Board
Jim Wilkinson
Chairman - Northamptonshire FA
Jim Wilkinson has been in Football with Northamptonshire FA from 1983 when registering as a Referee eventually getting onto Football League as an Assistant Referee. Jim served previously as Vice Chairman of the Association for several years. He is married to Helen for 42years and counting and have three children.
Jim has an Honours Degree in Earth Science and is a Fellow of the Geological Society. He works as Contracts Manager for a large national house building company.
Christian Smith
Chief Executive Officer (interim) - Northamptonshire FA
Christian has a long and varied career in football, the highlights of which were successful spells with Leicester City FC as General Manager and the Professional Footballers’ Association where he spent 13 years as Commercial Director.
Now in his third year with the County FA, Christian leads the NFA Team in delivering against FA targets and the needs of Leagues, Clubs and Players in the County.
With a particular passion for disability football, he also sits on the Board of the Great Britain Disability Football Association.
Mel Blackmore
Board of Directors - Northamptonshire FA
Mel has played many different roles over a 35year career within football where she played in the ladies’ National League and at College in Georgia, USA. She is a qualified PE teacher of 20 years, a Level 2 FA coach, and a Level 5 Referee.
Mel retired from playing at 40 and is now heavily involved in league administration where she has been the Secretary of the Beds and Herts Women’s League for 7 years, and now
in her 2nd year for the NWGMFL.
She believes in the growth and development across all communities in football and has now ventured into walking football!
Alex Brooks
Independent Non-Executive Director (HR) - Northamptonshire FA
Alex is a sports and employment lawyer, with several years’ experience advising on employment and HR issues in particular.
Alex has been a solicitor at specialist sports law firm Onside Law since 2018, having previously trained and qualified into the Employment department at Penningtons Manches before joining Thomas Cooper in their Employment and Sports team.
Alex is passionate about grassroots sport and plays in weekly 5 and 7 a side football leagues, as well as being involved with a number of charities that use sport to help children and young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds. Additionally, Alex is a member of the Employment Lawyers’ Association and Women in Football.
Lawrence Kay BA (Hons), MCIMSPA
Non-Executive Director – Northamptonshire FA
Lawrence has over 25years experience in the sport and leisure industry. Lawrence is currently a senior leader within a successful social enterprise, involved in strategic leisure facility management, business development in additional to establishing and developing a range of partnerships.
Lawrence has a wealth of experience of managing both sports and health development services and facility operations teams, leading numerous teams and programmes to achieve national recognition.
A father of two young girls, Lawrence’s spare time is split between family time, keeping fit and volunteering with Northamptonshire based sports and leisure organisations.
Salim Bhaiji
Independent Non-Executive Director (Finance) – Northamptonshire FA
Salim is a management consultant at KPMG specialising in Finance Transformation. In a 13-year career he has worked across a number of large Financial Institutions including Allianz, Aviva, AIG and Barclays. He is also a qualified accountant.
In his current role he leads Finance Change projects across teams including FP&A, Business Partnering and Financial Reporting. This involves work covering Planning, Budgeting & Forecasting, Cost Reduction, Org Design, Business Process Review and Regulatory Driven Change.
Salim is a life-long Newcastle United fan and is also starting his FA coaching path for which he is Level 1 qualified.
Tony Major
Non-Executive Director – Northamptonshire FA
With over 58 years’ service to football in the County, Tony remains a key figure on the NFA Board, bringing knowledge, passion and continuity to the role he has now held for 18 years. During his illustrious career in local football, Tony has collected a host of official acknowledgements and awards including the FA Award for Outstanding Contribution to Community Football and the Northamptonshire Lifetime Contribution to Sport Award. One of his proudest moments was being invited to the Queens Garden Party at Buckingham Palace for his lifetime contribution to grass roots football in May 2016.
Richard Alsop
Board Safeguarding Champion
Richard Alsop is a Director in the NHS, and has an MBA in health services management. His passion for football was ignited at a young age, and he played junior and adult football in the county, before then coaching junior sides until a few years ago. He is a season ticket holder at Northampton Town.
Raff Miah
Inclusion
Raff works for BT as a Regional Account Manager in the security and alarming Industry. Raff works very closely with Alarm Receiving Centres (ARC) and Installation companies. He provides commercial support and own the key relationships with large and small corporate companies, he can also provide technical training and remote service access for the Installers, manage accounts and contracts with ARC’s.
In January of 2016, Alongside other individuals Raff set up a football team called Northants United. They wanted to be able to set up a team where ‘all’ would feel welcome but with a high interest of getting the BAME players more interested and more involved in a structured club and team. They also had another focus to get the young individuals to focus on something more positive and hopefully eliminate any negative involvements relating to drugs or anti-social behaviour. Furthermore, Raff is a Level 1 qualified coach and taking an interest in doing his referee qualification too.
Raff hopes to add value to the IAG board by helping and assisting where possible to ensure inclusion is at the heart of any and every club, with also a scope to raise the awareness of Inclusion across to a broader level.
President
Alan Pittam
Chairman
Vacant
Emeritus President
Derek Vernum
Directors
Anthony Major
Melanie Blackmore
Lawrence Kay
James Wilkinson
Alex Brooks
Salim Bhaiji
Andy Smith
Sarah Bentley
Life Vice-President
Alan Pittam
John Prentice
Brian Walden
Dave Kitchen
Vice President
Bob Cotter
Jim Wilkinson
Tony Major
John Thomas
Life Members
Ron Eccles
Nicholas Titman
Committee Chairman
Discipline
Jim Wilkinson
Swain Benevolent Fund
Alan Pittam
Strategy
David Conway
Referees
David Jarrett
Youth Leagues and Clubs
Michael Walden
Rules and Sanction
David Jarrett
County Cups
Tony Major
Full Council
Robert Cotter
Sarah Bentley
Tony Major
Alan Pittam
John Thomas
Jim Wilkinson
David Jarratt
Richard Gardner
James Duddington
Rob Gross
Brendan Doherty
John Moriarty
Paul Clarke
Hazel Burgess
David Burgess
Tony Nash
Mick Walden
Lesley Jones
Gerald Hawthorn
Mel Blackmore
David Conway
Jeff Kitchener
Cameron Marshall
Jamie Wilcock
Lawrence Kay
Tyrone Long
Pat Ashby
Surath Miah
Neil Griffin
Anthony Major
Alex Brooks
Salim Bhaiji
Andy Smith