Excellent news. Billy led the fight back in 2003 when we were in line to be wound up. Great servant of Connacht rugby.
Now, if only Billy can end the hideous practice of the 6 committee positions being carved up with 2 apiece for the other provinces while Connacht are routinely voted down he'll have performed a notable service.

Galway solicitor William B. (Billy) Glynn has been elected the 125th President of the Irish Rugby Football Union at the Union’s annual Council Meeting in the Aviva Stadium, today, following a distinguished career as a rugby player and administrator.

www.irishrugby.ie/news/26846.php

finally we go a man on the inside. surely he will be kind to us and give us what we deserve and more. wish him all the luck

Piece in today's Galway Independent on Tom Sears - galwayindependent.com/stories/item/2596/...-the-news:-Tom-Sears

swift4prez wrote: New President for Connacht Rugby

Aidan O’Halloran (Connemara RFC) has been elected as the new President of the Connacht Branch following the Connacht Branch AGM which was held in Corinthian Park, Cloonacauneen on Monday 28th May.

A keen footballer in his early years, Aidan’s sporting prowess became evident when he helped Carmelite College, Moate to Hogan Cup victory in 1976 and he went on to lift the Sam Maguire trophy with Offaly in 1982.

Aidan began playing rugby for Athlone in the late 1970's and subsequently joined Tullamore in 1980. He later played with Portlaoise, Creggs and Dunmore before work took him to Clifden where he joined up with senior side Connemara. His appointment sees him become the first Connacht Branch President to hail from Connemara RFC.

The 2011 Captain of Ballyconneely Golf Club, Aidan takes over the role at Connacht from outgoing President John Carr who wished his successor the very best saying:

"This last season has been incredible for Connacht Rugby and it was a huge honour for me to be President during that term. I would like to wish Aidan every success for the coming season and I am confident he will carry out the role with passion and dedication in what is sure be another very exciting year for the club.”

Aidan said "It is a great honour for me to take on the role of President of Connacht Rugby. This a particularly exciting time for Irish rugby and Connacht is very much to the forefront in this development, contributing players to Ireland's international sides at all levels while significantly growing player numbers at club and schools levels. I look forward to working with all at Connacht Rugby in the further development of rugby in the province."

www.connachtrugby.ie/2012060582860/aidan...cht-branch-president

So, what's the president's role? Just trying to figure out the significance of this!

Thats Tiernan's father as far as I'm aware

New President for Connacht Rugby

Aidan O’Halloran (Connemara RFC) has been elected as the new President of the Connacht Branch following the Connacht Branch AGM which was held in Corinthian Park, Cloonacauneen on Monday 28th May.

A keen footballer in his early years, Aidan’s sporting prowess became evident when he helped Carmelite College, Moate to Hogan Cup victory in 1976 and he went on to lift the Sam Maguire trophy with Offaly in 1982.

Aidan began playing rugby for Athlone in the late 1970's and subsequently joined Tullamore in 1980. He later played with Portlaoise, Creggs and Dunmore before work took him to Clifden where he joined up with senior side Connemara. His appointment sees him become the first Connacht Branch President to hail from Connemara RFC.

The 2011 Captain of Ballyconneely Golf Club, Aidan takes over the role at Connacht from outgoing President John Carr who wished his successor the very best saying:

"This last season has been incredible for Connacht Rugby and it was a huge honour for me to be President during that term. I would like to wish Aidan every success for the coming season and I am confident he will carry out the role with passion and dedication in what is sure be another very exciting year for the club.”

Aidan said "It is a great honour for me to take on the role of President of Connacht Rugby. This a particularly exciting time for Irish rugby and Connacht is very much to the forefront in this development, contributing players to Ireland's international sides at all levels while significantly growing player numbers at club and schools levels. I look forward to working with all at Connacht Rugby in the further development of rugby in the province."

www.connachtrugby.ie/2012060582860/aidan...cht-branch-president

The very best to Mr Sears in his new appointment. Alongside the Alex Saul appointment, the local commercial management support group, and the progress Eric is making on the pitch and with the quality of our new signings, then the professionalisation of Connacht Rugby continues apace and is great to see.
It's extremely important though to applaud the work of guys like Gerry Kelly and John Fallon whose hard work kept us going in the extremely dark days of 2003-2005 when Headquarters were actively gunning to close us down.

All in all this looks like an interesting choice.

Sears has a track record of turning struggling sports businesses around, Derbyshire were making losses before he joined and he returned them to profit in only his second year in charge.

On the face of it he seems quite in demand. He beat out 70 other applicants for the Kenyan position. Can't remember how many applications Connacht got for CEO but I think was around the same number.

On the down side he doesn't seem to stay around in a job for very long, 5 years with Worcester, 3 with Derbyshire, just 2 with NZ cricket, then 3 with Kenya. I guess after having Gerry in charge for 13 years that kind of CV is a bit strange. It worries me that Sears will come in, change things, then move on to his next project. Having said that, but if rugby is his first love then he might be more inclined to stick around in a rugby job.

