Peter Duffy, Aldershot Town's CEO provided an update of the clubs progress off the pitch today in which he described the club as being out of intensive care and with improved prospects and optimism for the future.
Speaking on the clubs official website, he said: "Last Summer I announced some important changes to the Club’s ownership and Board structure, whereby Chairman Kris Machala became majority shareholder and owner and the Board of Directors was strengthened such that it now is composed of six Executive Directors and a Company Secretary, working with two Non Executives.
"Per Breimyr has recently resigned his role as a Non Executive Director due to his own extensive work and travel commitments. He has made an excellent contribution to the vision and set up of our Youth Development Programme and will remain involved and supportive of the club in an unofficial capacity.
"The new Board has been working on a comprehensive agenda, in pursuit of our aim of being a solvent, profitable, sustainable Football Club competing in the Football League; professional on and off the pitch. Considerable progress is being made so I am pleased to be able to confirm further changes, designed to align our resources with the need to focus, simultaneously, on our near term and longer term activities agendas.
"Richard Low, an Executive Director, has been appointed as Chief Operating Officer, responsible for all day to day operational and administrative activities at the Club in addition to his responsibilities for our Young player development. Richard will be full time at the Club, reporting to Kris, the Chairman.
"As our Shareholders will testify, having recently received the Club’s Accounts 2010-11, the finances of the Club are in a healthier state than ever – out of “Intensive Care” but still needing daily attention given the increased breadth and mix of our revenue streams and costs. We are also very mindful of the difficult economic times and uncertainty that prevails.
"The responsibility for managing and providing professional advice to our finances will be undertaken by Andy Muckett and his staff at AKM Associates. Andy has been a sponsor and Patron of the club for several years. He will work closely with Richard and the operations team to provide an essential in-house finance-management service. Tom McManners, owner of Treetops our previous external Accountant, will continue to provide independent Financial advice and support at Board level.
"All of the above changes have strengthened our Club’s people resources and improved our prospects and optimism for the future. They have also enabled me personally to change my role from a conventional CEO to that of an advisor on longer term strategic imperatives including attracting new investors, securing our major sponsors and helping Dean to develop as he builds his own squad for next Season and hopefully many seasons after that.
"Ultimately, the Club has been undergoing a steady transformation, on and off the pitch. It is inevitable that it takes some time for new changes to be embedded and patience and dedication is needed to make sure we get the results we deserve. I would like to thank our supporters who understand what we are striving to achieve and who are positive and loyal to the team – all of whom are doing their very best to ensure we learn, perform better and grow."