The Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews has announced the appointment of MARTIN SLUMBERS as CEO and Secretary, with effect from Oct. 1, 2015. Slumbers will succeed PETER DAWSON, who is retiring in September '15 after 16 years leading the body. Slumbers will join the R&A in March as chief exec designate and
spend six months working with Dawson before his retirement (R&A). BLOOMBERG's Michael Buteau reported Slumbers, 54, has "spent the past 28 years working in
investment banking, most recently as the global head of business
services for Deutsche Bank AG," which he joined in '98. Slumbers said in a statement, "Golf has always been close to my heart and I am very much
looking forward to living and working in St. Andrews" (BLOOMBERG, 10/15). GOLFWEEK's Alistair Tait wrote "once again the R&A has gone outside the box" to select its CEO. Dawson: "I was involved in the selection of Martin, but I certainly didn’t lead
it. We had a recruitment panel and I was part of that." The appointment is "not dissimilar" to when Dawson replaced MICHAEL BONALLACK in '99. Not many "had heard of Dawson 15 years ago since he
came from a business and not a golf background." However, Dawson was "at
least a member" of the R&A. Slumbers is not a
member of the club. Dawson could not "put a figure on the number of applicants for the
role." However, Slumbers beat a "number of internal candidates for the
job," including R&A Exec Dir of Business Affairs
MICHAEL TATE, Rules & Equipment Standards Exec Dir DAVID RICKMAN, Dir of Communications MALCOLM BOOTH and Exec Dir of Championships JOHNNIE COLE-HAMILTON (GOLFWEEK, 10/15).
