Previous Roles

Sir Rodney is Honorary Life President of the Wakefield Theatre Trust and led the campaign to raise £750,000 to enable the successful re-opening of the Theatre Royal and Opera House Wakefield in 1986. The Trust has now completed its ambitious plan to extend and improve the theatre. The opening of the new Centre of Creativity in […]

Sir Rodney was a Vice-Chairman of the NSPCC Full Stop Appeal and was chair of the Sports Steering Group which raised £25 million for the campaign. In 2008 he was elected an Honorary Member of the Society in recognition of his contribution to the charity.

Sir Rodney was invited to become chair of World Snooker in 2004 at a time the organisation was facing an uncertain future. When he left in 2009 the company held over £3 million in its reserves.

Sir Rodney was chairman of Wembley Stadium and was responsible for the grant of £120 million by Sport England to the building of the new stadium. He then served as the vice-chairman for five years of the Wembley National Stadium Trust.

Following the change of government in 1997, Sir Rodney moved to become chair of UK Sport up until 2002. During his time as chair, the government changed the regulations governing the distribution of Lottery money to enable UK Sport to become a distributor of funds which enabled the organisation to set up the World Class […]

On becoming chair of Sport England, Sir Rodney inherited the new responsibility for the distribution of £300 million of Lottery funding to sport in addition to the organisations role as ‘overseer’ of sports governance within England.

Sir Rodney was a member of the Wakefield Health Authority between 1982 and 1990. He became founder chair of the Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust in 1990. During his time as chair he was elected to become Chair of the NHS Trust Federation in 1993 before retiring from both roles in 1996 on being appointed by […]

Sir Rodney established Grass Concrete Ltd & Grass Concrete International Ltd in the early 1970’s and for over 30 years licensed the patented external surfacing system Grasscrete in over 20 countries. The system is widely used for car parks, fire paths and embankment stabilisation. He sold the companies to the management on becoming chair of […]