James, former Finance Director of Bury FC, is a lifelong Marine fan and has helped in negotiating several new income streams including the car park pay and display, Progress Schools partnership and the pre-match hospitality which started this season.

The new role is primarily intended to streamline the process of negotiating and agreeing new partnerships and commercial deals to produce new income streams and extend the football structures and pathways at the Club.

The role also will allow a review of systems, communication and structures, to allow change and improve the way the Club operates.

The role is voluntary and James will report primarily to the Chairman, Vice Chairman and Club Secretary but also the Management Committee as a whole, when presenting new deals, partnerships or proposed changes to the running or structures of the club.

James Leary said:

“It feels the right time to help the club I have supported since I was young. Marine has always been an extremely well run club, however a change of structure was needed to modernise the business and push the club forward in certain areas where it has in recent years fallen behind. A new CEO role will help us to achieve this. My main focus will be on driving revenues forward as well as making sure we have the right footballing structure right from the first team through to the Under 5’s. Both will hopefully make an impact in improving our performance on the field over the coming years.

James continued “I know what the club does well, what we need to do to improve and where we need to get to. In the New Year there will be a number of announcements of new initiatives and partnerships to help us to progress as a club.

If anybody has any suggestions for improvement in any area of the club, any constructive criticisms or has any potential opportunities, please email james@marinefc.com.”

Vice Chairman Dave McMillan said:

“This is a major change in the way Marine will operate and will give James the ability to negotiate new income streams and partnerships on behalf of the Club whilst still retaining the link with Club officials for approval when required.

In today’s fast paced environment James is well experienced to help take Marine forward to another level to expand revenues, obtain new commercial agreements and football partnerships.

In addition there has been criticism of the communication from the Club in respect of potential off the field matters and this is another area James’ appointment should improve, subject of course to commercial confidentiality.

The Committee structure has worked well for the Club for nearly 125 years and will still be in place to manage the day to day running of the Club as the new CEO role is primarily concerned with new business, partnerships, systems and structures some of which will require endorsement from the Club.

I’d like to thanks James for taking on the role and wish him every success.”