Three New Board Members Appointed to BBF

The British Basketball Federation has appointed three new members to its board following the recent appointment of Maurice Watkins CBE as the new Chair of the governing body.

The additions come following the recent takeover of the BBF by the Home Country Associations that led to interim Chair Ed Warner and his six fellow Independent Directors resigning.

The most notable addition to the Board is Sir Rodney Walker, Chair of the British Basketball League (BBL), as an appointed Director.

Sir Rodney has been Chair of BBL since 2016. He is also a former Chairman of UK Sport and former Chair of GB Sports Council and former Chairman of Sport England. In addition, Sir Rodney is former Chair of Rugby Football League and is former Chair of the World Snooker Association. He is current Chair of the London Marathon Charitable Trust and Vice Chair of Wembley National Stadium Trust.

Also appointed to the Board is sports coach Toni Minichiello. Toni has been an athletics coach since 1993 and coached Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill to become Olympic Champion in 2012 and World Champion in 2009, 2011 and 2015. Toni also worked for UK Athletics from 2006 to 2012, holding various positions including Lead Coach for Combined Events and National Coach for Combined Events. Toni started his coaching career as a basketball coach for a local Sheffield Basketball League Team and represented Yorkshire at U19 level in the Inter Counties Tournament. Toni has recently expanded his career into TV broadcasting.

In addition, the third appointment to the Board is that of Eddie McKinley, a current member of FIBA Small Countries Commission and retired FIBA referee and commissioner.

Eddie brings a wealth of experience in business financial management, having worked at senior management and Board level in the private and public sector over the last thirty years, as well as his experience in officiating development. He is a current officials’ assessor with the BBL and works as part of the Basketball Scotland Officials Group in the development of officials at all levels.

Maurice Watkins CBE, the newly-appointed Chair of BBF, welcomed the new appointments.

“These are exciting Board appointments that will play a key role in helping the BBF and GB basketball teams to reach their potential,” he said.

“The appointments will help us to strengthen our relationship with the British Basketball League through Sir Rodney Walker, and also to strengthen our understanding of high performance coaching and financial oversight through Toni and Eddie. I look forward to us all working together with the association Chairs of England, Scotland and Wales to develop world class GB Basketball athletes who can perform at the highest level.”

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