Board of Directors

Rod Jones – Chair

Rod Jones is the Managing Director of an international steel consulting business specialising in strategic planning, technical and training services. After a long spell out of cricket Rod returned to the game when his sons started playing. He was subsequently captain of Monkswood Cricket Club for 6 years. He is now Chairman of Monkswood and is also Chairman of the Welsh Club Cricket Conference.

Jennifer Owen-Adams – Independent, Senior Director

Originally from Ceredigion, now living in Powys, Jennifer’s professional background for over 30 years is in secondary, further and higher education and the Third Sector across England and Wales. She is currently the Director of Wales and the West Midlands for the education charity Teach First. Wherever Jennifer has been, cricket has always been a part of her life to varying degrees since early childhood and wanting more people to fall, and stay in love with cricket is a large part of why she first got involved with Cricket Wales.

Equality for all defines Jennifer’s approach to work and outlook on life generally; she is a firm believer that everyone deserves a fair chance to reach their potential; and she works tirelessly to take away the barriers which prevent some from achieving.

Being outdoors is key for Jenn; as is working with individuals and organisations to help build resilience and sustainability across rural communities. She is the inaugural Chair of Impelo, a dance organisation based in mid Wales whose reach extends across Wales and the UK, a Member of Glas Cymru and, as well an Independent Board Director for Cricket Wales. Jenn also sits on the ECB’s Participation and Growth committee. She is proud to chair Cricket Wales’ Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-owen-adams-262b1595/

Colin John – Finance Director

Colin joined the CBW and the WCA as Finance Director and Treasurer respectively in the spring of 2010 and continued in his role of Finance Director with Cricket Wales. Colin is a member of Whitland Cricket Club and is a former player there.

Richard Penney – Recreational Cricket Director

Born in Somerset in 1955, Richard moved to Glasgow at the age of two where school uniform was a kilt! Upon moving to Cheshire in 196, education continued with a more subdued dress code and a first introduction to cricket occurred at Crewe Grammar School.

Richard Represented the school 1st XI for 4 years as a tear away (a polite wording of a erratic!) left arm quickie. A break from cricket occurred during University and joining the police force meant little time for cricket.

Cricket returned for Richard via an on duty call at a Chester Dentist who kindly waived his fee if he turned out for his village side on the following Sunday. Not believing Richard was a bowler as he actually had all his own (slightly musty) kit, he was told to open the batting. Eighty runs later Richard was back in love with the game and has been synonymous with it for 40 years.

There probably isn’t a role or position Richard hasn’t held as a player and volunteer during 35 years at Hawarden Park CC and 15 years or more as a member of the North Wales League committee, the last 12 as Treasurer.

Twitter: RichardPenney16

Tony Moss - Recreational Cricket Director

Tony is a retired Education Officer with Cheshire County Council and now works part time as Examinations Officer in Elfed High School, Buckley, North Wales.

He was Chairman of North East Wales Junior Cricket Region prior to the commencement of the new Cricket Wales North Pathway and is a member of the Cricket Wales North Board and senior leadership team. He is a qualified Level lI Club Coach, having coached juniors at all levels for over 40 years and has run successful schools coaching programmes for both boys and girls, including the formation of the North East Wales Girls cricket hub. He is also a member of the North Wales Cricket League Management Committee and Child Welfare Officer for the League and Junior Pathway and is a qualified Umpire. Tony is Chairman of the Flintshire Community Chest Panel.

Tony is currently putting his energies into supporting the development of the new Cricket Wales North Pathway.

Sue Phelps MBE – Independent Director

Having enjoyed both playing and watching all kinds of sport for most of her years, it has been a pleasure for Sue to contribute to the work of Cricket Wales as an Independent Director. Her particular interest in cricket stemmed from being the eldest daughter of a cricket playing father who involved her at the earliest age from learning to catch with a cricket ball, to helping with the teas at his local Club and progressing to being a scorer at the age of 14.

Sue is employed by Alzheimer’s Society and has worked with the organisation for nearly 25 years starting as an Administrative Secretary and moving through a number of roles to reach her current role as Director for Wales. Becoming an Independent Director was an opportunity to marry Sue’s skills and experience in change management, managing a significant budget, developing a framework of organisational values and behaviours, people management and safeguarding, with those required for a Board member. As well as being a full Board member, Sue also sits on both the Finance and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion sub-committees. On a more personal note, Sue married a Welshman and made the move from England to Wales 34 years ago and has been blessed with two daughters and a grand-daughter who she relishes spending time with.

Sian Webber - Recreational Cricket Director

Siân Webber grew up in a cricket mad family and spent many hours as a youngster watching Glamorgan play at St Helen’s. She has 3 sporty sons, two of whom who are aspiring cricketers. Siân has been the Junior Coordinator at Swansea Cricket Club for many years, leading on their ECB Clubmark and the All Stars programme. She has a keen interest in cricket history and is researching the history of the Swansea Cricket Club.

In her professional life, Siân is a chartered librarian and works at Swansea University as Head of Special Collections & Librarian of the South Wales Miners’ Library. When not in work, Siân spends much her time ferrying her sons to cricket training and games all over the country and is gaining an appreciation of the amazing work cricket clubs around the country are doing, often with very limited resources.

Twitter: @sianyswml

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sianswml

Jeff Bird – Director (Glamorgan Cricket representative)

Geoff’s life has been spent dedicated to cricket. As a player he played at national and county levels and for the Crusaders at Cambridge and for Edinburgh University. He had five seasons as Captain of Cowbridge Cricket Club and in 1992 became Chair at the club for over 20 years. He has also had the honour to be the Club's President, and has derived a great deal of satisfaction and interest in the club’s history and the architecture of the cricket generally.

