Perth Glory is delighted to announce the appointment of Anthony Radich as the club’s new Chief Executive Officer, effective today.
WA born and bred, Anthony has over 25 years’ experience in senior executive marketing, commercial and administrative roles and a long-time affiliation with Glory.
A former club volunteer and long-time member, he went on to serve as Glory’s Head of Commercial, General Manager and Chief Operations Officer and also negotiated and managed sponsorships with the club when working with both Quick Service Restaurant Holdings (Chicken Treat) and Healthway (LiveLighter).
His most recent stint at Glory as its Chief Operating Officer saw the club secure 10,000 members for the first time and be ranked first in the league for overall Membership satisfaction in independent research conducted by Gemba and commissioned by Football Australia.
During this time, the club was also ranked first for game day experience, Membership value, Membership renewal, communication to Members, sense of club involvement and club administration.
Most recently, he spent the last five years as GM Commercial of the Perth Wildcats, eclipsing all commercial records and taking that club to its highest peak commercially.
Anthony, who will look to transition into the role prior to the outgoing CEO Tony Pignata’s official departure from the club on September 30th, is relishing the prospect of driving the club forward at what is a pivotal time in its history.
“I am incredibly excited and very humbled to be given the opportunity to lead this great football club,” he said.
“It is a club that I hold very close to my heart and have loved since day one of its existence and throughout my life.
“I want to sincerely thank [Glory Owner and Chairman] Tony and Lucy Sage for offering me this wonderful opportunity.
“It has been a very tumultuous last couple of seasons for the club, with both the Men’s and Women’s sides undoubtedly among the Australian professional teams most harshly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My predecessor, Tony Pignata, deserves much credit for the way he helped the club meet the unprecedented challenges it faced during this time.
“As someone who loves the club and the sport, it hurt me deeply to see the toll that these challenges took on everyone associated with Glory and I am determined to ensure that I and my team can now make a significant difference commercially and operationally.
“I am certainly not ignorant of the enormity of the task and challenges that lie ahead of us all at the club.
“We need to rebuild its very foundations both on and off-field.
“That is the harsh reality of the situation we face, but it also presents a wonderful opportunity.
“It’s always darkest before the dawn and administratively we are faced with almost a start-from-scratch proposition.
“However, with the owner’s support and commercial traction, we will be able to add more highly competent, professional and passionate personnel to those already at the club and build a high-performing team and culture.
“That is very much my focus.
“I also want us to be a more accessible, communicative, open and transparent club, to better engage with our Members, corporate partners and the WA football community and to listen to their feedback and concerns in order for us to better understand and learn from what has transpired over the last two seasons.
“They all deserve to feel pride in their club, feel a sense of ownership of it and their engagements with it need to be enjoyable and rewarding ones.
“The onus is very much on us to earn their trust and improve their experience through our actions and delivering on our commitments.
“I plan to lead a very cohesive team built around positivity, unity and clarity about our destination and how we aim to get there and create an environment where our Members and fans are always first and foremost in all our thinking.”
Tony Sage, meanwhile, believes that the new CEO will play a key role in what is very much a new era for the club on and off the field.
“Anthony is a vastly experienced sports industry professional whose track record of success is second to none and whose passion for Glory runs extremely deep,” he said.
“He knows exactly what is required to rebuild the club in the wake of the damage wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic and I have no doubt that he will drive us back to where we need to be.
“These are exciting times for Perth Glory and having someone with Anthony’s experience, knowledge, passion and drive at the helm is absolutely key to moving our beloved club forward.”
Further announcements regarding the club’s administrative structure will be made shortly.
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