BFCST Fan Engagement Forum with our Board of Directors
On Thursday night, at Shambles Street Bar in Barnsley Town Centre, we welcomed Chairman Neerav Parekh, CEO Khaled El-Ahmad, and Director Julie Anne Quay, for the first Fan Engagement Forum of the season. We were also joined in the audience by Head Coach Michael Duff and Director Jean Cryne.
The first half of the evening was a curated interview with Neerav, Khaled and Julie Anne, before opening questions up from the floor. Headlines below of the topics covered, which ranged from ownership to recruitment, and the long-term strategy and ambitions for the board and the football club.
Ownership and Board of Directors
Neerav Parekh explained that they became aware last year that the investors, that Julie Anne Quay represents, were getting their shares back. Meaning Paul Conway would no longer be the nominee, and this allowed them to make a plan to change the structure and make-up of the board
Relegation didn’t impact on making this change, as the process started a long time before that
The biggest motivation for making the change was that the club ‘wasn’t being run well, either for the community, or on the playing side, and the board of directors you see today just weren’t happy with the way things were going’
Frustrations were there with the previous board of directors as Neerav only had one vote, meaning impacting any change was difficult, but that’s why the new board of directors are here today. Neerav’s message was ‘Judge us by what you see, but it will take time’
We had confirmation that the Board of Directors includes Neerav, Jean, James and Julie Anne who are all shareholders, with Khaled and Rob Zuk as CEO and CFO respectively
Julie Anne Quay added that Barnsley FC was ‘presented to her family as an investment opportunity, and with friends took up the offer as big football fans’.
There is no ‘nominee’ anymore, so there is no time limit on Julie Anne’s position on the board or as a representative
In response to some suggestions that previous board members still have influence at Oakwell, are still pulling the strings, and that the new board of directors is smoke and mirrors, Neerav confirmed that ‘they’re still in the background because they still own shares and we can’t force them to sell those shares, but in terms of decision making at the club they don’t have any authority’. Also adding, ‘they have absolutely no influence on decision making, they’re off the board, and I can guarantee you that any decisions, good or bad, are the responsibility of the current Board’
On the £1m investment in the Summer, Neerav confirmed this was needed to keep the club going and didn’t dilute any shareholding as all shareholders contributed equally
When asked to rate the progress the board has made so far, Julie Anne gave it a 6/10. Adding, ‘nobody invests in a football club to stay the same. It’s hard to not only dig yourself out of a financial hole but a morale hole. Supporters weren’t feeling great about the club, and we’re lucky that Michael Duff has joined and is making such a huge difference.
He brings a winning mentality to the club and that’s what we want to instil in the club. I don’t want to lose, do you? We want to be successful, and we want players to want to play at Barnsley, want to work at Barnsley, we want you to come to the stadium because it’s great.
We haven’t even started yet, but we have ambition, and we don’t need support (the board) but the players on the pitch do, and the supporters are really important from that perspective’
Julie Anne was asked what we could have done differently this Summer if we weren’t trying to untangle the crystal maze left behind, to which her response was a simple one. ‘Money is players. Money is facilities. Money is rehab for the players. Money is the Academy.
Our number one assets are the players and the people who look after the players’. Neerav added that ‘the club had drifted from the community over the last four years, with talk of leaving Oakwell, and that was something they needed to fix over the coming years’
The board confirmed there had been no contact with previous board members since the announcement in May