Mixed feelings about the appointment to be honest. I know nothing about CEO's and am rather cynical about upper levels of management generally.

On one hand it is dissapointing that we are not getting someone in who has a proven track record in the rugby arena rather than a more generic sports expertise with a background in rugby media.

That said if he can deliver on his last statement:

"To do that we must ensure that we are the best we can possibly be from grass roots right through to our professional side and we will look at every area of the game to see how we can achieve this."

I will be extremely pleased with the appointment. Will be very intresting to read Rob Murphy's comments on the appointment now and even more so in another 12 months time when we hopefully be able to start seeing the fruits of Mr Sears appointment.

IrishRugby.ie wrote:
A new chapter in the development of Connacht Rugby begins today with the announcement that the IRFU and Connacht Rugby have appointed Mr. Tom Sears as the next Chief Executive of the western province.

Sears, 43, steps into the role from his current position as CEO of Cricket Kenya and replaces the highly respected Gerry Kelly, who is retiring having served as the Chief Executive of Connacht Rugby since 1999.

Sears has impressive experience across the professional sports environment, with Rugby at the heart of his early career. A former journalist during the 1990's, he previously held roles in the communications and commercial areas for both the RFU and Northampton Saints, before moving to the sport of Cricket in 2000, where he was the commercial director for Worcestershire County Cricket Club.

During his time there he helped to significantly grow revenues and sponsorship across both the professional and community levels of the game in the county, before moving on to become the Chief Executive of Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 2005. He oversaw radical restructuring of the organisation and its finances, redevelopment of its grounds and returning it to profitability.

Sears then moved further afield, but remained in the sport of cricket when he was appointed as the Head of Business Development for New Zealand Cricket in 2008, where he again proved his worth in terms of developing the commercial aspect of the governing body. His final move in 2010 was to Cricket Kenya as Chief Executive, where he has developed and began the implementation of a new comprehensive strategic plan for the sport to deliver core objectives, results at elite levels and the overall growth of the sport.

Commenting on the appointment, Philip Browne, IRFU Chief Executive said: "I would firstly like to thank Gerry Kelly for his hard work and leadership of Connacht Rugby during his tenure. Through turbulent times he has done a magnificent job and the course that Connacht Rugby is currently on is a credit to his abilities.

"The man replacing him comes from a rugby background, but his career has certainly taken a different route. Throughout his career, Tom (Sears) has, time and again, shown his ability to develop and grow each professional sports organisation with whom he has worked.

"This was certainly something that appealed to the panel conducting the interview process. The position attracted an exceptionally high level of interest, proving yet again how far Connacht has progressed and while there are still challenging times ahead for rugby in Connacht and Ireland, we feel that Tom has shown all the right qualities to be able to meet these challenges and bring Connacht even further in its development."

Next season Connacht will enter into the second year of a three year development programme that has already seen significant progress in terms of facilities and performances on the playing field.

Under the guidance of the new Professional Game Board, Connacht Rugby has also seen its revenues and season ticket holder numbers grow for the season. Maintaining this upward curve is something that was a key consideration during the appointment process and something that both Sears and the Connacht Rugby Professional Game Board see as the next step of the evolution of the province.

Connacht Professional Game Board Chairman Jimmy Staunton said: "I look forward to working with Tom, he comes with a wealth of experience in the Sports Management Industry and he will be a great asset to Connacht Rugby. I would like to wish Gerry Kelly well in his retirement and to thank him for the great work he has done for Connacht Rugby over the years."

Tom Sears said, "I am delighted to be joining Connacht where there is such enormous potential to build on the tremendous work that has already been done. There is real scope to develop Connacht Rugby at all levels and ensure the province is at the forefront of Irish and European Rugby in the coming years. There is no reason why Connacht can't develop into one of Europe's leading sides and that will be our collective goal.

"To do that we must ensure that we are the best we can possibly be from grass roots right through to our professional side and we will look at every area of the game to see how we can achieve this."

"There is no reason why Connacht can't develop into one of Europe's leading sides and that will be our collective goal."

We won't suffer from a lack of ambition anyway.

I see the replacement has been named. After a bit of googling it seems he has been responsible with turning the financial situation around for a number of cricket clubs.

www.irishrugby.ie/news/26416.php

Wish him all the best and hopefully he is good for us!

Anyone got any inside info on how the replacement process is going?

All the best to Gerry. Worked very hard to get Connacht on the right track, and I have to say it's looking like he may well have succeeded in that.

Best of Luck Gerry, His spent a large part of his life trying to develop rugby in the west. He also taught me in Garbally and he loves his rugby.
His biggest struggle has been trying to get money to develop rugby. The growth of the schools and the new clubs is a great longterm plan for developing homegrown players and they have that going well.
No doubt he will still be involved in the game at some level.
Best of luck Gerry

Just want to wish Gerry Kelly the best of luck in his retirement. He has done a great job since taking over at the helm and I suppose received his just rewards this season with Connacht playing in Heineken Cup which I am sure he is most proud of amongst all his achievements. Its also true to say that he always had the utmost respect for the supporters.