Richard Vaughan is the new CEO of Badminton Ireland. As a player, Richard was a double Olympian and a former British number 1 with a world ranking of 7 in men’s singles. As a coach, he created his own Welsh badminton academy, which has developed a number of highly successful international players, and as a director in the Catalan Badminton Federation Richard initiated the schools’ development programme and founded the Catalan Coach Education programme. As an administrator Richard jointly created the Catalan strategic plan and developed a € multi-million training centre in conjunction with the Catalan Sports Council. He is currently working with the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on the “Road to London Africa project” which is designed to maximise participation from the African continent. He takes up his new role on July 18th.