Celtic appoint new Company Secretary

By John McGinley

September 17, 2021

Celtic have appointed Chris Duffy as the new Company Secretary following Michael Nicholson’s move to acting Chief Executive.

After Dom McKay’s departure last week, Nicholson, who was formerly Company Secretary, was given the CEO role on an acting basis.

He can’t perform in both posts at the same time.

A filing to Companies House today confirms Duffy’s new role as the board’s chief organiser, heavily involved in all sorts of legal and contractual affairs.

Celtic have also already confirmed the change on the official club website.

Duffy has been employed at Celtic for over four years as a Company Solicitor, working with Nicholson to provide legal advice across all aspects of the Club’s business as well as supporting Celtic FC Foundation and the Celtic Pools. He has previously held roles at Vodafone, IMG and IPG Mediabrands. Duffy has also, concurrently, been Secretary of the Celtic Pools since 2018.

Duffy describes himself on LinkedIn as a “commercially minded in-house solicitor specialising in the areas of Sports, Media, Technology and Entertainment with particular experience in drafting and negotiating commercial contracts.”

This appointment is no great surprise but it is interesting to see the machinations of Celtic working to gain stability in the wake of last week’s major exit.

The board have clearly chosen to ensure two key roles have been filled by people they’ve worked with before, know and trust. You can draw your own conclusions about that, positively or negatively!

It could also be something of a hint that Nicholson might be in his CEO post for a decent chunk of time. Obviously not permanently, yet, but I’m not expecting to see a new person rock up to the club anytime soon.

Celtic fans have yet to hear from Nicholson about his role and the future direction of the club.

In other news, Celtic supporters stand up for Stiliyan Petrov after bizarre Twitter drama.