Rod Petrie

Roderick McKenzie Petrie (born 22 April 1956) is the chairman and former chief executive of Scottish football club Hibernian. Petrie is a qualified chartered accountant who trained with Ernst & Young, has served on the Hibernian board since 1996 and on the boards of the Scottish Football Association and Scottish Premier League.

Petrie trained to be a chartered accountant with Ernst & Young, eventually becoming an audit partner in 13 years with the firm. He was then managing director of investment bank Quayle Munro for over six years. Petrie, who had advised Tom Farmer throughout his rescue of Hibernian FC (Hibs) from receivership in 1991, joined the club's board of directors in 1996 and was appointed managing director in 1997.

Petrie was involved in the creation of the Scottish Premier League, but Hibs themselves missed the first season in the new top flight of Scottish football due to being relegated to the First Division in 1998. The club won the First Division at the first attempt in season 1998–99 and returned to the top division. A new, multimillion-pound main (West) Stand was built, to add to the new North (Famous Five) and South Stands already built during Sir Tom's ownership.

Most Scottish football clubs hit financial difficulty in 2002 when the television broadcast deal with Sky Sports ended after the league and broadcaster failed to reach agreement on a renewal. Hibernian was one of the first Scottish clubs to react to the new financial landscape, taking action to reduce costs as quickly as possible. However losses accrued and added to the loan taken to develop the new stand, the club saw its debt level increase.

Petrie, the only significant minority shareholder in Hibs, and the board explored options to reduce debt. Two options were identified: one was for the club to stay at Easter Road while increasing revenue; the second was to sell the Easter Road site to clear the club's debt and to share a proposed new ground in Midlothian with Edinburgh derby rivals Hearts, who also had significant financial problems. Hibs opened discussions with Hearts about the possibility of moving to Straiton, but this was met with a sceptical reaction by the Hibs support.

...
Wikipedia