Exclusive interview Meet the woman
Handrea Pinchen has faced sexism and a financial crisis but the chief executive has helped the Tigers roar once again
It says much about the journey rugby union still has to make towards equality that the woman who has been central to the remarkable revival of Leicester Tigers reveals she has had to contend with sexist attitudes at the higher echelons of rugby administration. The appointment in May last year of Andrea Pinchen as the first female chief executive of a Premiership club marked a watershed moment for rugby in England.
The former aviation security specialist insists her career has never been hindered by sexism. But her experiences show the game still has some way to go.
Once, in her previous role as chief operating officer at the club, she was asked by chairman Peter Tom to travel to Guernsey to meet an (unsuccessful) candidate for a coaching position.
“I was with Simon Cohen, the CEO at the time, and Peter, who wanted me there for my opinion on the person we were interviewing, and on what he said, rather than from a rugby point of view,” she says.
“When the coach, who will remain nameless, walked in, he already knew Simon and introduced himself to Peter. And as I went to hold my hand out, he said to me, ‘I’ll have some water, please’.
“Here I was, the chief operating officer of Leicester Tigers, the club this guy was applying to join. What was more amusing was the reaction of Peter and Simon, who were mortified and started saying, ‘I will get the water, I will get the water’ and almost had a scrap trying to get to the fridge first.”
Even after succeeding Cohen at the height of the pandemic, when the future of the club was in jeopardy because of the devastating financial impact, there have been times when she has faced similar attitudes. “It’s really interesting for me because it was something I never considered all the way through my career with the Tigers [she first joined the club in 2004 as ticket sales manager]. And because prior to this I was with Emirates airline, and I was training in aviation security.
“So I was taking classes of 50 male
Arab pilots, or state security and just standing there, talking about bombs and hijacking! It was never anything that impeded me, and I’ve always thought whoever you are or whatever you stand for, you get a role on merit.
“And that being said, I would say that there have been some interesting incidents since I’ve been CEO that you would notice where people may come to you and ask you to do something that they perhaps wouldn’t ask.
“So for instance, at Twickenham [before the Challenge Cup final last season] there were certain situations with EPCR [European Professional Club Rugby] wanting things to happen, and they would not address the players, [head coach] Steve Borthwick or any of the other coaches, but made a beeline for me. And I was standing with our financial director as well, but I was told, ‘You have got to do this’.
“I find it interesting rather than anything else, and I end up having a bit of a wry smirk.”
Pinchen is a formidable force. There were times last year when she admits she feared the club would not make it through the financial crisis – they lost more than £10million because of lockdowns – and yet despite many sleepless nights, Leicester not only survived but have emerged as a coming force again, flourishing under the new coaching regime spearheaded by Borthwick. “From the outside I think people looking in were saying, it’s Leicester Tigers, it is such an iconic club, it’ll never fold, they will be fine,” she says. “On the inside, whilst you still wanted that belief – we all had to believe – you were working really hard to make sure that happened. And there were a few touchand-go moments. I don’t think any of us
slept for a long time. I didn’t know what Zoom was before March 2020, and then you spend your whole life on it, morning, noon and night and at weekends, trying to work with Peter Tom, the rest of the board and some of the staff in getting us through this in the best shape.”
That process involved tough decisions, and not just financial ones. Some high-profile players, including club stalwart Manu Tuilagi, left in controversial circumstances, while Geordan Murphy departed as director of rugby last November.
Borthwick was identified as the coach to build the club around and backed with a long-term plan for Leicester to rediscover themselves from a slump that had begun long before Covid hit.
“The flip of all the negative and horrific stuff that Covid has given the world, it gave us an opportunity to really stand back, assess everything that we had done and were doing and then say, ‘Right, look, if we’re going to be the Leicester that we want to be, how are we going to do it?’
“We’d lost our way, we needed to get back on track.”
Pinchen has worked closely with Borthwick over recruitment and in identifying the characters they want to build a team around, while bringing on a crop of brilliant young talent, including Freddie Steward, George Martin, Jack van Poortvliet, Dan Kelly and Joe Heyes.
Under the leadership of new captain Ellis Genge, Leicester have built on the momentum of last season, winning their first three Premiership games and will travel to London Irish today confident of retaining their unblemished start to the campaign.
For Pinchen, though, it is only the start. She has just had a three-year plan signed off by the board, and given Borthwick the licence to look ahead and beyond the detailed planning for each game and the pressure of results.
“To alleviate the pressure sometimes I say to him to just look up for a minute, and recognise what you’ve done and what you’ve achieved,” she says. “And that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop, because there’s so much work to do. But where we have come from and where we are now, it’s a huge step forward.
“And I think we’d said to everybody else, ‘Watch out, we’re coming back.’”
‘There have been a few touch-and-go moments. I don’t think any of us slept for a long time’