Rudi Urbach and Gavin Smith appointed onto Board of Directors

We are delighted to announce that Rudi Urbach and Gavin Smith have been appointed onto the Bowls Scotland Board.

Rudi works in the Sports Development industry as a Regional Director with Scottish Rugby. He has been appointed as Bowls Scotland’s Director of Development after overseeing many of the challenges and opportunities of growing sport in his day job. Throughout his time at Scottish Rugby, Rudi has worked alongside sportscotland, Local Authorities and wider community sports development groups, all of which can play a key role in supporting bowling clubs throughout the country.

Gavin has been appointed as a general Board Director due to his professional skills and bowls background. He has worked in Financial Services for the last 20 years and currently works for Lloyds Banking Group as Head of Risk for their Digital Channels business. Gavin started bowling at the age of 10 at Buckhaven Bowling Club and is a former Scotland Junior Internationalist, he also represented Scotland at Junior and Senior International level indoors.

Looking forward to the opportunity, Rudi commented: “It is an exciting time for bowls as a whole. Sport has the ability to positively influence communities and with such a breadth and depth of engagement across the bowls family in Scotland, I see a real opportunity to affect meaningful and positive change across the communities our clubs serve.”

Also pleased to become part of Bowls Scotland’s Board, Gavin added: “I was attracted to the role as I am keen to get involved in addressing some key challenges we face as a sport. Also being part of defining the strategy to help grow the game at grassroots level and develop thriving community clubs is something I’m really passionate about.

“The timing worked out great for me as well, I have just returned to bowling this year and when I saw the role advertised, I thought it would be a perfect fit. It will enable me to use my professional experience to help advance the sport that I really care about.”

Bowls Scotland Chair, Sue Beatt, is excited to get working with Rudi and Gavin now their appointments have been confirmed. She said: "I am delighted to have Rudi and Gavin join the Board.

“Rudi brings very relevant experience in sports development, and particularly in developing the female rugby game, which fits very well with our Empowering Women in Bowls campaign. Gavin brings a wealth of knowledge of bowls, from grassroots through to international competition, together with the experience gained from his professional career.

“The Board and I are very much looking forward to working with them both.”