Perhaps, but what does 'Chief of Staff' actually mean? Totally ridiculous title and complete own goal if it's an actual role, but I'd be interested to understand what the job actually is. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a glorified HR role. Obviously needs questioning like.
Certainly does. Might be really good at her job and be a superb appointment for us. But I'm guessing it is a salaried position and the fact there has been no announcement, but instead a pleading of the poor tale, makes me think it got swept under the carpet. I actually asked this question a few weeks back on the threads of questions for the FAB meeting on here and on Twitter - I got no bites (I couldn't make it to the forum). After hearing she had been to a London event representing BFC, I did some digging a) to find out why it was all done on the quiet, then: b) to find out who she was and where she came from. EDIT: And a final edit, there may be no ulterior motive whatsoever. I get that.
A chief of staff is generally a political position, though it does get a bit of a smattering in the US. In respect of what her role is in this context, she's likely to be the CEO's PA and gatekeeper. Given just a week or so ago it was outlined that hard decisions were taken to put every penny on the pitch, it strikes me as another disappointing step that isn't congruent to leaderships stated steps. Unpaid interns, comms and social media jobs below minimum wage, skilled people in comms... gone. Lead physio moving to get a payrise despite a demotion in position. But we have a CEO, a Director of Football, an increase in coaches... Now a PA. Led by donkeys.
You can understand why a few decent folk have left, perhaps they were given the poor tale, purse strings are tight, no pay rise....... oh have we introduced you to the new Chief Of Staff. No, I didn't see that position advertised either, sfunny that.
Obviously needs questioning, but like you, to me it smacks of 'PA with a fancy title'. Don't get me wrong, it's a daft title and does the Club no favours at all. But I'd say let's not get carried away until we know more.
When I've seen it previously outside of politics, it's been in US law firms where they've reported to the managing partner and just been their PA, standing completely alone from any HR function, which they tend to run very lean.
I've been called out on here for basically saying the owners need to depart. They've got no idea how to run a football club, they constantly make poor decisions and don't learn, we find out there's an £8m funding deficit but yet they're recruiting more staff on the quiet. This situation is completely unsustainable and we're in a big mess. The academy needs looking at urgently, close completely or look at the options to reduce the younger age groups because it must be running at a significant loss. JAQ, Neerav, James and Jeane's time is up and they need to get start marketing the club for sale. And before anyone replies to me and says "so who is going to buy us?". Take a look at Wrexham who were a nothing club in the vauxhall conference not long ago, they've now got billionaire investors joining Reynolds and McElhenney on the board, Wycombe have recently been taken over by a billionaire, Birmingham have new owners, so yes it can happen and in my opinion needs to for the medium and long term benefit of BFC.
It's not like we've a history of giving the children of owners paid jobs at Oakwell is it. To be fair, it's pretty obvious they're smart young people. Quick look of LinkedIn shows she's a junior international athlete, played sports at Stanford and various bits and is doubling up with this role (the level of dismissive comments for a role folk have absolutely f.ck all knowledge of) by running the women's football too. My guess - a general role involved in lots of things, taking accountability for some stuff on behalf of the CEO and not his secretary or PA. Folk wouldn't be sticking their nose up if it was a fella billing themselves as 'Head of Operations' or summat.
I've seen it in big organisations where they basically run certain elements of the department, own governance, process and keeping things moving on behalf of the gaffer. An important role in complicated places - my question would be what's complicated about a relatively small org but you never know.
Given the split in the CEO’s role adding a Director of Football I can’t see any justification at all for another layer (if indeed that’s what it is). In the scheme of things, we’re a small company despite the turnover. Once you take out operations (which we’re far from stellar at) and the footballing side, it’s a pretty limited operation given how much we’ve outsourced down the years. Is Zuk still combining FD and COO roles? That’s a lot of chiefs, plus the owners dabbling. My main issues are the lack of transparency in advertising and the contrast with the CEO’s comment about all money going on the pitch… a rope that wouldn’t surprise me if it gets looped and knotted if success isn’t forthcoming. It’s just a really bad look. Again.