The ACT Brumbies have appointed club legend Joe Roff as their Chair as Chief Executive Phil Thomson prepares to stand down.
Roff recently served as President of Rugby Australia and scored 57 tries in 85 appearances for the club.
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This positions him as the club's greatest ever try-scorer, inducted in the Brumbies Legends alongside George Gregan and Stephen Larkham.
Roff will lead a new Brumbies Board that includes RA CEO Phil Waugh, RA Director Strategy & Special Projects, Alexandra Batten, Senior Director at NetApp Doug Stuart and former Deloitte partner and GAICID, FCA non-executive Director Alexandra Spark.
An additional two Board Directors will be announced in due course.
“The Brumbies provided me with some of the best memories of my personal and professional life and I am humbled and excited to return to the club in the position of Chair," Roff said.
“I am looking forward to reuniting with Head Coach Stephen Larkham, with whom I have a deep and enduring relationship, and helping the staff continue the great progress made in 2025 across the men’s and women’s programs.
“The role of the Brumbies in the Australian rugby landscape has never been more important with the pipeline of international events coming to our shores.
"Whilst as an organisation we will continue to strive towards winning the Super Rugby Pacific and Super Rugby Women’s competitions, we will also focus on continuing to provide Wallabies and Wallaroos toward national success on the international stage."
The announcement comes as Thomson steps away from the role, overseeing a successful seven-year period from October 2018 that included five Super Rugby semi-final appearances and a Super Rugby AU title.
His contract concludes on Friday 11 July after the Brumbies’ tour match against the British & Irish Lions at GIO Stadium on Wednesday 9 July.
“I would like to thank everyone at the Brumbies for their contributions both on and off the field over the last seven seasons that I have been in the CEO role," he said.
“We have all experienced some challenging times over that period and it has been a pleasure to work with everyone associated with the club and to see the commitment they have to the Brumbies and the game of rugby in the ACT and Southern New South Wales region.
“Following the transition with Rugby Australia in August last year, we can be proud of the fact that outwardly we have continued and will continue to operate as one organisation, still proudly wearing the Brumbies colours, delivering quality rugby programs in support of the game in the ACT&SNSW region, whilst inwardly having different structural and governance systems.
“To be able to come back to where it all started for me from May to December 2016 as interim Brumbies CEO, then as a Director and Chair of the ACT & Southern NSW Rugby Union between 2017 and 2018 and into the CEO role in October 2018, is something that I will cherish and remember forever."
