Dear members,
On behalf of the Board, I am pleased to formally announce the appointment of Andrew Thorburn as the club’s Chief Executive Officer.
When I became President, we stated that we would be bold and decisive in our action and this appointment represents another significant step forward for the club.
In Andrew, we have secured a highly credentialed leader, with a proven track record in development and building the leadership capabilities of his people.
Andrew’s focus will be on running Essendon like a club, with a renewed focus on our members and the core reason which we exist – football.
Our recent appointments of Brad Scott and today with Andrew, demonstrate our commitment to leadership and providing the right environment to ensure we achieve sustained success as a club.
Andrew is a man of great integrity and exceptional vison. He brings significant business acumen having led many large complex organisations, most notably as CEO of NAB from 2014-2019, and Bank of NZ from 2008-2014. More recently, he has been involved with start-ups, entrepreneurs and a number of not-for-profit organisations.
He has been involved with the game for a long-time through the NAB partnership of the AFL. He impressed the board with his understanding of the AFL system but also the business of sport on a global scale. Most importantly though, Andrew has demonstrated throughout his business career that he can execute the priorities that the organisation has.
We are incredibly excited to welcome Andrew and his family into the Essendon Football Club. He is a lifelong Bombers supporter and we look forward to our members meeting him and understanding his incredible passion for our club.
The process to find our next CEO was comprehensive and led by EY, with the support of club director Dorothy Hisgrove.
Part of my responsibility as President is to ensure that we have the very best people at the club and this was critical when it came to the position of CEO. To do this, we canvassed the industry and encouraged several candidates to enter the process for this role.
One of the people we asked to join the process was Andrew. Whilst he initially came to the club on a short-term basis to coordinate the external review, we believed we couldn’t overlook someone of his calibre and that he needed to be tested within our process against the field of candidates.
When Andrew was approached, he indicated that he would give the opportunity his consideration. At this point, he immediately removed himself from any oversight he had of the club’s CEO search. A week later, he formally entered the process and then interviewed for the role last week, along with the other candidates.
The Board were then presented with a comprehensive review of the candidates via our EY representatives. We then met as a Board this morning to consider these individuals and appointed Andrew Thorburn to lead our club.
Andrew will commence in his role on November 1.
Finally, tonight is the Crichton Medal. The event will be live streamed for our members on the club website.
It’s a night for us to celebrate the players and their efforts throughout the season. You will also hear from our new senior coach Brad Scott and CEO Andrew Thorburn. I’m looking forward to seeing you there tonight and also for those tuning in online.
Thank you and go Bombers!
Dave Barham
