Former Ineos Grenadiers boss Fran Millar joins Rapha as CEO in “significant milestone” for British brand

Fran Millar, one of the founding members of Team Sky in 2009 and the squad’s former CEO, has been named as the new CEO of Rapha, the iconic British cycling brand announced today.

Millar, whose previous roles at Sky and later Ineos include Director of Business Operations and Head of ‘Winning Behaviours’, joins Rapha from clothing company Belstaff, which was acquired by Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS Group in 2017, where she was appointed as CEO in October 2020 by Ratcliffe to improve the struggling brand’s financial position and enact “cultural change”.

The sister of retired professional cyclist and current ITV commentator David Millar, the 45-year-old founded the cycling management agency FACE in 2000, managing the likes of Geraint Thomas and Mark Cavendish, before becoming part of the management team that established Team Sky in 2009 alongside Dave Brailsford.

As Sky’s partnership ended and the team transitioned into Ineos in 2018 and 2019, Millar became CEO of the British squad, and deputy CEO of the Ineos 1:59 Challenge, Eliud Kipchoge’s sub-two hour marathon attempt.

> Team Sky's Fran Millar: Sports teams can't be transparent – but they need to be honest

She will begin her new role at Rapha in late September, the British cycling clothing brand announced today, replacing Francois Convercey, who joined the company in 2015 and became Joint Managing Director alongside Daniel Blumire in November 2022 after the unexpected departure of William Kim after less than a year in the role.

Convercey became Rapha’s sole head in October 2023 after Blumire left, with Rapha now confirming that he will step down from his role and leave the business to make way for Millar.

“Fran Millar’s career is a testament to her dedication to cycling and her ability to drive transformative change,” Steuart Walton, the co-founder of RZC Investments, which bought Rapha in 2017, said in a statement.

“Her extensive background in the cycling world includes pivotal roles with Team Sky and Team Ineos, where she played a critical role in securing seven Tour de France victories.”

> Rapha makes redundancies as US office closes in "realigning" of business due to "current market dynamics"

Meanwhile, Simon Mottram, who founded Rapha in 2004 alongside Luke Scheybeler and remains at the company as a director, said Millar’s appointment “marks a significant milestone” for the company.

“Fran has been a friend of Rapha since 2006 when she helped us establish and run the Nocturne series of races. She then introduced us to Dave Brailsford and Team Sky, culminating in our successful four-year partnership.

“Fran’s deep understanding of the cycling industry, combined with her proven track record in leading high-performance teams and brands, positions her uniquely to guide Rapha into its next chapter.”

“Rapha is one of the most iconic brands in sport and has huge potential for its next phase of growth,” Millar said.

“It has been a constant presence in my life and career, a brand I have always loved, referenced and returned to. This role combines everything I am passionate about and I am honoured to lead Rapha into the exciting next chapter of its journey.”

> Rapha announces loss of £12 million, citing cost of living and supply chain concerns

This latest management reshuffle at Rapha comes amid a turbulent period for the clothing company, which closed its North American offices in April and made staff redundant as part of a sudden “realigning” due to “current market dynamics” and to “better reflect our strategic priorities”.

Six of the eight employees who worked at its Bentonville office in Arkansas were laid off, following similar cuts in 2018 and last September, just six months after Rapha posted a pre-tax loss of £12 million for the year up to 29 January 2023 – its sixth straight annual loss – citing a downward trend in customer interest due to the cost of living crisis as well as overhead costs due to commitments made during the pandemic.

“We are realigning Rapha to better reflect our strategic priorities and current market dynamics,” Convercey said at the time. “Over the past five years, Rapha has experienced significant growth and these recent changes will focus us on accelerating towards our purpose of inspiring the world to live life by bike.”

In February 2023, the premium cycling clothing business also underwent a refinancing operation to write off debt, the news coming as Rapha claimed it had “far outperformed” its rivals in 2022.

> "They should be doing things better": Dan Bigham announces Ineos Grenadiers departure just before starring for GB's track cycling team at the Olympics, expresses "frustrations" over "significant performance" gains being missed

Millar’s decision to leave the Ineos Group, after six years working under Jim Ratcliffe either as part of the WorldTour team or with Belstaff, also comes during an interesting period for the cycling squad, which is experiencing mounting criticism – both internally and externally – over their inability to compete against the top teams at the Tour de France.

Last week, Team GB pursuiter and aerodynamicist Dan Bigham revealed he will leave his performance engineer role at the Ineos Grenadiers after the Olympic Games, claiming that the team’s management structure “lacked clarity” Sir Dave Brailsford's departure and “should be doing things a lot better”.

Expressing his “frustrations” at mixed performance gains, Bigham said: “How I want to do performance is not particularly aligned with how Ineos wanted to go about it. I wanted more autonomy, more ability to action my ideas. And I wasn’t really getting that at Ineos.

“I feel that a lot of performance we’re leaving on the table and that frustrates me because it’s clear as day we should be doing things a lot better. Let’s be honest, Ineos are not where they want to be, not where they need to be, and the gap is not small.”