Chief executive's desire for diversity on York City board

The takeover of York was completed on Tuesday, with Jason McGill’s JM Packaging selling their 75 per cent stake for £350,000 to the club’s Supporters’ Trust.

Hours later, South African-raised investor Glen Henderson was confirmed as the new majority shareholder, at a 51 per cent stake, with the Trust holding the remaining 49 per cent.

City’s two-man board now consists of chairman Henderson and chief executive Smith, the latter being a life member of the Trust since its inception in 2002.

However there are plans for the board to expand and diversify, Smith explained.

“The board will be added to,” the chief executive confirmed. “At this stage, we need to get in there and make sure we understand what’s happening.

“Then we’ll get a sense of where we need specialists in which areas on the board.

“Maybe we should have a female on the board. The board has (previously) been reasonably old men.

“Let’s have some diversity on the board. The supporter base is now diverse so I think it’d be great to have more diversity (on the board).”

The relationship between former chairman McGill and the majority of York supporters had long broken down by the end of his 16-year tenure, partially because of the decision not to have two Trust members on the club’s board, as per a contractual agreement between the two parties.

With Henderson and Smith in post, a 50-50 split is in place on the board between an outside investor and a long-serving Trust member.

“I think if you’re going to have a true partnership, I think you need that supporter representation, I think that’s absolutely vital,” insisted Smith.

“Without it, you won’t have a partnership. I think that will make supporters feel like they’re part of the club once more. If people feel like it’s their club, they want to get involved more.”

Although the takeover news has been met with huge positivity among supporters on social media, Smith was keen to stress: “We need to prove ourselves.

“We need to do things that make supporters turn around and say ‘Wow.’

“There was such a big divide between the board and the majority of the supporters.

"Trying to narrow that divide is going to take some doing. But I think we will do it with time.”

Smith’s journey to becoming chief executive began with a “not very complimentary” posting about the Trust on the ‘There’s Only One Arthur Bottom’ newsletter in 2020.

The correspondence was sent in by a York City South member, the group that Smith founded 26 years ago.

From there, Smith, “a firm believer in the Trust”, began discussions with the fans group’s chairman Mike Brown about further involvement with the organisation, spiralling towards a chief executive offer from Henderson.

“Glen had an obvious passion for the sport,” Smith said of the pair’s first in-person meeting last week.

“My first thought was ‘Would does some guy who was born in Hartlepool and lived most of his life in South Africa and America be interested in York City?’

“But it became apparent really quickly that this was his dream, to get involved with the football club.”

Explaining his role, Smith added: “The football side is more Glen’s area. Initially, I’ll be working with all of the backroom staff and doing the budgeting and financing.

“The immediate focus is looking at that. We’ll be looking at the budget set by the previous (owner) and comparing that to our budget and seeing if there are any gaps or surprises.”