New Board Member

[Contemptible Hibee]

Decent pedigree but is he bringing in any cash?

http://www.hibernianfc.co.uk/news/mo...d=1500_0_1_0_C

[Smurf]

Sounds impressive. Pity it wasn't an executive appointment..

[Purple & Green]

Ellis has humiliated the club - and himself - in many interviews, his latest just join the sad list. What he doesn't understand - especially with the many takes needed to get a decent interview from him - is just how much the press and reporters laugh about him behind his back. No, it isn't very nice to say, but then he is 82 and still thinks he is the best man for the job and when he finally did do the right thing and bring in a capable CEO, Bruce Langham proved too good and allowed to 'leave'.

and

The Trust and VFC comment....

Supporters' Trust:

Supporter Disapproval at Langham Departure

The decision of Mr Langham to resign as a result of a difference of opinion over the future strategy of the Club is a bitter pill for Villa fans. After years of supporter campaigning to split the Chairman and CEO roles, Mr Langham's appointment and subsequent drive to go back to basics by establishing a realistic Strategic Plan and appropriate business culture were welcomed by the Supporters' Trust. Dialogue with supporters has vastly improved over the last year due to his team, and he acknowledged that the issues raised by the Trust's "Manifesto for Change" were all valid actions within his first few months in charge.

The concern for the Trust and supporters is that the positive steps put in place by Mr Langham will be undone by the old guard in a matter of months and will be a major step backwards. The Trust appeal to the Club to announce what the future strategic direction is to supporters at a time when season ticket renewals are due.

Peter Warrilow, Chairman of the Trust stated, "We were saddened by the announcement particularly since he has put a plan into place, was approachable and listened to supporters. The Club's announcement was so brief that it could only excite speculation. The only assumption we can draw was that he and the Board were not in agreement. The club should put out a full statement as soon as possible to advise both supporters and shareholders of the underlying reasons for his resignation."

Mr Langham and his senior management had been invited following the success of last year's Trust AGM to attend this year's meeting in June. We thank Mr Langham for his effort and hard work in trying to change Aston Villa for the better.

VFC:

It appears that once again turmoil reigns at Villa Park just at the stage when the club should be concentrating on bringing in top signings – as opposed to publicly announcing agreed terms before they have been agreed.

Again the wrong man has left Villa Park. You have to wonder how many decent and capable members of staff will be forced out before Mr Ellis, 82 years old, finally leaves. At the moment there is all sorts of speculation as to why Bruce Langham has left but reading behind the lines isn’t difficult when a club spokesman is quoted as saying:

“The decision of Mr Langham is the result of a difference of opinion over the strategy of the way the club is going forward”.

It appears Mr Langham didn’t learn the word “yes” quickly enough.

VFC wish Mr Langham all the very best and thank him for at least attempting to bring about a three year plan. We also very much hope that he will make public the reasons for leaving and explain what it is like trying to work at a club with one man making all the decisions. We certainly fear for the plan – which had convinced fans that the club were finally moving forward – and hope that the manager doesn’t find his position as untenable as the Chief Executive obviously did.

It is very difficult to take a position when the full facts aren’t known but we would certainly call on the rest of the board – if the reason for Mr Langham leaving was that his plans were blocked – to have the same dignity and honesty that he did and resign en masse. It may well take a bold move like this to finally rid Aston Villa of this dictatorial Chairman.

It is obvious that Mr Ellis is no longer capable of running a Plc and that he is totally incapable of holding on to quality staff on the board, within the company or team managers and players. Mr Ellis has taken us from European Champions to a shambles. An EGM should be called to resolve this situation before Villa slide even further into mediocrity. With a man of 82 and failing capabilities at the helm it appears Villa are a rudderless ship.

[Purple & Green]

Here's an interesting interview for you:

Bruce Langham Interview
Author: matthew barton
Posted: 11/04/2004; 21:11:47
Topic: Bruce Langham Interview
Msg #: 131701 (top msg in thread)
Prev/Next: 131700/131702
Reads: 428

From ICBirmingham

Bruce Langham's name did not make a dent in the national consciousness until the Rolling Stones found they could not get a telephone line out of their hotel at three in the morning.

Langham has really come to prominence only since entering the world of Premiership football, first at Fulham with Mohamed Al Fayed, and now at Aston Villa working alongside Doug Ellis.

