Tottenham Hotspur have announced the appointment of Eric Hinson to the board as a non-executive director.
The new appointee is an American aviation executive who will join as the fifth member of Spurs’ new-look board, alongside non-executive chair Peter Charrington, CEO Vinai Venkatesham, operations and finance director Matthew Collecott and lead independent director Jonathan Turner.
Hinson’s most recent role was as CEO and president of SimCom International, an Orlando-based pilot training simulator company.
Before then he was executive vice president of FlightSafety International, another leading pilot training organisation. He also sits on the board of Space Florida and was recently the chair of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, and was previously president and CEO of Piaggio America, the US subsidiary of an Italian aircraft manufacturer.
Before his career in the aviation industry, Hinson was a pilot with the US Navy, at one point flying the F/A-18 Hornet. The hope at the club is that Hinson’s corporate experience will help with Tottenham’s continued growth.
“To deliver more and better for our fans requires a broad mix of expertise and experience at Board level,” said Tottenham chairman Charrington in a statement released on the website on Thursday morning. “Eric brings valuable expertise in high-performing and high-pressure corporate and military teams which, combined with the strengths of the wider team, will put us in an even stronger position to deliver on our goals.”
Hinson’s arrival returns the Tottenham board to five people at the end of a year of dramatic change at the club. Charrington and Venkatesham only joined the board earlier this year, Charrington initially as a non-executive director in March, before Venkatesham arrived in June.
Long-standing executive director Donna-Maria Cullen stepped down this summer, and then former executive chairman Daniel Levy was surprisingly removed last month, ending almost 25 years running the club.
Since then the club has tried to focus on stability after a transformational summer. “They (the Lewis family) are also focused on stability,” Venkatesham said in an interview four days after Levy’s dismissal. “They know there has been lots of change at the Club and now it’s time for some calm and for some stability.”
Charrington chaired the first meeting of the new-look four-man board on September 26. There are currently no further plans to add a sixth member after Hinson’s appointment.