Three of the Tour’s Directors will step down from the Board at the end of December. European Tour Chief Executive George O’Grady paid tribute to the three men for their unswerving commitment and dedication. They have supported the Tour both in a Board and consulting capacity for a number of years and have played an essential part in leading the Tour through an outstanding period of change and growth.
O’Grady said, ‘Peter Davidson developed his knowledge of Tournament golf as Executive Chairman of the European Open and additionally his financial and accountancy expertise guided the Tour so professionally throughout a difficult but successful period. Keith Owen’s broad knowledge of the television market place helped to shape the Tour’s television policies in a fast changing world, where long ranging and successful strategies were implemented. Bjorn Nordberg has been an unwavering supporter of the Tour and has helped to unite the European Golf Federations that contribute enormously to the National Opens, and also to the success and growth of the Challenge Tour. The Nominations Committee are undertaking currently an external search for a Chair of the Audit Committee and a further NED with a Commercial background'.
Peter Davidson
Peter Davidson is the longest serving member with 18 years experience on the Board. A Chartered Accountant by profession he enjoyed a successful insurance career as Finance Director of the Hogg Group and other international Lloyds companies. His involvement in professional golf came through the promotion and development of the European Open Golf Championship. For many years the championship was staged at Sunningdale and Walton Heath and it became a flagship for the Tour. Peter became Chairman in 1992, and in 1995 took the company from private ownership into a 50/50 partnership in Ireland with the Smurfit Group and the Tour. He joined the European Tour's Board in 1996. He remained Chairman of the joint company for the next 12 years creating one of the most successful partnerships in the history of the Tour. In addition to this executive role Davidson’s background saw him as an ideal fit to be the Tour’s non-executive Director (Finance). He was also Chairman of the Tour’s Remuneration and Benefits Committee and latterly Chairman of the Audit Committee.
Keith Owen
Keith Owen brought with him a wealth of experience of the TV industry across the world, knowledge he put to invaluable use to shape the Tours expansive TV policy over the past 16 years. He is a Board Director of Tour Productions Ltd. the Tour's TV and distribution company.
Before joining the Board of Directors Owen worked for both BBC and ITV. As a Board Director of BBC Enterprises Ltd he was responsible across all genres for the BBC commercial TV business throughout the world with offices in USA, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. At Thames TV he was Managing Director of the Cable and Satellite Services division with responsibility of managing and developing existing and new TV channels. He represented the BBC and Thames TV on several company boards over many years.
He was invited to join Woking Football Club Ltd as a Director to help restructure the Club during a difficult and challenging period of their development
Bjorn Nordberg
Final member of the triumvirate to join the Board of Directors in February 2001 was Bjorn Nordberg, whose distinguished golfing background – which amongst other things saw him play for Sweden as an amateur – saw him as the perfect candidate to represent the Board in several external areas of the sport. Included in that was a spell as President of the European Golf Association, an organisation he now holds the Honorary Presidency of, he is also at present time the President of the Golf Environment Organisation Advisory Council and Director of the Golf Environment Organisation Board. From February 1996 to December 2003, Nordberg held the post of Chairman of the Challenge Tour Committee and he also served as President of the Swedish Golf Federation between 2006 and 2009.
