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Ralph Krueger Explains Board Reshuffle !
Tuesday, 4th Jul 2017 09:41

Saints Chairman Ralph Krueger has explained the rationale behind the board reshuffle that has seen Katharina Liebherr leave the board of the football club.

Ralph Krueger has spoken to the Daily Echo of why there has been a sudden re jigging on the Saints board and says that it is not the signal that there will be an imminent completion of the proposed takeover by Lander Holdings.

Indeed it seems to have gone a little quiet on that front although Krueger does hint that this restructure will stay in place if and when it does happen and with no CEO in place this could mean that this position would be filled by someone chosen by Lander Holdings, either way it does suggest that Saints and Lander are in close communication even if nothing is happening at present.

Chairman Ralph Krueger, vice chairman of football Les Reed and vice chairman of business Martin Semmens will lead the club as part of a three man strategic board.

There is also now an operational board that sits below that, responsible for running the club on a daily basis.

Finance chief Toby Steele, legal expert Tim Greenwell and commercial boss David Thomas have all been officially confirmed as the first raft of directors to sit on it.

Krueger told the Echo.

“In the reorganisation we will not have a CEO anymore and we are not looking to hire anybody.

“We have an extremely strong, young, dynamic, very intelligent, well-educated group of operational managers.

“We will have an interim managing director in Toby Steele, who will retain his CFO role.

“At the strategic board level we now have a three person strategic board. That is myself as chairman, Les Reed will be elevated to vice-chairman of football, and Martin Semmens, who has been key in forming our strategy, in particular with commercial and the way our brand is developing, will take the vice-chairmanship of business."

“We will be the strategic board of the club and Toby Steele will be the connection as the CFO/interim-MD to the operational management, which is very youthful and dynamic.

“I think it will give people comfort to know we have that strategic board and the operational board, which is something we are developing the final steps in right now.

“We have built a foundation as a business, and like on the pitch we never want to let our guard down, we always want to look at ways to improve and to get stronger, and that’s what we are doing at the moment here internally.

“No matter the ownership position moving forward, this is the group driving the club forward, and this management team will stay intact.”

Saints appear to have swept the decks clean ready for Lander to take the major shareholding and it would seem that the Chinese company would want this structure to remain in place if they take over with the addition of their own man as CEO to oversee.

Whatever happens it seems that Saints have a structure in place to adapt, certainly Krueger as Chairman of the strategic board would seem to have a bigger role to play than before as with the departure of Gareth Rogers as CEO, someone has to take charge of the company as a whole.

Photo: Action Images



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SonicBoom added 10:03 - Jul 4
The takeover is very quiet. Even the Echo acknowledge things have gone very quiet and that it may or may not happen.
This is extraordinary. There has been months of talking and due diligence. Surely by now Lander know what they are doing.
If they have decided to proceed then I'm a t a loss as to why this has taken so long.
1

SanMarco added 10:07 - Jul 4
"Best to have a three person strategic board" as I was saying to Mrs San Marco only the other day.

I still await one good reason why a Chinese company with no money is a good bet for us. I also see TUI is still celebrating our 0-0 with Stoke on the last day, does that mean we get an extra point?
3

highfield49 added 10:36 - Jul 4
With reference to the Chinese funding I couldn't agree more SanMarco, surely there must be other potential owners/partners or whatever that would be significantly less clandestine. I recognise that if you do a bit of research on "who owns who" in the business world lots of the iconic brands are owned by strangely named holding companies but it is the brand that builds trust not the background holders of the purse strings. My point being that if Lander were the parent company of Etihad or Disney or whatever my trust in them would be that much greater because they would have a brand with which we could associate. At present Lander feel, to me, like a back street loan shark with whom instinct says you shouldn't associate. All about perception because the truth isn't evident I'm afraid.
6

BoondockSaint added 20:31 - Jul 4
Again, is't "Why only the Saints?"
As with our player deals, when it benefits another (Scouse) team, it's done in a day.
When we are supposed to get a player in it takes months!

If this was a proper take over, it would have been done months ago!
First we had the "Saints doing due diligence-will take six months"
OK, so that was done...but we never heard anything.
Then FA has to do a "Fit and Proper " investigation-will take a month (supporters spend this time discussing what the FA would find "Unfit and Improper.")
No big announcement at the deadline.
Now Kruger talking about "no matter what the ownership position..."

So just what the hell is going on? Either do the deal or drop it!
Tell you what, if Eisner gets the finance he wants, he'll do the deal down the road in a day.
1

VancouverSaint added 20:49 - Jul 4
Agree with Highfield49, I would be happier using Kats German connections and peddle us off to Mercedes-Daimler.
2

SaintBrock added 16:37 - Jul 5
.. or it could mean we are preparing the way to become a listed public company at the LSE as opposed to a privately owned entity, especially if the Lander deal is toast as many suspect an quite a few hope and there are no other suitors at the asking price.
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