Away from Cowbridge, Jeff was the MCCU mentor for the Cardiff for ten years and a Glamorgan Committee member for nearly thirty. He has been a Glamorgan representative on the Cricket Wales Board, leading several working groups and acting as chair of the senior council.

In his professional life Jeff began his career as a brand manager before becoming a director of R S Bird Ltd , a family business which ran retail Garden Centres, designed and manufactured and marketed tugs for the NHS and logistics companies. In the mid 1990's he took the radical decision to place all our future investment into commercial property and this is now the area the business specialises in.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-bird-40818a90/

Hugh Morris- Director (Glamorgan Cricket representative)

Hugh returned to Glamorgan as CEO in January 2014 after 16 years at the ECB in senior leadership roles including; Acting Chief Executive, Deputy Chief Executive and Manging Director of England Cricket.

Hugh enjoyed considerable success including; overseeing the winning of three Ashes series, winning the ICC World T20 tournament and becoming number one in the world in Test match cricket. During his playing career he scored nearly 20,000 runs for Glamorgan and led the county to their first domestic title for 24 years in 1993 by lifting the AXA Sunday League trophy. He also played three test matches for England.

An MBA from Henley Management College, an Honorary Doctorate from Loughborough University, Hugh is also an Honorary Fellow of Cardiff Metropolitan University.

Huw Morgan – Independent Director

Huw has served as an Independent Director of Cricket Wales since 2016 and is also a member of the Finance Committee. Huw has a sound knowledge of the operational, commercial and financial challenges that face this organisation, and contributes significantly to the Board in these spaces.

Huw’s early career was in the City of London financial markets. He has managed at Chief Executive Officer level and within multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural organisations. The organisations have all required significant re-organisation with demanding financial management and complex strategies. These have included roles as the first full time CEO of Harlequins Rugby Club, Commercial Director at Arrows F1 Team and Commercial Director for the International Rugby Board and at 4 Rugby World Cup Tournaments. Huw has also held directorships at Premier Rugby, Gloucester Rugby and British Rowing.

Huw has a plethora of experiences serving as a Non – Executive Director on a variety of Boards, and this experience, together with working with many different industry sectors, adds to his contribution to Cricket Wales.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/d-huw-morgan-63821a60/

Gareth Lanagan - Recreational Cricket Director

As a Barry boy, Gareth started his journey with cricket with the very friendly Barry Wanderers under the tutelage of the late Mike Ashton. In the last thirty years I has had the pleasure of playing for the Wanderers, Llandysul, Aberystwyth University and Dolgellau cricket clubs. Gareth was fortunate enough to contribute on the committees of all these clubs. At Dolgellau, Gareth was part of an instrumental group of people who made a big difference in a short time during the last half a decade. This culminated in Gareth being the runner up for North Wales Coach of the year and the winner of the 2018 Sport Wales Volunteer of the year.

Professionally Gareth has been in education most of his career, completing a Ph.D. on Weather Forecasting at Aberystwyth University. During this time he also started Welsh Medium provision of Mathematics in conjunction with the Coleg Cymraeg. More recently, Gareth was a lecturer in Mathematics and Programme Area Manager for A Levels at Dolgellau and Pwllheli sites of Grŵp Llandrillo Menai. In his current role Gareth is a Post-14 Curriculum Coordinator at Ceredigion Council. This sees him having over arching control of GCSEs and A Levels across the county. Within this role, he also coordinates e-sgol, Wales' first virtual school.

Twitter: @lonny1698

LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/gareth-lanagan-0b02ba24

Ieuan Watkins – Co-opted Board Member, responsible for Safeguarding (non-voting)

Ieuan retired from the police service in 2018 after 31 years’ service during which he received a number of commendations for meritorious service. During his career he specialised in public protection, later representing the four Welsh police forces on national safeguarding forums. He was also seconded to the National Crime Agency for deployment abroad, helping to enhance and improve public protection internationally. Ieuan has led safeguarding in Welsh Cricket since 2010, leading us to achieve and maintain the NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit Standards. He has been safeguarding advisor for Glamorgan County Cricket Club since 2014 and in the same year started working with the ECB Safeguarding Team assisting with the Referral Management Group. He was awarded the NSPCC National Safeguarding Star in 2016. He now manages his own company Sport Safeguarding Limited, providing strategic and operational support and training across England and Wales. In the little spare time he has left, he volunteers for Canoe Wales as a Safeguarding Director, and additionally as the MAPPA Lay Advisor for Gwent Public Protection. He also occasionally turns his arm over for Llanarth Cricket Club – where his cricketing journey began. Twitter: @sportsafeguard

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ieuan-watkins-11bb2596/

Sohail Rauf Co-opted Board Member (non-voting)

Sohail is a co-opted Board Member, a businessman who owns Jupiter Property Services, a letting company in Cardiff. He has been working in the letting industry for 10 years and prior to this was in the financial industry. Sohail is also the chair of Llandaff CC and a level 2 coach and previously been a league secretary. When asked why he wanted to apply to the Board Sohail replies; “I want to make a difference at grassroots level and one of the best places to do that is to be on the board. I’d also like to help more players get into first class cricket as well. “ When asked about his ambitions he says, “I would like to make a valuable input in most areas and use some of my business skills to ensure the longevity of Cricket Wales as well.”