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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Ben Ramage

Former St Mirren chairman Stewart Gilmour aiming for SMISA board director spot and takes firm Kibble stance

Former Saints chairman Stewart Gilmour is among six candidates looking to be voted onto the SMISA board.

And if successful he is determined to see the supporters group up their shareholding in St Mirren to 76 per cent, believing the Paisley club has "lost its way" since Kibble took up a 27.5 per cent stake in the club back in July last year.

SMISA currently have four vacant director positions to fill, with Graeme Macpherson and Janette Swanson deciding to step down shortly after Paisley MSP George Adam confirmed he'd also be leaving.

There are now six candidates who will be whittled down to four by a SMISA member vote, with Gilmour joined by William Bell, Stuart Chawk, Kenny Lang, Jack McSkeane and John White. Lang is standing for re-election.

A SMISA spokesperson said: "Another two positions have become available due to Graeme Macpherson and Janette Swanson deciding to step down from the Board.

"Both Graeme and Janette carried out much valuable work for SMiSA, and their presence will be sadly missed. We wish them all the best.

"We have therefore decided to extend the current process to fill all four vacant positions, and are pleased to be able to report that there has been a total of six applications submitted from members."

Gilmour is the highest profile applicant given his long-standing association with the club, and he is determined to see the supporters' group given more control in the coming years.

Speaking in his personal statement, Gilmour said: "SMISA have achieved so much since being formed, a wonderful effort in pulling together so many fans to enable the Supporters Buyout, in particular in the face of ‘investors’ from Argentina, Italy and USA. Hence my interest that a supporter ownership works for all, as this was a preferred route by the Board at that time, the others were not particularly palatable, or in our clubs interests. This was enabled by Gordon Scott’s assistance and we entered the payback years, while Gordon took a very good hands on role as Chairman.

"As you are all aware this agreement was cut short and the Kibble entered the equation to repay Gordon early and take up 27.5% stake in the club, at this point I personally feel we lost our way slightly, Kibble have had a major role in the financial control and operational aspects of our club which from the accounts in May 2021 would indicate that our expenditure exceeds our income by some way, bearing in mind the Scottish Government loan is in our account and not tucked away for a rainy day.

"I feel the role of SMISA has changed, from that of a group looking to add supporters to its membership primarily, to a group that owns the majority shareholding 52% in our club, the responsibility of the SMISA Board is now a larger remit, that of encouraging new members, engaging with the support and other St Mirren stakeholders, however primarily overseeing the security of the share our members have bought in our club, I do not feel this is being carried out to a level befitting the shareholders agreement we have with Kibble."

Gilmour continued: "Having extensive experience of previously running our football club I would like to shape the future, alongside other SMISA Directors, of our beloved club. A future only reliant on us, the supporters of this great club. A future where our club is truly and wholly fan owned. I must stress I see this as a short term appointment to assist on enabling both the Club and SMISA to have a robust working arrangement which will be beneficial for the long term stability of our club.

"My intended goals are in the short term assist the club through a difficult time, in the medium term return SMISA to the direction we embarked on to hold 76% of the total shareholding, finally for SMISA to build a war chest to assist the club through any future funding issues."

All candidates statements' can be viewed in full here. Voting will close at 4pm on Tuesday November 1.

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