Aberdeen FC is targeting an improved player trading model with the appointment of David Lawrie as a non-executive director.
A lifelong Dons fan, Lawrie had a successful management career in oil and gas in the UK, Asia and Africa with companies including bp, Hess Corporation and Tullow Oil.
He has recently retired after five years as chief operating officer of the Ghana-based Right to Dream Academy which was set up as a charitable football academy to create pathways for young African football talent around the world.
It is now a multi-club, multi-academy group operating in Africa, Europe and the US with professional teams including FC Nordsjaelland in Denmark, FC Masar in Egypt and San Diego FC in MLS. Its star graduates include Mohammed Kudus (West Ham and Ghana), Mikkel Damsgaard (Brentford and Denmark) and Simon Adringa (Brighton and Ivory Coast).
In its latest set of financial results published in November, Aberdeen reported that income from player sales dropped to £1.3 million from £7.4m the previous year as it posted a net loss for the year of £880,000 compared to an operating profit of £1.1m in the previous year.
Chairman Dave Cormack is hoping Lawrie’s arrival will help reverse that trend.
He said: “Dave will bring a unique perspective to the board, having had a successful business career followed by a decade of working with the most successful youth academy and player trading strategy in Europe. An example is FC Nordsjaelland which, during last summer’s transfer window, and in less than 90 days, delivered a positive player trading surplus of over £40 million.
“He’s committed his own time over the last few months working with the club, to see how we implement the BPTC football operation review, the focus of which is the transition of academy players, including U18s, to the first team, external player recruitment and player trading.
“Dave’s experience will be invaluable as we seek to strengthen our player trading model and develop first-team-ready players from the academy to deliver a return on our significant investment.”
Lawrie said: “Youth development has always been central to Aberdeen’s success, and I hope that my experience with Right to Dream can help further develop this area of the club over the coming years.”
Lawrie joins the board alongside non-executive directors Dave Cormack, Stewart Milne, Tom Crotty, Willie Garner, Zoe Ogilvie and Dimitrios Efstathiou and executive directors Alan Burrows and Kevin MacIver.
