Saints Appoint New Chief Executive Officer Tuesday, 25th Mar 2014 11:19 Those who hoped for a high profile experienced appointment to the CEO position will be disapointed, but truth is this is entirely in line with the Liebherr philospophy. Saints have made the interim appointment of Gareth Rogers permanent and he is now the official permanent CEO of Southampton Football Club. When Rogers was appointed in the position temporary it was assumed that perhaps Saints had a candidate who had a notice period, however that seems to now be a false trail and the former Chief Financial Officer is now the man who going forward will be responsible for the day to day running of the club. Of course this will spark gossip about the ambitions under Katharina Liebherr for the club, but in actual fact this appointment is entirely in line with the family's philosophy with regard to business, they do not go for flamboyancy or big names, they go for those who work quietly behind the scenes rather than seeking the limelight or as in the last CEO found the limelight due to controversial decisions. But since she has come to the fore Katharina has revamped the corporate governance behind the club, unlike under Cortese where he was the sole decision maker and all and everything was down to him, a policy that is not good in any big company, Rogers is very much a part of a bigger picture that will see Katharina Liebherr at the top, Ralph Krueger ther eot liase between her and Gareth Rogers and indeed help and councel the new CEO as every good hairman should do. Krueger speaking on the club's official site said “It gives me great pleasure to announce, on behalf of the Board, that Gareth has been appointed as our new Chief Executive Officer. “Gareth has done an excellent job leading our operation through a challenging and transitional period over the past two months. In that time he has proved himself to be decisive, open to innovation and able to inspire others to share his great values. “His appointment is another important step forward for our leadership team as we continue to grow this great Club.” In response the new CEO made this statement “It is a real privilege and an honour to be confirmed as Chief Executive Officer of Southampton Football Club. “It is clear from every facet of the Club that a real sense of potential exists and we intend to continue to strive in order to reach this. Whilst there is significant work ahead of us, I cannot speak highly enough of our fantastic staff who I know, having worked with them for the past three years, are pulling in the same direction to ensure that the Club can continue to better itself. “Consequently, I look forward and am excited by the challenge of helping the Club to grow, both on and off the pitch, as we strive for long-term success.” Some fine words from both men and indeed Krueger has intimated that words need to be backed up by actions before they can be anything else, but that aside both are saying the right things. In football clubs, those with continuity are those that succeed and in appointing Rogers we do have continuity in that he has been here since 2011, he knows the staff and more importantly he knows the issues that have been within the club during Cortese's tenancy, by appointing him its a clear statement that Katharina Liebherr is looking to stabilise the ship and before we do anything she needs to rebuild the staff morale and make it a happy place to work again, she knows that in any company you get the best results from happy employee's, the last few years have seen massive staff turnover, especially in key positions, this turnover has seen our commercial income shrink at a time when it should have been increasing massively. So hopefully and i say hopefully as although I am impressed by the appointments the proof of the pudding will still be in the eating, this is another step forward, for some it wont be well recieved as over the past year or so they have been taken in by brash statements of Champions league football etc, but in the main building a football club has to be done on solid foundations, that wasnt the case when we had a CEO who clearly was not in sync with the person who owned the club, now we have the proper structure in place. Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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