Sir Rodney Myerscough Walker (born 10^th April 1943) is a British Entrepreneur and Philanthropist and the current Chairman of the

British Basketball League The British Basketball League (BBL) is a men's professional basketball league in Great Britain and represents the highest level of play in the countries. The league is contested by 10 teams from England and Scotland. There are no clubs howeve ...

. He was Chairman of

Wakefield Trinity Wakefield Trinity is a professional rugby league club in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, that plays in the Super League. One of the original twenty-two clubs that formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895, between 1999 and 2016 the c ...

RLFC between 1986 and 1993; the

Rugby Football League The Rugby Football League is the governing body for professional rugby league in England, and until 1995 for the whole British Isles. The name Rugby Football League previously also referred to the main league competition run by the organisati ...

between 1993 and 2002; GB Sports Council between 1994 and 1996;

Sport England Sport England is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Its role is to build the foundations of a community sport system by working with national governing bodies of sport, and other funded par ...

between 1996 and 1998 and

UK Sport UK Sport is the government agency responsible for investing in Olympic and Paralympic sport in the United Kingdom. It is an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. It was created ...

between 1997 and 2003. He was also chairman of the

World Snooker Association The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) is the governing body of professional snooker and English billiards based in Bristol, England. It owns and publishes the official rules of the two sports and engages in promotio ...

for several years before being replaced by

Barry Hearn Barry Maurice William Hearn (born 19 June 1948) is an English sporting events promoter and the founder and President of promotions company Matchroom Sport. Through Matchroom, Hearn is also involved in many sports including snooker, darts, pool ...

in 2009.

Career

Sir Rodney has been Chairman of Goals Soccer Centres Plc since 2002. Goals is an operator of five-a-side soccer centres throughout Scotland and England, with 42 sites operational, further sites under development and with a long term "roll out" programme which envisages a minimum 4 new openings each year for the foreseeable future. The company has recently set up a joint venture in the United States & has licensed the Goals name into

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

& the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

. Sir Rodney is the controlling shareholder of Myerscough Holdings Ltd. Group companies are involved in property development, management, investment & architecture. At the request of Wakefield MDC, Sir Rodney took on the chairmanship of The Wakefield & District Community Trust. The trust is intending to arrange the funding for a new £15 million, 10,000 capacity stadium & associated facilities to serve the Wakefield community. Having failed to make any progress on the delivery of the Community Stadium, he resigned as Chairman in February 2017 & was replaced by Jonathan Stone. He is a trustee of the

London Marathon The London Marathon is an annual marathon held in London, United Kingdom, and is the 2nd largest annual road race in the UK, after the Great North Run in Newcastle. Founded by athletes Chris Brasher and John Disley in 1981, it is typically held ...

Charitable Trust, a Trustee of the Wembley National Stadium Trust, Vice President of the Youth Charter for Sport and vice President of the Federation of Disability Sports Organisations. He was a Vice Chairman of the

NSPCC The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is a British child protection charity. History Victorian era On a trip to New York in 1881, Liverpudlian businessman Thomas Agnew was inspired by a visit to the New Yor ...

Full Stop Appeal and was chair of the Sports Steering Group which raised £25 million for the campaign. He has recently been elected an Honorary Member of the Society in recognition of his contribution to the charity. He is Vice Chairman of the

Yorkshire Sculpture Park The Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) is an art gallery, with both open-air and indoor exhibition spaces, in West Bretton, Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England. It shows work by British and international artists, including Henry Moore and Barbar ...

& the Yorkshire Landscape Trust Ltd and was Chairman of Art Transpennine ’98. He is Honorary Life President of the Wakefield Theatre Trust, and led the campaign to raise £¾m to enable the successful re-opening of the Theatre Royal and Opera House Wakefield in 1986. The Trust has now embarked on an ambitious plan to raise £8m to extend and improve the theatre. He is also President of Wakefield Little Theatre. He is Founder and Chairman of the Committee responsible for the organization of the Yorkshire Awards Dinner, now in its twenty third year, at which outstanding Yorkshire people are recognized for their contribution to life in Yorkshire in a variety of spheres. The dinner has, in addition, raised £150,000 for Yorkshire-based charities. Sir Rodney is President of the Wakefield Branch of

Yorkshire Cancer Research Yorkshire Cancer Research is a registered charity that helps the people of Yorkshire avoid, survive and cope with cancer. Founded in 1925, Yorkshire Cancer Research is the largest independent regional cancer charity in England. Funded entirely ...

and was President of the £5m Yorkshire Spinal Injuries Appeal. He is Vice President of the Hospital Heartbeat Appeal which has, to date, raised £3.0 million for Yorkshire Hospitals. He is Trustee of the

National Coal Mining Museum for England The National Coal Mining Museum for England is based at the site of Caphouse Colliery in Overton, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1988 as the Yorkshire Mining Museum and was granted national status in 1995. History Caphouse C ...

based in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

a member of the Council of the Order of St. John for South and West Yorkshire a Trustee of the St Oswald’s Charitable Trust and the Clarke Hall Farm Trust. In July 2013 Sir Rodney was appointed as head of TDF 2014 Ltd., the organisation coordinating the opening stages of the

2014 Tour de France The 2014 Tour de France was the 101st edition of the race, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The race included 21 stages, starting in Leeds, Yorkshire, United Kingdom, on 5 July and finishing on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 27 July. The race al ...

. On 1 September 2016, he was appointed as the new Chairman of the

Honours

Sir Rodney is an Honorary Life Vice President of the Rugby Football League, an Honorary Life Member of

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

Plc and is a patron of The Harold "Dickie" Bird Foundation. He is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce, and a Fellow of the

Institute of Directors The Institute of Directors (IoD) is a British professional organisation for company directors, senior business leaders and entrepreneurs. It is the UK's longest running organisation for professional leaders, having been founded in 1903 and incor ...

. Together with his wife and two sons he has formed "The Myerscough Charitable Trust" whose primary objectives are to help disadvantaged young people. He was conferred with an honorary doctorate by the

University of Bradford The University of Bradford is a Public university, public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be creat ...

in December 1996 in recognition of his services to the county of

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

. In 1998 he was admitted into the

Order of St Lazarus The Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem, also known as the Leper Brothers of Jerusalem or simply as Lazarists, was a Catholic military order founded by crusaders around 1119 at a leper hospital in Jerusalem, Kingdom of Jerusalem, whose care bec ...

in recognition of his services to health in the UK. As part of the 1996

Queen's Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the reigning British monarch's official birthday by granting various individuals appointment into national or dynastic orders or the award of decorations and medals. The honours are present ...

, it was announced that he was to be appointed a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are the ...

'for services to sport'. On 10 December 1996, he was knighted by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Rodney 1943 births Rugby Football League chairmen British rugby league administrators Living people Wakefield Trinity Knights Bachelor National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children people People in sports awarded knighthoods