England and Great Britain's Performance Director, David Faulkner, is to resign. The full text of the England Hockey press release is as follows:
Following seven and a half years of dedicated service David Faulkner has decided to leave his position as Performance Director with England Hockey and Great Britain Hockey at the end of 2012.
David has given his all to the role since he joined England Hockey in 2005, leading the national teams through their most successful period in more than two decades. During his time in charge, he has led England's men's and women's teams from world rankings of 11th to their current positions of fourth and under his leadership Great Britain won its first Olympic medal in 20 years this summer.
During his tenure England and Great Britain have won medals at the World Cup, European Championships, Commonwealth Games, Champions Trophies and most recently the Olympic Games. Highlights have included the England men winning the European Championships for the first time in 2009 and silver at the Champions Trophy in 2010, and the Great Britain women winning silver at the Champions Trophy and bronze at the Olympic Games in 2012.
In addition to his role as Performance Director, David has played a hugely important role as an Executive Director of the England Hockey Board. He has been integral to many of the major decisions and successes off the pitch, including the introduction of the Single System talent development pathway, the successful hosting of the Women's Champions Trophy in 2010 and the successful bid to bring the European Championships to London's Olympic legacy facility in 2015.
Sally Munday, England Hockey Chief Executive, said "We are very disappointed to be losing David as he has provided fantastic leadership of our performance programmes but we recognise that the demands of the Performance Director role require a unique dedication in terms of time and energy. David has put England and Great Britain Hockey ahead of everything for the last seven and a half years and I completely respect his decision to move on."
Philip Kimberley, Chairman, said "I have thoroughly enjoyed working closely with David since we set out in 2005 to rebuild the reputation and results of hockey. He has played a hugely important role in our recent success on the pitch and in re-establishing our reputation off it; for that I thank him and wish him well in the future."
The recruitment process to appoint a new Performance Director will begin shortly.
