The Dunfermline Athletic Board
| John Yorkston - Chairman Date Appointed: 11/06/99 Managing Director of the First Scottish Group. The Group provides services to the legal profession. |
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| Has two sons Gary and Gregor and six grandchildren. Born and bred in Dunfermline, has always been a Pars fan. Became Chairman of Dunfermline Athletic Football Club in June 1999 just after relegation. | |
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Gavin Masterton CBE, FIB (Scot) |
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| Gavin has been a Pars fan virtually all his life, attending East End Park with his father at the age of 6 or 7. Now has more than half a century of enjoyment behind him.
Retired from the Bank of Scotland in 2001 after being with them for over 45 years. | |
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Frank McConnell - SSC Frank was born and brought up in Dunfermline., He has supported the Pars from the age of 5. |
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| Having left Dunfermline in 1969 to study law in Edinburgh he continued with his support. There was never any question of supporting an Edinburgh team. He would drive by Tynecastle where Hearts were playing Celtic heading off for the big match at Brechin or Stenhousemuir or wherever. For him the highlights over the years have to be, in no particular order, the great cup wins of 1961 and 1968 both of which he attended. The great European campaigns of the 60's - games against Valencia, West Brom, Everton, Anderlecht to name a few, stand out in the memory. In recent times, for a club of our support and resources, the consolidation of our position in the Premier League has been a fine achievement and the recent SFA and CIS Cup Finals have been the icing on the cake.
A place on the Board fulfilled a lifetimes ambition and over his years on the Board he has come to recognise the magnificent contribution of his fellow directors in taking the Club through exceptionally difficult times. On a personal level he continues to practice as a lawyer in Edinburgh and hold a number of public appointments. | |
| Rodney Shearer Date Appointed: 22/11/03 Rodney was brought up in Rosyth and has been a Pars supporter all his life. |
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| His late Father who worked at the Rosyth Dockyard took him to both home and away games. In fact his first memory is from the 1965 Cup final which Dunfermline lost out to Celtic. Since those early days of following the Pars in the black Austin A40 Rodney has maintained his love of the club and has passed on his enthusiasm to his three sons who are all supporters even though they have never lived in the Dunfermline area. He is the Managing Director of the largest tree nursery in the UK, supplying in excess of 6 million trees a year to the forestry and landscape industries of Europe, and holds two further directorships with East Lothian Investments and Haddington Community Development. In his spare time Rodney is an avid collector of Dunfermline memorabilia and he would like to hear from any supporter who may have some gems in their attics. Hopefully in the future development of the stadium space will be provided to allow for items to be put on public display. | |
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Jim Leishman MBE Jim Leishman Profile |
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| Jim Leishman signed in 1968 as a schoolboy international, the year in which Dunfermline won the Scottish Cup, he joined the Pars as an 'S' signing.