But five years ago, Langham first found himself in demand from the media when the Stones were on tour in Scotland and found they couldn't get no satisfaction!

Langham was the managing director of Telewest Communications in 1999 when he suddenly realised that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were kicking up a fuss.

When 70,000 phone lines went down in Edinburgh in 1999, one of the world's biggest rock acts were soon on Langham's case.

"There was a flood in one of our telephone switchboards which took out half of the city," recalled Langham.

"But the first complaint came out of the Balmoral Hotel where the Rolling Stones were staying.

"They couldn't make calls at 3am so they weren't happy!"

The next day, Langham found himself extremely quotable.

But it was only when he came into football two years later that he found his services were required more regularly to feed the information-hungry world of the Premiership.

Not that Langham, 57, was too concerned by the fact that his words now mattered on an almost daily basis.

And now that he has joined - by his own admission - a bigger outfit in Villa, he will be called on even more to comment on the fortunes of a club expected to qualify for Europe every season. That is the difference between Fulham and David O'Leary's side.

The Londoners have made huge strides in the last few years and European football is a distinct bonus for them.

But Villa fans still bask in the glory of a European Cup final triumph and the fact that they haven't even come close to matching that achievement in two decades is a major source of frustration.

Not only that, but fierce rivals Birmingham City have made such rapid progress in the past two years that they are now looking to take away Villa's long-held title of being the region's No.1 club.

Blues will claim they already are after last season when they finished above Villa in the Premiership and won both derby games.

But Langham says he is well aware of the partisan relationship between the clubs, even though he is a Scotsman currently living in Sussex.

"Coming from Edinburgh, I know all about one city having two football clubs. There's my team, Hibs, and then there's Hearts," he said.

"All credit to Birmingham - they have made great strides. But the bottom line is that we are still the No.1 club in Birmingham as far as I'm concerned."

Of course, much of the supporters' frustrations are aimed at the boardroom and at Ellis. At a time when talk of takeovers and the possibility of new cash being injected into the club is commonplace, Ellis's response has not only been to turn down one bid, but to appoint a new senior figure at the club.

Langham is believed to have always been Villa's first choice ahead of Trevor Birch at Leeds United, the man tipped as favourite for the job.

The arrival of Langham suggests that Ellis is planning long-term at the moment and it is a move designed to allow the Villa chairman to take a "back seat" from the day-to-day running of the club now that he has turned 80.

Yet Langham, a softly-spoken Scot with an obvious business edge to his manner, finds it difficult to work out why Ellis gets such a hard time at Villa Park.

"I think it would be extremely egotistical of me to think that just because I've arrived, then things will change automatically," said Langham, who refuses point-blank to discuss the repercussions of any future outside bids for the club.

"What I have joined is an extremely well run organisation. There's a great manager and a chairman who has created all this. I don't know why he gets such bad press."

Langham's arrival did not exactly provoke a positive response from Villa supporters and the new man makes it clear that he is in this for the long term, despite speculation that Ellis may soon be ready to sell up.

One protest group suggested that, while the club's branches had changed, the roots remained the same, referring to the fact that Ellis will still have overall control of what happens at Villa.

And whatever Lang-ham achieves there, Ellis has been around too long simply to fade into the shadows. But the new man denies that he is here to give Ellis a football makeover in the same way as Al Fayed became everyone's "favourite uncle" figure at Fulham.

The sight of Al Fayed rapping on television with Ali G was probably more down to Max Clifford and Langham does not predict an image change for Deadly Doug.

"I improved the image of Fulham Football Club, not Mr Al Fayed," said Langham.

"But if my being here at Villa makes the relationship between the fans and Mr Ellis better then I'll be very pleased.

"That's not why I'm here, though - Doug Ellis can take care of himself.

"I understand that he will be taking a 'back seat' as he promised some months back.

"He wants to take things a little easier than he has been. But he will still be involved as executive chairman on a day-to-day basis. We have talked about our working relationship and I am comfortable with that."

And Langham admits he can understand the frustrations among supporters at a club where it has been eight years since a major trophy was won.

"I've been a football fan for 45 years and I would like my club to go out and spend £100 million on players and to go and win the European Cup.

"But they don't have £100 million for players and neither do Aston Villa. That doesn't stop you wanting it, though, which I understand perfectly.

