President Willie Wildash
Willie Wildash became President of the Rugby Football Union in the summer of 2011, having been on the RFU Council as the member for Dorset and Wilts since 1991.
Having begun playing rugby as a hooker at Worthing High School, Willie played for Old Azurians and Sussex Schools. He joined Weymouth RFC in 1961 when he began his career as a research scientist in at the Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment on Portland, Dorset. He moved into the back row when playing for Salford University and Burnage in the early 60s and also played for Dorset, RN Portland and for HMS Penelope in places like Toulon and Gibraltar in the early 70s.
At the age of 32, after a severe knee injury, Willie was forced to stop playing and joined the Dorset & Wilts Referee Society eventually spending 4 seasons on the old A4 national panel in the 1980s. In 1973 he was elected onto Dorset & Wilts RFU.
Willie is an Honorary Life Member of Weymouth RFC. He was twice Chairman, firstly in the 1980s when the club moved to a new ground and built its first club house and secondly in the early 1990s. He also served many years as Treasurer and Team Secretary and was the club's Mini & Youth Chairman in the late 1990s. He is an Honorary Life Vice President of Dorset & Wilts RFU and was President 1987-9, since then he has been Chairman of its YDO Management Group and served as CB Facilities and Volunteer Coordinators. In 1989 he received a Dorset Playing Fields Award for outstanding contribution to sport in Dorset in the field of rugby.
He has produced Strategic Plans, Action Plans and Facilities Plans for his CB and was the author of the ‘Taking the Lead’ a Dorset & Wilts guide for clubs on best practice, published in 2000 and reprinted twice by the RFU.
His club and county roles saw him take on responsibilities at South West Division level, as Divisional Chairman and as a member of the South West Competitions Committee for almost a decade.
He is currently a member of the Community Game Board and chairs its Club & CB Services & Funding Committee, and sits on the iRugby and the RugbyFirst Project Boards and Safeguarding Group. He chaired the RFU’s 3rd Strategic Plan Council TG and provided background information on the development of CBs since 2001 for the RFU Constitutional Review Task Group.
At governing body level Willie has served over the years on numerous committees, sub committees and task groups, including: Forward Planning, Competitions, County Championship, IT Steering Group. He chaired the CB Strengthening & Model Office TG, Continuum Review Group, E day TG as well as being a Chairman and a member of Special Disciplinary Panels for over 5 years.
In his professional life Willie was Principal Scientist for the MOD Defence Research and Defence & Evaluation Agencies, was involved in project & technical management of sonar programmes in the UK and USA, and directed sea trials in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean. When he retired he was a Resource Manager responsible for the change management, development and deployment of more than 50 scientists and engineers.
In 2003/4 Willie was Master of the Worshipful Company of Pewterers, a City of London Livery company, and from 2004/07 was Chairman of Pewter Live, an annual national design competition promoting pewter and bringing new products to the marketplace. In his professional and rugby life Willie has been greatly supported by his wife Mary and they have a daughter Nicole.
