The Board is made up of the below Directors:
Colin Graves (Chair)
Colin Graves founded the Costcutter chain of convenience stores in 1986 and grew the company into a household name with more than 1,600 stores and annual sales of £640m, before selling a 49% stake to Bibby Line Group in 2007, and the remaining 51% to Bibby in November 2011.
The Club has always been special to Graves and alongside a group of three other Yorkshire businessmen, he saved it from financial ruin in 2002 and enabled it to purchase the freehold of Headingley Stadium. Colin went on to be Executive Chair of the Club from 2012 to 2015, was elected Deputy Chair of the England and Wales Cricket Board in 2013 and was then appointed as its Chair from 2015 to 2020. He was made a CBE in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to cricket.
Colin was appointed to the Board and as Chair in February 2024.
Phillip Hodson (Deputy Chair)
Phillip played cricket for Cambridge University and Yorkshire CCC Second XI between 1971 and 1974, and over 300 matches for MCC between 1978 and 2000. He subsequently served as President of the MCC in 2011 and 2012, and as Chairman of the MCC Foundation from 2016 to 2023.
He built up Oval Insurance Group from a one man business to one of the largest privately owned corporate brokers in UK, with over 1,200 employees before it was sold to AJ Gallagher for £220m in 2014. He then acquired UK Global Insurance in 2016, selling it to Howden in 2022 for 80 times its initial value, and currently owns a number of property and property management businesses.
Phillip was appointed to the Board and as Deputy Chair in February 2024.
Sanjay Patel
Sanjay is a lifelong cricket fan and has been involved in the game since an early age. He played club cricket till he was 40 and represented Scotland at national and all age levels. He is now seen at his local cricket club coaching the juniors.
Sanjay started his career in the drinks industry working in various brand, commercial and strategy roles for companies such as Diageo and Heineken. He joined the ECB in 2015 as Chief Commercial Officer, where he ran the revenue, audience, event, digital and data side of the business.
Under his leadership the ECB doubled its revenues and returned cricket back to the BBC. In 2019, he became Managing Director of The Hundred. Sanjay led the development of The Hundred from inception and delivered the first three years of the tournament. He left the ECB in September 2023 and is now working as an advisor and consultant in sport.
Sanjay was appointed to the Board in February 2024.
Sanjeev Gandhi
Sanjeev is an experienced executive and non-executive director, with a background in the media, technology and philanthropy sectors. He is currently independent non-executive director at 450plc, a media and technology acquisition vehicle, and a trustee of the Fidelity Foundation. He is also a former non-executive director of the Hundred Board at the ECB.
He founded and was CEO of Reach to Teach, an educational NGO based in India. Other previous roles include Director of Strategy and Distribution as part of the European start up team at Yahoo!, Head of Strategic Development at BBC Worldwide and a senior consultant in the Global Telecoms Group at Coopers and Lybrand (PWC).
Sanjeev was appointed to the Board in February 2024.
Tanni, Baroness Grey-Thompson
The Baroness Grey-Thompson grew up in South Wales in a family that cared passionately about sport. In 1988, she competed in her first Paralympic Games, winning a bronze medal in the 400m. She subsequently competed in five Paralympic Games, winning 16 medals for Great Britain (11 gold, four silver and a bronze), and has a further 13 World Championship medals (six gold, five silver and two bronze). She also won the London Marathon six times between 1992 and 2002 and has held over 30 world records.
Following her retirement from athletics in 2007 she has continued to work in various capacities in the sport sector, where she has sat on numerous boards and charities gaining extensive experience in sports governance. Her appointments include the London Marathon Board, Chair of ukactive, Chair of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards and an academy member of the Laureus World Sport Academy.
The Baroness Grey-Thompson has spent the last 12 years working in politics on a range of issues as a life peer on the recommendation of the House of Lords Appointments Commission. In 2017, she wrote an independent Government report on Duty of Care in sport which made several recommendations about how to support and protect participants.
She was appointed to the Club’s Board in May 2022.
Leslie Ferrar
Leslie Ferrar worked at KPMG for nearly 30 years, running their Employment Tax business for many years, and was part of the Partner Board that ran KPMG’s global tax practice. After KPMG, Leslie spent 7 years managing the corporate services functions for Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall.
Leslie has served in various non-executive roles over the past ten years, including as a member of HMRC’s Audit Committee, a member of the Council for the Economy for the Vatican, a member of the council of Durham University, as a trustee for The Princes Trust, Breast Cancer Now, the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster, and as a member of the International Integrated Reporting Council. Leslie was appointed to the Club’s Board in May 2022.
Stephen Vaughan (Chief Executive Officer)