We are delighted to announce that our very first Trust Director will be Murray Knight.
We announced last week that following a very generous donation from the David Clough legacy, the Trust will be purchasing an additional £25,000 shares in the Club which will bring our very first Trust Director in the form of Murray Knight.
In joining the Board, Murray will bring with him 14 years of experience of being on the Trust Board, with the vast majority of that spent dealing with the Club Board on behalf of Trust members. He will continue his role on the Trust Board, and will be feeding back to members each month through the Trust newsletter and website.
We caught up with Murray ahead of his appointment:
What got you involved with the Trust?
I moved from Scotland to Littleborough 18 years ago and shortly after, the husband of my wife’s closest friend, (you know who you are Ted), knowing my love of football, took me to a couple of games at Spotland, and that was it – I was hooked.
I became a member of the Trust and at a Fans Forum was invited by Scott Goulding, the Trust Chair at the time, to attend a meeting as a guest to understand what the Trust was all about. As the secretary was unable to attend the meeting, I was asked if I would take the minutes. Being the trusting person that I am, I agreed, little knowing that this confirmed my position as Secretary!! That meeting was in July 2007 – and I’m still the Secretary – how time flies when you’re having fun.
What skills can you bring to the Board?
Most of my working life involved sales management, including a considerable time working for the Mars Group, and moving into the chilled food and sandwich industries, having founded my own business, and then working for the national organisation to whom I sold my business. I then worked on a consultancy basis in my son’s business, providing a purchasing facility to a variety of businesses by applying preferential terms gained in conjunction with a wide range of national/local food/non-food suppliers. Operating within a highly competitive marketplace, this involved negotiating not only with prospective/existing clients, but also our suppliers to constantly maintain our pricing advantage to our clients versus competitors.
How would you like the Club to develop over your time on the Board?
The most important development I should like to see is the Club continuing to recognise the importance of building and maintaining its relationship with the fanbase, based on trust and involvement, which I believe is most likely to result from the recent changes within the Board, and, unfortunately, sadly missing in recent times. On the footballing front, I should like nothing more than see promotion achieved, whilst playing entertaining football, a difficult combination, but, in the short term, maintaining our league status is the essential minimum requirement on which the build the longer-term development
What difference will having a Trust member on Board make?
Although not every aspect of the operation of the Club will be able to be reported back to members, the Trust’s involvement in presenting views from a members’ perspective has to be an improvement over the current situation.