He made his debut against Ayr United in a 1-1 draw and went on to play 91 games for the Dunfermline. Unfortunately his career came to a sudden end after he broke his leg against Hearts in a tangle with Jim Jefferies who is now the Kilmarnock Manager . In 1980 Jim returned as Youth Team Coach and in 1982 Tom Forsyth the manager of the time appointed Jim as reserve team manager. In October 1983 Jim became the youngest manager in Dunfrermline's history at 29 and the club were 34th place in Scottish Football. By the following season Dunfermline finished third top of the league and by the end of season 1985/6, Dunfermline had won the Second Division Championship. The following season the club gained promotion to the Premier League for the first time in their history unfortunately this was shortlived and returned to the First Division the next season. Season 1988/89 DAFC went on to be First Division champions once again. In 1990 Jim left the club and over 4000 fans protested at the Board's decision. Jim then moved on to Meadowbank Thistle where he became their last manager and the first manager of Livingston FC. Under Jim's management he took Livingston through the Third Division championship, the Second Division championship and then in 2001/2 Livingston won the First Division championship making Jim the first manager to win the First, Secondnd and Third Division championships. In Livingston's 1st year in the Premier League they finished third behind Celtic and Rangers qualifying for the UEFA Cup for the first time. Jim returned home to Dunfermline Athletic in August 2003, taking up the role of Director of Football and reintroduced himself to the fans amid jubilant scenes prior to the opening match of that season. Jim took over as Football Manager in April 2005 with only three games to go and saving his beloved Pars from relegation. In Season 2005/6 Jim took Dunfermline Athletic on to their seventh national Cup Final and kept the club in the SPL once again. P.S. Jim to this day remains the last Dunfermline player to this day to score the winning goal at Ibrox! | |
| Bill Hodgins, ACMA - Chief Executive
Having held a number of directorships in a number of different industry sectors, Bill brings a wealth of business experience to the Club. |
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Kip McBay |
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Kip McBay was appointed to the Dunfermline Athletic Board in May 2010. Managing Director of Guitar Guitar Ltd, a retailer which supplies guitars and musical instruments thoughout the UK and Europe. | |
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Steve Curtis |
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Steve Curtis was appointed to the Dunfermline Athletic Board in November 2008. | |
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Iain Jones |
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Iain Jones was appointed to the Dunfermline Athletic Board in November 2008. A Pars supporter since his first game in 1974 (although he was in the West Bromwich area the same night the Pars beat them 1-0 in Feb 1969). Managing Director of KDM Shopfitting Ltd based in Rosyth which provides interior fit out services to many blue chip high street, food retail, bank retail & leisure clients throughout the UK. Married to Susan and has a daughter, Shannon. | |
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Craig McWhirter |
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Craig McWhirter was appointed to the Dunfermline Athletic Board in November 2008. Craig McWhirter has joined the Board of Directors with a specific remit to strengthen the youth system. His focus along with Hamish French as Head of Youth will be to work closely with Jim McIntyre and Jim Leishman to make sure that there is smooth progression into the older squads. Craig contacted Jim Leishman several years ago with a view to starting an Under 16 team at Dunfermline. He knew that Hamilton were running both an Under 16 and Under 17 team and he felt that by going from U15 level directly to U17 level that Dunfermline would lose some very good young players. "I initially approached Jim Leishman about starting a16s team and at that time he indicated that they were actually short of people to help run the whole Youth Initiative programme. Some of the changes in senior management had left gaps and it was the Youth System that suffered from that." Through a friendship with Paul Donnelly the U17 coach, Craig was put in touch with Jim Leishman . He knew that Craig had been helping Paul and arranging some of the fund raising for some of the squads. His own son, Blair had been involved in the youths at Dunfermline since the end of the U13s. His experience of three and a half years working with the coaches has given the local businessman - who runs a Dunfermline based software company - insight into youth sport. Craig McWhirter will aim to get budgets in place so that he can sit down with the Commercial Department and Jim Leishman to co-ordinate the funding. The Youth Initiative has its own bank account and funds are ring fenced. Any sponsors making donations to it have assurance that's where it goes. The other side of that means that the Youth Initiative have to try and fund as much as possible themselves through donations, sponsorship and fund raising. | |
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Karen Masterton |
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Karen Masterton was appointed to the Dunfermline Athletic Board in November 2008. Karen worked with Bank of Scotland/HBoS from 1979 until 2001, working in the branch network; International Division in syndicated currency lending; Card Services looking after customer care and debt collection teams; Risk Management for High Risk Merchant Acquiry accounts; managing Card Services, Personal Banking and Retail Banking Divisions' training teams, and lastly in Marketing Strategy for the Bank of Scotland credit card book; left HBoS just after the Halifax merger and when she was asked to move to Cardiff! Karen joined DAFC in January 2001 and has had responsibility for a number of key commercial functions throughout the club in that time. Karen now has overall responsibility for the Commercial Operations at DAFC. | |
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Keith Love |
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Qualified from Edinburgh University in 1990 and is now the Principal Dental Surgeon at Newyearfield Dental Centre in Livingston. | |