"I won't take a risk on this club's future by spending money we don't have. There's no point - we've seen what happens when you do that."

Langham's experience of working with Al Fayed at Fulham taught him about the economics of football. The Cottagers once had Franco Baresi as their director of football and former France star Jean Tigana as manager.

Yet they are being moved forward by one of the brightest young fledgling managers in the Premiership, Chris Coleman.

Langham appears to be more than aware that football's gravy train ground to a halt some time ago but he knows the bar will be raised for him at Villa even though they have also acted to cut costs and impose a pay ceiling.

Al Fayed had big plans which meant big money. But in the end, realism kicked in. And Langham himself found himself the victim of the club's reorganisation when he was sacked by Fulham last year.

"When I was at Fulham, the chairman said his ambition was to make them the Manchester United of the south," recalled Langham.

"To be honest, there already is one and it's called Arsenal. Mr Al Fayed gradually realised that you can't buy success in that way. What we decided to do was tailor the expectations of what we could do as a Premiership club.

"That satisfied the fans. Fulham sorted out their finances and are going places. I will take some of the credit for that happening.

"But Villa is a bigger club with a great history and bigger ambitions. I'm pleased because, even at my age, it is a career progression for me."

Some supporters may not see Langham as the "younger" man who Ellis said would be coming in to replace former deputy chief executive Mark Ansell.

But he is still a good deal younger than Ellis and would certainly appear to be focused on the task in hand, as well as realising that the demands placed on him will be greater.

Fans will want plans put in place that are designed to bring success and O'Leary will request the sort of financial backing that will help him achieve that. Already, the Villa boss has suggested that four new quality players need to be brought in this summer.

"I don't believe in simply chucking figures around publicly about what we are going to spend," said Langham.

"But my initial impression is that, with the size of the squad we have here at the moment, we are not a selling club. In fact we need to do the opposite."

That is the sort of remark that suggests the club will make efforts to keep the likes of Juan Pablo Angel, Gareth Barry, Thomas Hitzlsperger and Darius Vassell - all players whose futures are unclear.

But Langham refuses to go into details on individual players until he has officially started his new job. And it will not just be the playing staff he deals with. He is looking at a number of ways to bring new money into the club.

"My first focus will be on the commercial side. We have to make sure we work our assets 24-7," he said.

"It's quite simple. The more money you make, the bigger the profits and the more you can plough back into the club.

"For instance, we will be looking to build the brand of Aston Villa overseas.

"Television revenue in this country is likely to diminish whereas overseas markets are growing.

"We can maybe form alliances with clubs overseas. We want people to buy the brand."

Ellis's plans to increase the capacity of Villa Park to 50,000 were put on hold when it became obvious that the current 43,000 seats were not being filled regularly.

And Langham admits that the squad will come before any cosmetic alterations.

"There have been no detailed discussions, but if I had money to spend and a choice between spending it on the team or another 8,000 seats, I'd spend it on the squad given the crowds we are getting at the moment," he said.

But Langham is keen to make it clear that he left Fulham in a better state than he found it and hopes similar progress can happen at Villa.

Despite the fact that he was sacked by Al Fayed in November, Langham maintains that the books are in good shape.

"When I went there, they were losing over £20 million a year. This time, with the budget I put in place, they will probably make their first ever profit," he said.

"I think that will do for an achievement."

http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:...k&ct=clnk&cd=3

[Say Yes..]

Lads, this is a pretty hypocritical thread, considering the amount of times you've all slagged Vlad' for investing heavily into Hearts, saying that they've sold there soul to him. When, in reality, if a Vladimir Romanov came to Hibs, you'd welcome him with open arms.

[Dr Shrink]

Originally Posted by Say Yes..

Lads, this is a pretty hypocritical thread, considering the amount of times you've all slagged Vlad' for investing heavily into Hearts, saying that they've sold there soul to him. When, in reality, if a Vladimir Romanov came to Hibs, you'd welcome him with open arms.

Are you posting on the right thread?
Or do you enjoy toying with the surreal as well as your privates?

This is about the appointment of a non-executive director at Hibs FC and has nothing to do with submarines, gold rods, the building of supermarkets and flats at Tynie, or.......... you.

[Marchmont Hibs]

Originally Posted by Say Yes..

