Signing that sees tradition go by the board

JAMES TRAYNOR,RAY HEPBURN,KIRSTY SCOTT

30 Dec 1994

HEARTS will break new ground in Scottish football on Monday when they appoint a woman to oversee the running of the club in a chief executive capacity.

Chartered accountant Sally Robinson resigns her post with accountants Price Waterhouse tomorrow, and takes over at Tynecastle in time for the Edinburgh derby on January 2.

The 31-year-old has been working with Hearts since chairman Chris Robinson took over from Wallace Mercer in the summer, and has been carrying out an in-depth investigation of the operation.

The chairman has been so impressed by her work that he decided a full-time appointment had to be made.

She follows the trail into the upper echelons of football laid by Karren Brady, the 25-year-old managing director of Birmingham City Football Club.

Mrs Robinson's remit will cover the financial, commercial and administrative side of the club, while manager Tommy McLean will continue to have complete control over the playing side.

Despite leaving behind a glittering career in Edinburgh's financial world, Mrs Robinson is not deterred by the perilous finances at Tynecastle, where the recent share issue, which generated only £200,000 net, left McLean still scrambling around in the bargain basement end of the transfer market.

The club's overdraft still stands in excess of £3m and attendances are heading for an average of around 10,000 this season, 5000 short of the mid-80s' boom, but there will be scope for further commercial activity next season when the area below the new Wheatfield Stand can be redeveloped.

Mrs Robinson will oversee the installation of new and extensive corporate facilities which could, if used to capacity, raise substantial funds for the club.

Hearts' new signing has been with Price Waterhouse for nine years since qualifying as a chartered accountant and leaves having risen to the post of assistant director.

Her final 18 months with the company, prior to her secondment to Hearts, were spent disposing of Robert Maxwell's American assets.

She successfully raised £728.5m for the late publisher's media interests in the States before returning to Edinburgh in the summer.

Although the Hearts board is not comfortable with the "chief executive" job description, the new post will have the far-reaching responsibilities such titles carry, and her place at the club marks the end of another of Mercer's legacies.

The former chairman insisted on a "men only" boardroom code.

In Birmingham, Britain's first female football managing director has already shaken the establishment to its core.

Since she took control, Karren Brady's lifestyle and powder-blue Porsche have made the headlines as often as her commercial strategies which have helped the club to its first financial trading profit.

She has also managed and overseen a £10m stadium development.

Ms Brady has been the subject of an hour-long documentary, has her own TV chat show, is about to write a novel and embark on a journalistic career.

A former advertising and marketing director for the Sunday and Daily Sport, she is frequently compared to the character played by Cherie Lunghi in the TV series about a female football manageress.

Ms Brady was on her way to a chat show in London yesterday and could not be reached for comment on the Mrs Robinson appointment.

"I'm sure she'll wish her well," a member of her staff said.

Taken from the Herald