St Johnstone chairman Steve Brown has installed a head of operations to run the relegation battling Premiership club on a day-to-day basis.
Well-known Perthshire businessman Ian Flaherty – whose football experience includes spells as assistant manager to Gary Bollan at Cowdenbeath and Forfar Athletic – will take up the new role on April 18.
Flaherty (55) is currently group sales manager with Binn Group, the Glenfarg-based waste management specialists he joined five years ago from Dundee firm DJ Laing Recycling Solutions.
Brown has told staff that he, and fellow director and Aberdein Considine partner Charlie Fraser: “Wish to take a back seat from the day-to-day operation of St Johnstone Football Club.”
Flaherty enjoys an extensive network of contacts in the wider business community and he will assume overall charge of the club’s various departments.
In tandem with a successful business career, he played junior football with Tayside teams Scone Thistle and Carnoustie Panmure – going on to manage the Angus outfit after hanging up the boots.
He also had a spell as assistant manager at Tayport.
Flaherty backed Bollan in coaching roles at Airdrie and Livingston before joining the one-time Rangers and Dundee United defender at Forfar and, from 2017-21, League Two side Cowdenbeath.
Following seven years on the Perth club’s board, Brown took over from his father and major shareholder Geoff as chairman in 2011.
He is managing director of housebuilders GS Brown Construction.
With manager Callum Davidson at the helm, the Perth club captured an historic cup double last term, although fans were unable to cheer on their team because of Covid regulations.
This term, Saints are locked in a fight for top-flight survival, four points ahead of local rivals Dundee in the basement.
