British Eventing announces new chairman

British Eventing has announced Paul Hodgson will take over as chairman of the board from 1 March 2015.

Broad experience

Paul replaces Hugh Thomas, who is also the director of Badminton Horse Trials. Hugh had stepped in as the temporary chair after Amanda Ratcliffe stood down from the position.

BE chief executive Mike Etherington-Smith said Paul brings a “wide breadth of experience” not just in the equestrian world, but also commercially.

Paul has been vice chair of the British Eventing Organisers Association (BEOA) in recent months and is joint organiser of Richmond Horse Trials, which is run at his farm in North Yorkshire. He also works for a pension company.

Pragmatic approach

“I feel privileged to take the chair of the BE board,” Paul said.“I will look to bring a practical and pragmatic approach, as you would expect from a Scotsman who has lived in Yorkshire for 20 years.

“This is a fantastic sport which has a wide spectrum of participants, with whom I am looking forward to working and interacting with, from our British teams, to grassroots level riders, to the volunteers, to the owners, to the riders,to the organisers, to our great home team within the office and all our officials in the field.”