggest positions in sport.
Ralph Rimmer was appointed onto the board of the Rugby Football League in 2013 after joining the organisation as Chief Operating Officer in October 2010. He has a wealth of experience at every level of the game, coupled with extensive knowledge in stadia and leisure development.
He played community rugby league for many years as a junior and senior for Ulverston ARLFC and went on to captain the Liverpool University team and play at student international level, before playing for Wakefield side, Stanley old Boys.
He began his professional career within the sport in South Yorkshire in 1991 as a Development Officer with Doncaster. He then took up a similar role with Sheffield Eagles three years later, going onto become General Manager and then Chief Executive of the then Super League club.
Following the club’s historic Challenge Cup Final victory over Wigan at Wembley in 1998, Rimmer went on to spend 5 years as the Chief Executive at Huddersfield Giants before moving on to the board as a non-executive director and taking on the role as the managing director of the stadium company, Kirklees Stadium Development Ltd.
In the last decade Rimmer spent four years as a non-executive director of Huddersfield Town AFC, helping to take the club out of administration; and also managed the Irish national rugby league team from 1997 to 2002 (including the 2000 Rugby League World Cup) and the Yorkshire Origin team in 2002; He was also non-executive Chairman of The Sporting Pride Community Trust, in Huddersfield, between 2007 and 2010.
As Managing Director of KSDL he was Project Lead on the £2m stadium redevelopment in 2007 and also on the £150m The HD One Leisure Development. He acted as a management consultant on several stadia developments including; Leigh Sports Village, Colchester United FC Stadium and also the Salford City Stadium.
Ralph is now CEO of the Rugby Football League, a position he has held since 2018 and is responsible for the direction of Rugby League in the UK.
Our event earlier this year was a fascinating insight into Ralph’s career and he will be on hand to answer questions from the audience. View it here.
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