IT has been a dramatic 24 hours for London Irish’s new chief executive Bob Casey.
Shortly after his role with the Exiles was announced Casey became a father for the second time when baby daughter Georgina was born last night.
“It has been a pretty mad couple of days for sure,” Casey told The Irish Post.
Joking that the new arrival had ‘stolen his thunder’ Casey is relishing the prospect of steering the London Irish ship.
“Absolutely it really is an exciting time for the club. The credit for that has to go to the new owners. They’ve invested time and passion into this for the past year and a half.
“I’d shudder to think what might have happened to the club if they hadn’t bought it. Since then a tremendous amount of work has been done by everyone associated with the club.
“We have set about reviewing how the club is run from both a rugby and commercial aspect. We want to make the club as successful as it can be.
“We benchmarked ourselves against top clubs in rugby, football, and in the NFL. We think that this new structure will help London Irish to realise our ambitions.”
The club is organising itself into six departments – commercial, community, finance, marketing and communications, operations and rugby, each led by an experienced executive who will report to the club’s chief executive. The changes will take effect from July 1.
“It is very encouraging for us because we have tried to put the best structure that will suit is in place and the fact that we’ve made key appointments will help the process,” Casey says.
**An in depth interview with Bob Casey about London Irish’s future plans will be published in the June 27 edition of The Irish Post.