Everton appoint EITC head to new-look Board

Everton recently announced the appointment of Dr. Denise Barrett-Baxendale, MBE to the club’s Board of Directors. She joined the Toffees in 2010 as the Chief Executive of Everton in the Community, which is Everton’s award-winning community outreach venture.

Since Farhad Moshiri’s takeover as majority stake holder in the club, the Board of Directors has been retooled to now comprise: chairman Bill Kenwright, deputy chairman Jon Woods, chief executive Robert Elstone, director Alexander Ryazantsev and the new fifth member, Dr. Barrett-Baxendale.

Barrett-Baxendale was also club's chief operating officer since 2011, and responsible for the HR, ICT, stadium operations, and stadium safety and security teams. She will continue in her role as deputy chief executive officer of the club and will take up the new position of executive chair at Everton in the Community.

This is what she had to say after her appointment -

"I am so proud to have been invited to join the club's board and I am very grateful to Mr Kenwright and Mr Moshiri for giving me the opportunity to help achieve the owners' and directors' ambition for Everton.

"This is something I am really excited by and a responsibility I take very seriously. There is so much we want to do to take this great club forward and I am confident that through the board's ambition and the talent within our senior executive team we can make positive progress very quickly."

Chairman Bill Kenwright added -

"On behalf of all the directors and Farhad, I am pleased to welcome Denise to the board. I'm pleased for her, of course, but also pleased for every Evertonian as I know Denise will be such a dedicated custodian of our club."

The Liverpool Echo speaks in glowing terms about her abilities, saying that while her business credentials are well-proven, it's her people skills that will change the perception of the Everton board. For the fans, the Board has long been an impenetrable and unapproachable part of the club that has never deemed it necessary to make public the inner workings of Everton.

The newspaper goes on to say that the club has desperately needed ‘a visible, approachable and available figurehead’, and in Denise Barrett-Baxendale (a lifelong fan of Everton who grew up with a poster of club legend Bob Latchford on her wall), they finally have one ‘who is vibrant, charming, enthusiastic and approachable’.

More on Everton in the Community, From the EITC site -

At Everton in the Community we aim to use the power of sport to motivate, educate and inspire people in our local communities to improve their life chances. Through this pioneering approach, we have earned a reputation for delivering best practice in the sporting charity sector. Since 2010, we have provided ongoing development opportunities for thousands of participants. This has resulted in the charity winning over 80 accolades, both nationally and internationally.