The Cornish Pirates have this lunchtime announced the appointment of former England star Josh Lewsey as the club's acting chief executive officer and performance director.
Club owner Dicky Evans said: "Josh joins us on a consultative and part-time basis, working on behalf of OJL Ltd from April to September to bring his own unique brand of management skills to the Cornish Pirates."
The ful statement said: "Further to my earlier statement on Rod Coward moving to one side to work on specific projects I am pleased to inform you that we have contracted the services of Josh Lewsey who will be working as our acting CEO/Performance Director.
Needing no introduction former British Lion and World Cup Winner with England Josh joins us on a consultive and part time basis working on behalf of OJL Ltd from April-September to bring his own unique brand of management skills to the Cornish Pirates.
His CV is of course top notch but of special significance has been his ability to switch his outstanding sporting ability into the area of business, deliberately differentiating himself from his peers in rugby by learning and adopting a broader set of skills in some of the world's most challenging industries.
It reads like a James Bond thriller, with passing mention to surviving the Mount Everest climb. He has won every trophy available in rugby but now has also achieved recognition as a business leader where his work for both PwC and Citibank on various strategy, structure and cultural projects lends itself favourably to some of our current challenges.
Why would Josh want to help the Pirates you may ask? His greatest passion is the advocating of Values through Sport to Communities and having a home in St Agnes, caring hugely about the county, is therefore keen to help a club and community for which he has a great affinity with.
Josh and I have been in touch for a couple of years on the future of rugby in Cornwall, the Pirates and the stadium and his advice to me behind the scenes has been invaluable.
Some of the services agreed to be performed are:
* Review the existing on field and related organisational performance and existing marketing and commercial performance.
* Establish a clear brand strategy, initiate the administration appointments required to deliver on this including the search for a new full time CEO.
* Liaise with the key stakeholders in the stadium development such as the Council and Inox.
* Liaise with Rod on his area of responsibility covering ground developments, the RFU and squad signings for next season.
I feel sure you will join me in welcoming Josh into the Pirates fold.
I can think of nobody better worldwide who would bring what we now need at the Pirates to progress further as a professional rugby club on and off the field."
RGRE
Kenya 12th March 2013
