News Archive

10 March 2010
SAINTS' LONG-SERVING MD TO STEP DOWN

The Club’s long-serving Managing Director Stewart Duff will sever his ties with the club at the end of the current football season.

Stewart was amongst Chairman Geoff Brown’s earliest recruits when he took control of the club in 1986 and after a spell combining football duties with a career in banking, followed by his appointment to the Board in 1989, Stewart was appointed as the Club’s full-time Managing Director in 1993.

Stewart, who turned 60 late last year, said: “I told the Chairman last October of my intention to step down as I wanted to give him plenty of time to plan ahead. I’ll be severing my ties with the club completely as I don’t think it would be fair on my successor to have me looking over his shoulder.

“I have had great support from other Directors and staff over the years and I have no doubt that everyone at McDiarmid Park will continue to take the club forward.”

Chairman Geoff Brown is full of praise for his long-term associate and friend:

“Stewart has worked tirelessly for this club day in, day out and it is a role that brings with it a lot of hassle and flak - a lot of which he has taken to keep it away from me! He is a Saints fan through and through and everything he does is with the interests of the football club at heart. A football club is unlike any other businesses – decisions made and their implications are played out in the public eye and that’s not easy.

“Now that he has turned 60 he wants to bow out and it is his decision to sever ties completely. I tried to talk him into staying on the Board but he feels he can’t offer anything practical in that role and he doesn’t want to be a hanger-on. After all these years of working with me, he knows how I work!”

The Chairman – the longest serving in Scottish football - has not made a decision on his own future but admits he will find it difficult to build up a similar relationship with a new person.

His son Steve, a board member for a number of years, and other younger Board members will have a major say in what direction the club takes in relation to Stewart’s successor.