Alastair Donald
(Managing Director)

Born 1950
Alastair completed an MBA at Cranfield School of Business in 1982. Drawn by his lifelong interest in horses and racing he joined the International Racing Bureau from the position of marketing manager in an Imperial Chemical Industries plc subsidiary in 1985, becoming Managing Director in 2002. During his employment with the IRB he has been involved in many of the developments in the company’s history, including the creation and launch of the Racing Post in 1985, the expansion of international racing into Turkey, Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai, as well as advising the Greek Racing Authorities on the development of their racecourse in advance of the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

Andrew Stewart Ross Jones
(Non Executive Chairman)

Born in 1959, Ross was educated at Ampleforth College and joined Gerrard and National Ltd in 1977, became a director of the Gerrard Group in 1986 before finally leaving the City in 2003. Ross formed JTP Partners LLP, a company that specialises in advising start-up companies, in 2005. Ross has a wealth of board level experience in a variety of different companies including being a Non- Executive Director of Loftus Road PLC, which owned Queens Park Rangers FC and Wasps RFC and later as Non- Executive Chairman of QPR Holdings Ltd. Ross's interest in racing originally stems from being an owner and he will be focussed on Business Development.

John Carrington
(Non-Executive Director)

Previously a financial journalist, in 1970 Mr Carrington founded the investment management company, John Carrington & Co. Ltd which, following the launch of Pembroke unit trusts, became Carrington Pembroke Ltd. In 1996, the business was sold to ABN AMRO Bank N.V. where it was renamed ABN AMRO Asset Management Limited. Mr Carrington retired from business in 1998. He is currently non-executive chairman of Equest Investments Balkans Ltd. He was formerly a member of the Council of the Racehorse Owners Association, and a non-executive director of Windsor Racecourse Ltd.

Adrian James Beaumont
(Director of Racecourse Services)

Adrian was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Stourbridge and started working for the Newmarket Bloodstock Agency in 1980 before joining the International Racing Bureau in 1982. Originally in Trainer’s Services he set up Racecourse Services in 1986 and has helped to blue print and promote international race meetings in Arlington, Breeders’ Cup, Dubai, Hollywood, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Singapore, Woodbine etc. Adrian also represents Ascot, Epsom, Newmarket, Sandown and York internationally, both encouraging international participation and looking after their visiting horses and connections.

James Campbell Fry
(Director of Trainer’s Services)

Born 1962
James was educated at Clifton College, Bristol and went on to obtain a Business Diploma at Northumbria University. In 1982 he joined the racing department at Weatherbys Ltd in Wellingborough and two years later was transferred to the Stud Book Department where he became deputy-manager until he left the firm to go on a world tour in 1988.

In 1990 he joined the International Racing Bureau on a part-time basis assisting the Editorial Department before being made a full-time employee in September of that year. He remained in the Editorial Department before joining Trainers Service in 1997 and has been instrumental in the development of the website as a source of information for trainers.

Jane George
(Company Secretary)

Born 1962
Educated at St Mary’s Convent, Cambridge and joined the IRB in 1981 after doing a PA Diploma Course at CCAT.

Took over the running of the Trainers Services in 1988, was made a Director in 1991 and was responsible for expanding that side of the business into the very successful department it has become today. After handing over the reins to James Fry in 2002, concentrated on the Japan Cup and the Japan Racing Association’s other International Races.

Daughter and grand-daughter of Classic winning Racehorse Trainers, she is passionate about racing and Newmarket and takes an active part in her family’s training yard in Newmarket.

Married to Jimmy George, Marketing Director of Tattersalls.

Desmond John Russell Stoneham
(European Director/Representative)

Born 1942
Desmond was educated at Harrow School where he caught the racing bug. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1966 as his father wished him to do something secure and sensible before indulging in his passion. In April 1972, he was interviewed by David hedges the founder of the International Racing Bureau. Although his secretary Roz Preston scored Desmond only 2 out of 20, he was employed and is still staying on gamely at the Paris office. He has been the Irish Field correspondent in France since May 1975 and wrote under the nom de plume Jean Roussel in the Sporting Life before being switched to the Racing Post when the paper was born in April 1986. Finding top French horses to race abroad in now a main occupation.

Alistair Haggis

For nearly 30 years Alistair has been at the cutting edge of horseracing PR, marketing and sponsorship, building a reputation in the sport that is second to none.

Educated at Merchant Taylors’ School in Moor Park and graduating from Cambridge University in 1984, Alistair joined the International Racing Bureau that year before working for a number of sports sponsorship and media relations agencies, including Sports Bureau International (now part of IMG) and Shandwick (now Weber Shandwick).

He then went freelance, working for many horseracing clients with great success, never losing a single client because of the standard of his work.

He rejoined the IRB at the start of 2013 to help create a new PR, Marketing and Sponsorship Department.

His clients have included Aintree Racecourse (as Press Officer for the Grand National in the late 1980s), Seagram Distillers (maximising their sponsorship of the Grand National), Whitbread PLC (handling all aspects of their National Hunt and Flat racing sponsorships at Cheltenham and Sandown Park), Ascot Racecourse (head of Public Relations in the 1990s), Epsom Racecourse (as Press Officer for the Derby), Newmarket Racecourses (PR and strategy consultant to the then Managing Director, Lisa Hancock), Greenalls PLC (handling all aspects of their sponsorship of the Greenalls Grand National Trial at Haydock Park), British Champions Series Ltd (Head of Communications), Haydock Park, Kempton Park and Sandown Park Racecourses (PR consultant). He was also racing, marketing and PR consultant for a planned major new international racecourse in Moscow, a project which is currently on hold.