Lads, this is a pretty hypocritical thread, considering the amount of times you've all slagged Vlad' for investing heavily into Hearts, saying that they've sold there soul to him. When, in reality, if a Vladimir Romanov came to Hibs, you'd welcome him with open arms.

What are you talking about? This guy isn't coming into Hibs to invest money he doesnt have. He's most likely been appointed to try and develop the brand (with his marketing and business strategy backgrounds) so we can get some more money in and chip away at the debt. Something you Gorgie fools don't seem to get (eaxmple: signing a goalkeeper on £18k a week that you can't afford only increasing your debt). Now go away.

[blue toon hibby]

Originally Posted by Say Yes..

Lads, this is a pretty hypocritical thread, considering the amount of times you've all slagged Vlad' for investing heavily into Hearts, saying that they've sold there soul to him. When, in reality, if a Vladimir Romanov came to Hibs, you'd welcome him with open arms.

I don't see any hypocrisy in welcoming the appointment of a NON EXECUTIVE Director to our Club. Can you explain please?

[Postiga]

Can someone tell me what a non-executive actually is/does?

[Gunnerhibby]

Originally Posted by D.K

Excellent appointment, he does have a great record and valuable experience, especially in telecomms and in football management. I look forward to having someone on the board with the confidence to advance and integrated database and marketing management system

7 years and counting

So it looks like the phones in the ticket office will be answered a bit quicker then

[snoots]

Originally Posted by Postiga

Can someone tell me what a non-executive actually is/does?

He's non-executive and he does some non-executive stuff.

[GloryGlory]

Originally Posted by Gunnerhibby

So it looks like the phones in the ticket office will be answered a bit quicker then

I'm sure I could think where his 80/100k a year salary could of been spent better

[Gunnerhibby]

Originally Posted by snoots

He's non-executive and he does some non-executive stuff.

it just means he does'nt do executive stuff

[Gunnerhibby]

Originally Posted by GloryGlory

I'm sure I could think where his 80/100k a year salary could of been spent better

so we give some guy 100K a year tae fix the phones and a guy that pits the baw in the net 20+ times a year only gets 25K

[Dr Shrink]

A non-executive director is NOT an employee.

Where does the £100k per annum story come from?
Many non-exec directors perform the role voluntarily (unpaid) or for a few quid in expenses.

Maybe this guy wants to offer something to the Club rather than take from it?


A novel approach I know.

[Gunnerhibby]

Originally Posted by Dr Shrink

Where does the £100k per annum story come from?

Greggs

[Davy]

I was worried about that line...establishing a realistic Strategic Plan and appropriate business culture...positively it would mean us continuing to strengthen the clubs finances but on the other hand does it mean more penny pinching well he seemed to want to drive villa forward so hopefully a good move particularly as he is a proffessed Hibby.

found this when looking for what a chief exec actually does

http://s3.invisionfree.com/Villa_We_...?showtopic=313

What is role of non-exec?

Answer

Non-executive director
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
A non-executive director is a member of the board of directors of a company who does not form part of the executive management team. He or she is not an employee of the company or affiliated with it in any other way.

In 2003, Derek Higgs in a report for the British Government defined the role of the non-executive director like this:

Strategy: Non-executive directors should constructively challenge and contribute to the development of strategy.
Performance: Non-executive directors should scrutinise the performance of management in meeting agreed goals and objectives and monitor the reporting of performance.
Risk: Non-executive directors should satisfy themselves that financial information is accurate and that financial controls and systems of risk management are robust and defensible.
People: Non-executive directors are responsible for determining appropriate levels of remuneration of executive directors and have a prime role in appointing, and where necessary removing, senior management and in succession planning.
On the whole, non-executive directors are the custodians of the governance process. They are not involved in the day-to-day running of business but monitor the executive activity and contribute to the development of strategy.


simple

[Dr Shrink]

Originally Posted by Davy

simple

It's dead common too.

Loads of companies rely on non-executive directors to keep a watching brief on the 'paid directors' bringing their own experience to the benefit of the organisation.
It is also common for the non-executive directors to have a hand in setting the remuneration of the Executive Directors........ so maybe Rodders is having his terms reviewed.......upwards no doubt.


It's good news to get a guy with his experience on Board in my opinion.

In fact it's VERY good news.
Mightbe one of our better signings.