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Meet The Board Members
Melvin Benn is Chief Executive of Festival Republic, the foremost UK music festival company which owns and runs the Reading, Leeds and Latitude Festivals. Festival Republics also promotes festivals in Norway and Ireland. Benn helped save Glastonbury Festival’s license in 2001, subsequently becoming a director of the festival for over a decade until recently relinquishing the role. Born in Hull, East Yorkshire, he created The Festival Office Ltd in 1989 to create and produce festivals for the Mean Fiddler Music Group. In the same year the Mean Fiddler took over the Reading Festival. Benn joined the Wembley Stadium Board in July 2008 and was appointed Chairman in May 2011.
David Bernstein is a Chartered Accountant who was in professional practice until the mid 80s. He became Managing Director of the Pentland Group, best known for their development of Reebok, Speedo, Berghaus and other sports and leisure brands. He then developed a parallel career in business as Chairman of French Connection, Black Leisure Group, Carluccio's, Orchid Group and a Director of Ted Baker as well as in football joining the Board of Manchester City in 1994 where he became Chairman in 1998. He was asked to join the Wembley Stadium Board in 2003 and was appointed Chairman in 2008. He was appointed Chairman of The Football Association in 2011. He is married with four sons and with interest in politics, theatre, modern history and sport.
Philip qualified as a Management Accountant in 1973. He has been Chairman of Burnden Leisure plc, the parent company of Bolton Wanderers FC, since 2000. He is also the Executive Chairman of Locker Group Pty Limited, an engineering group based in Australia. He became a director of BWFC in 1989 and Chairman in 1999. Philip joined the Wembley Stadium Board in February 2005 and is also an Executive Board Member of The FA and a member of the FA Cup Committee.
Alex Horne was appointed General Secretary of The FA Group in May 2010 as the leading executive officer for The FA and all the subsidiary companies in The FA Group. As The FA's Chief Operating Officer from July 2008 to May 2010, he was responsible for the delivery of all Corporate Services across The FA Group structure, including finance. He was also the executive lead on the St George's Park development. As Managing Director of Wembley Stadium from December 2006 to July 2008, Horne was responsible for the delivery of the Stadium’s events and all areas of its day to day operation after ensuring a smooth handover from Stadium constructors Multiplex. Prior to joining The FA in 2003 as Finance Director, he qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers specialising in business improvement and corporate turnaround assignments.
Roger Maslin joined Wembley Stadium as Finance Director in February 1999 handling the acquisition of the Stadium from Wembley plc and developing the business plans to fund the new Stadium. Maslin played a leading role in negotiating the terms of the bank loans to build the Stadium, in reaching the settlement deal with Stadium contractors, Multiplex and in the successful opening of the new Stadium and development of its commercial properties. He was appointed Managing Director in August 2009 and previously was the Finance Director of United Distillers in Mexico and Finance Director of European and Global Duty Free in Hamburg.
David joined the new Wembley Stadium team in September 2007 as Events Director and joined the Board as an executive member in 2008. He subsequently became Group Events Director with increased FA responsibilities and moved into the newly created role of Business Development Director in April 2012. A former international athlete who represented Scotland in Track and Cross Country, David has extensive live event and estate management experience, having joined the stadium team from Wembley London Limited, the owners of the adjacent Arena and former conferencing and exhibiting facilities. In total, David has more than 25 years operational experience on the Wembley Estate, covering the planning and management of over 3500 live events, including 10 years as part of the London Marathon management team. He was part of the early project design team for the New Wembley Stadium and was actively involved throughout the demolition and construction phase as the key interface contact with the surrounding estate land. On joining the Stadium team, David led a team of 30 responsible for all aspects of the events staged within Wembley Stadium and the management of other FA events around the country. In this role, he helped to develop the annual calendar of Stadium events and the Group Ticketing function as well as the professional and efficient performance of the event management teams, both in the Stadium and for other FA events around the country. He was instrumental in securing the record breaking run of Take That concerts in 2011, and a key part of the team that secured the Champions League Finals in 2011 and 2013 and the 8 days of Olympic Football during in 2012. In his new role as Business Development Director, he is responsible for negotiating with existing event owners to secure the events in the annual Calendar, researching opportunities for new events and developing other business opportunities, including the newly formed Wembley Stadium Consultancy. This new strand of the Business, harnesses the unique knowledge and experience of the Wembley team to provide Clients from around the Globe a detailed insight into the design, development, operation and commercialisation of the World's most famous Stadium.
Scott became involved in the stadium in 2004 as an advisor to The FA. He played a key role in the commercial negotiations that resulted in the financial settlement with Multiplex that facilitated the stadium being handed by the contractor at practical completion on 9 March 2007. Scott is a Chartered Accountant who retired from Ernst & Young at the end of 2003 having spent 32 years at the firm, the last 17 years as a partner specialising in corporate restructuring activities. In 2001, at the request of government, he was appointed one of the Special Railway Administrators of Railtrack plc. He provides commercial support to large corporate organisations through his consultancy practice.
Gwyn brings over 15 years experience at Board level in an executive capacity and over 8 years in a non executive capacity. Her experience has been gained primarily in the retail industry where she has developed a very strong customer focus. Gwyn began her career with Rowntree Macintosh, before starting her 13 year association with Asda. After 8 years at Asda she was appointed to the Board first as Marketing Director before moving to Customer Service Director and later to Retail Managing Director North with full P&L responsibility. Gwyn went on to found the Resultant Team Ltd, a retail consultancy specialising in strategy , internal communication and execution. In 2004 the company was commissioned by Sainsbury’s to develop and implement their turnaround programme. As part of this, Gwyn was given the responsibility of setting up and running the Customer Services Division and was invited to joining the Board in 2005 as Customer Service and Colleague Director, a post she has held since. In her non executive capacity, Gwyn is a director of the Financial Ombudsman Service , Sainsbury’s Bank and Chair of the Community Investment Team within Business in the Community.
Coline has over 20 years experience both at board level as an NED and in an executive capacity. Coline graduated in law and furthered her education with an MBA from Harvard, before joining McKinsey & Co. After two years, Coline joined the More Group as Group Development Director to revitalise the business. The More Group was acquired by Clear Channel, whereupon Coline took the role of Chief Operating Officer before progressing to Chief Executive, Europe. Coline pioneered Clear Channel’s business interests in China and was responsible for all outdoor advertising operations outside the Americas, spanning 58 countries. After eight years, Coline joined Apax Partners as a European media advisor. In her non executive capacity, Coline was a director of HBOS plc for nine years and Shed Media for one year. She is currently a non executive director of Tui Travel.