Leicestershire County Cricket Club has become the first in England to have a chairwoman and a female chief executive at the same time.
Mehmooda Duke MBE DL, who runs her own law firm in Leicester, has just been appointed chairwoman at the Grace Road club.
It comes two months after
Cambridge graduate Mehmooda said: “I feel privileged to have been elected chair of LCCC and to be working with a highly-skilled, diverse and professional new board - both directors and advisors - and our new CEO.
“I look forward to getting to know the members and working with .
“It is a really exciting time for the club, and I am delighted to be a part of the journey.”
Karen Rothery, an avid cricket fan, recently explained to BusinessLive what had attracted her to the CEO position.
She said: “I’d seen the job pop up on my Linkedin timeline, and when I looked at the board and the website I saw that there were few women involved in cricket in Leicestershire, and the cricket landscape as a whole – there’s only one other female CEO in cricket, in Nottingham, Lisa Pursehouse.
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“So, it appealed to my anarchic side – I believe in women being highly represented in business and sports, and cricket doesn’t have that.
“I’d also always thought my husband and I would eventually come back to live in Leicester as we’ve both lived here and love the area, so I decided to go for the job.”
Former school teacher Mehmooda started her legal career in London in 1992.
She set up Moosa–Duke Solicitors in 2003, and is now a specialist in medical negligence claims.
She was appointed president of Leicestershire Law Society in May 2015, becoming the public face of the organisation and steering the strategic direction.
Mehmooda became a board advisor to the cricket club in June 2017, and became a director this March.
She is the first female to hold any of those three positions at Leicestershire.
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He appointment was confirmed after Roy Bent decided to stand down as the board’s chairman for personal reasons.
Roy intends to continue in his role as an elected director for the remainder of his term.
Leicestershire hosts two one day internationals between the England and Australian women’s teams on July 2 and July 4.