The FA today announced four key appointments to support its new women’s football strategy.
David Faulkner has been appointed as the new head of women’s performance, while Audrey Cooper joins as the head of women’s coach development.
Joanne Stimpson is the new women’s refereeing manager.
Marzena Bodganowicz has been appointed as the new head of marketing and commercial for women’s football.
Baroness Sue Campbell, The FA’s head of women’s football, said: “These appointments are a clear indication of our commitment to move the women's game to a new level.
“All of the new roles will play a key role in implementing our new women’s strategy, which aims to double women’s participation by 2020.”
David Faulkner, head of women’s performance
Joining The FA on Monday 3 April, Faulkner will be responsible for managing the women’s high-performance system and driving a winning senior women’s team. He will manage the player development strategy for England and the FA WSL, and provide leadership to the women’s performance department.
Faulkner enjoyed a successful international hockey career, winning Olympic gold in the 1988 Seoul games, along with silver and bronze medals on both the world and European stage. He achieved 225 international caps, captaining both England and Great Britain, before becoming performance director for England and Great Britain from 2005 to 2012.
He joins The FA from Millfield School in Somerset where, as director of sport, he worked with eight athletes who went on to represent Team GB in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, winning gold and silver medals.
Audrey Cooper, head of women’s coach development
Cooper will develop and lead a team of coach educators who will work across elite and grassroots level, increasing the number of women coaches across the game. She will be responsible for leading the development of female coaching qualification and CPD programmes in line with the women’s national strategy.
Audrey joins The FA from UK Sport, where she was coaching team manager. She previously worked as the head coach of the Team GB indoor volleyball side at the 2012 Olympic Games, before progressing to become Volleyball England’s technical and talent director.
As an athlete Cooper also represented Great Britain at the 1996 Olympic Games in beach volleyball and at various world and European Championships.
Joanne Stimpson, women’s refereeing manager
Stimpson has been appointed to create a national strategy for female refereeing in England.
She will focus on creating a clear development pathway for female referees within the female game. This will begin from mini soccer through to the elite FIFA list and will offer inclusive, comprehensive and tailored support.
Joanna, who has a playing background, recently held the post of referee development officer at Somerset FA, where she developed and implemented a training strategy providing referee education and training to all groups of referees.
Marzena Bodganowicz, head of marketing and commercial for women’s football
Bogdanowicz has been appointed to a new role, designed to lead and co-ordinate a cross-functional team on women’s football including all aspects across marketing, commercial, digital and communications.
Marzena spent ten years as the inaugural director of marketing at the British Olympic Association, where she developed and led the first commercial and marketing department. A key achievement of her time at the BOA was the introduction of the internationally-recognised Team GB brand.
Previous employers include the ECB and the Squash Rackets Association. Since 2006, Marzena has been running her own marketing consultancy - b-focused ltd – specialising in sports marketing, sponsorship and event management.
