Our Team

Our team is dedicated to giving every Australian the opportunity to play Rugby and pursue their dreams.
Patron
The Honourable John Howard OM AC

John Howard OM AC was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was a member of the House of Representatives for 33 years. Prior to becoming Prime Minister, Mr. Howard had extensive senior experience in both government and opposition. He served as Treasurer (finance minister) in a previous government and led his party in opposition for a number of years. Mr Howard is a Companion of the Order of Australia and in January 2012, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Mr Howard to the Order of Merit. Outside of politics, Mr Howard has always enjoyed a variety of sports and is an enthusiastic rugby fan. Mr Howard brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the sport of Rugby.

Advisory Board Members

Andy Marinos, CEO of Rugby Australia

Andy has over 20 years in Sports Administration covering High Performance, Commercial and Broadcasting, Strategic Leadership and Transformational change.

He was appointed CEO of Rugby Australia in December 2020. Andy is former rugby footballer who played rugby league and rugby union professionally and represented Wales at rugby union.

He is also a strategic Advisor to WOSUP Australia. WOSUP (War On Single Use Plastic) exists to help address one of the greatest environmental problems facing the world today of too much plastic!

Lyndsey Cattermole AM, Director, Melbourne Rebels

Lyndsey Cattermole AM has board experience at Foster’s Group, Treasury Wine Estates, Tatts Group, the Victorian Major Events Corporation, Pact Group Holdings, Florey Neurosciences, Players Voice and the Melbourne Rebels.

Lyndsey also has experience on State and Federal Government committees and boards including the Federal Government’s Electronic, Electrical and Information Industry Board, and the Prime Minister’s Science and Engineering Council.

In Victoria, she was a member of the Premier’s Business Round Table.

Ms Cattermole founded Aspect Computing, which sold to ASX-Listed KAZ Group in 2002, she became a non-executive director of KAZ Group.

She has also been a director of the Heide Museum for Modern Art, the Melbourne Theatre Company and has spent over ten years involved with community health including at the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation and as chair of the Women’s and Children’s Health Care Network.

For her community involvements, Lyndsey was awarded a member of the Order of Australia.

Matt Hanning, Director, Rugby Australia

Matt has over 28 years’ of broad experience across investment banking, private equity and law, with roles in Australia, London, and Hong Kong.

Matt spent 10 years at UBS where, as Head of the Asia Pacific investment banking operations, he ran the leading regional investment banking franchise and was a Member of the Global Executive Committee for the Investment Bank. Prior to that, Matt held senior roles with Morgan Stanley, including Head of Investment banking for Australia and New Zealand. He was also a Partner at Clayton Utz for over four years.

Matt is a Non-Executive Director of Rugby Australia and Non-Executive Chairman of SAI Global.

He has a Master of Applied Finance from Macquarie University, a Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours) and a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Sydney.

Executive Head
Simon Davis

Simon is an emotionally intelligent, results-orientated business leader with 25+ years’ experience in professional services, corporate, capital markets and sporting sectors.

Simon holds a Master of Commerce degree from the University of Sydney and spent the first 12 years of his career in commercial analyst roles with ANZ, BHP, Credit Suisse and Deutsche. Following that, he held roles in General Management in Investor Relations, corporate advisory, capital raising and outsourced CFO/Governance advisory role with Leydin Freyer/Vistra Australia.

In addition, he spent two years as General Manager of Rugby Victoria.

Simon is client centric professional with strong commercial acumen and has been involved in extensive fundraising alongside his professional career through the Melbourne University Rugby Foundation, Weary Dunlop Foundation and other community initiatives.

Simon is a Life Member of the Melbourne University Rugby Football Club (MURFC) and has an extensive history as a proud and passionate supporter of Rugby Union in Australia noting his family’s heritage of his late father Greg Davis Wallaby #485.

E: simon.davis@rugby.com.au

Australian Rugby Foundation

The ARF fundraising program has been developed in partnership with the Australian Sports Foundation.

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