Dear Supporters,
You may have read or heard about the Muirfield Mills consortium, who since 2012 have been major investors in the Club. I am one of 11 members of this group. We are bound by a lifelong friendship and love of football which dates to our school days at Inverness Royal Academy and InvernessHigh School. Many of us have worked abroad during our careers but as we reach the age of retirement, we are returning to the Inverness area and want to put something back into our local community. Muirfield Mills derives its name from where some of the original investors grew up – notably Muirfield Road and Holm Mills. Between us, we were supporters of the three Highland League sides, Inverness Caledonian, Inverness Thistle and Clachnacuddin.
We have no agenda – other than to help our local football team prosper, to be open and transparent and see the Club play great football and get back into the hands of the Community. We are doing this by investing our experience and money into ICTFC. Our total investment in the Club stands at more than £500K. No one will be happier than Muirfield Mills if other investors come forward to boost the club’s finances to help it improve and grow. It is important to the membership of Muirfield Mills that we have a Club that does well and is one that the supporters can be proud of.
Alan McPhee and I are part of the original group who formed Muirfield Mills and are also ICTFC Directors. We have both moved back to Inverness following careers in the international oil and gas industry. Alan’s grandfather, Angus MacPhee, was an early captain of Inverness Caledonian, whilst Alan, who grew up in the Crown, supported his local side, Inverness Thistle. Other founding members of the Muirfield Mills Investors are Dickie Hillier, a chartered accountant based in Geneva, Switzerland. Dickie taps into the wealth of football knowledge from his brother-in-law, the former Arsenal and Republic of Ireland legend Liam Brady. He is joined by Paul MacInnes, who has moved back to the town after a lifetime working abroad. Emeric Innes lives in France and has taken over from his father, the late Iain Innes, an Inverness solicitor who died in April 2014.
More recently we have been joined by another group of friends and fans of the Club. Dr Colin Fettes, who lives in the Black Isle and regularly travels as squad doctor to Scotland sides; Dave Burgess, Country Manager of a civil engineering firm in the Philippines; Victor Fornari, a retired oil executive now living in Inverness, and Russell Cameron, a retired businessman based in Florida. Our most recent additions are Kevin Stewart and David Barnett, both of whom are well known faces in Inverness and now retired. Everyone from Muirfield Mills was at Hampden when we lifted the Scottish Cup, and many of us were in Romania for our European baptism.
We all want to see the Club progress as a robust business that generates its own funding to achieve a sustainable future, rather than continuing to rely on major benefactors to keep making cash injections into the business. Harnessing the full support and engagement of the supporters, will provide the best opportunity for our proud Club to be an efficient business and develop and maintain the optimum set-up for a successful football team.
My own commitment is to ensure the Club is more open with the fans and to better communicate with you about what we are doing to improve your match day experience, what we are achieving in the community and most importantly what we are doing on the pitch. As Chairman, I have several key responsibilities, namely:
- Chairing an independent Board of Directors and convening annual general meetings
- Driving oversight of governance and assurance controls
- Having authority for independent audit and annual report to shareholders
- Engaging with all shareholders and stakeholders – be the focal point for feedback
- Designated as the Champion for ICTFC success and it’s “chief supporter”
- Working closely with the Directors and Chief Operating Officer to:
- set strategy and goals to improve and grow the business,
- secure a sustainable business plan, and
- provide the required infrastructure, engaged support staff and optimum resources for playing football
The Board of Directors of ICTFC and Muirfield Mills look forward to working with like-minded members of the community as we collaborate to move this great Club forward together.
Thank you for your continued support.
Graham Rae
Chairman – ICTFC