Dave Thompson

Chairman of Newcastle Falcons, Dave Thompson has been a Key member of the Board of Trustees since the birth of the Charity.

A businessman but also a keen local rugby man, Dave bought out Sir John Hall's Sporting Club shareholding in 1999, kept faith with the coaching team, and ensured that professional rugby survived in the north-east.

Indeed, it was with his backing that the club reached the 2001 Tetley's Bitter Cup final, where a last-minute try from Dave Walder secured a dramatic late win over NEC Harlequins.

Mike Stephenson

Mike joined the Board of Trustees in October 2008, following a long standing association with the Club. Chairman of Rugby Charity Wooden Spoon Durham and father of former Falcons favourite Michael Stephenson, Mike is a keen supporter of North East Rugby at every level.

Mike is a Director of Durham-based company, Stephenson Cook. Stephenson Cook is comprised of a network of distribution branches specialising in the supply of Power, Data and Lighting products.

John Oates

John Devine, Partner at Newcastle-based law firm Watson Burton was instrumential in the establishment of the Falcons Community Foundation and has been a Trustee since it's creation in January 2005.

John is a partner in the Sports Business Group and Head of the Charity Law Group. With a strong commercial background, he specializes in both charity matters (including formations, mergers, governance and regulation) and the sports sector acting regularly on behalf of regulatory bodies, professional clubs and athletes including the preparation of commercial contracts, setting up charitable organizations, joint ventures, image rights structures and advising on corporate governance issues.

John has acted for over 80 professional clubs in football, rugby union, rugby league, basketball, cricket and ice hockey. He advises the Premier League, Football League Trust and their member clubs on community projects and has acted for the Rugby Football League and British Basketball League. He also acts for Premier League footballers, international rugby players and professional boxers.

Iain Ramage

Iain Ramage joined the board of Trustees in November 2008.
Iain is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor at Durham-based company Lambert Property Solutions. Specializing in project management in the commercial, leisure and education sectors, he has recently completed the new East Durham College project and Durham University's Calman Learning Centre. Ian was one of two Scottish match officials at the 1999 World Cup and the only Scottish representative of the 26 officials at the 2003 World Cup. Retiring from refereeing pro rugby in 2005, Ian still acts as TMO at pro games in Scotland and referee local rugby mainly in the Borders and the occasional overseas jaunt to Bermuda for the Classics. Ian is father of pro footballer son Peter who is at QPR and used to play for NUFC, and also has a daughter who trains dogs for the charity Hearing Dogs for the Deaf and a long suffering wife Anne.

Matthew Carter

Regional Rugby Development Manager for the North East and Yorkshire region, Matthew has been on the Board of Trustees since the Charity's inception in 2005.

Matthew heads up a dedicated team of Eight RFU Rugby Development Officers across the North East and Yorkshire who, in turn employ 32 Community Rugby Coaches, covering the different Districts and Local Authorities in the region.

The Rugby Football Union also has a Coach Development Officer, Referee Development Officer and two Club and Coach Development Officers covering the North-East and Yorkshire along with officers who cover Volunteering and Facilities development across the North of England.

In addition the Rugby Football Union for Women (RFUW) has its own Development Officer who covers the North of England.

Hall Charlton

Hall Charlton joined the Board of Trustees in September 2009 as players representative.
Scrum half Charlton came through the Falcons academy system, having previously played for local club Durham City as a junior.

He made his Falcons league debut scoring a try back in November 1998 against West Hartlepool, with his time as understudy to Scotland legend Gary Armstrong serving him well.

A representative of England at Under-18s and Under-21s level, he was an unused replacement for the full England Test side against Canada at Twickenham in autumn 2004.