There will be a change behind the scenes at Oxford United this season with long-serving Club Secretary Mick Brown switching roles with Assistant Secretary Vanessa Gomm.
Mick has been a fixture at the U’s since he first started running coaches to matches in 1975 and then started the London Road Club in 1977. He then joined the club formally in 1982. In 1989 he succeeded Jim Hunt as Secretary - remarkably the club have only had two Club Secretaries since 1976.
Vanessa meanwhile has worked alongside Mick since January. She was previously Club Secretary at West Brom for five seasons, spending 14 years at the Hawthorns in total after working for the FA.
Mick will remain with the club but, as he explains, feels that now is the right time for a change:
“I am so proud to have worked for so long at the club I supported as a boy. I am in my 42nd year working there and have been secretary for 35 of those. There have been some really tough times and I have also been part of some amazing times for the club, but football keeps moving forward and at such a speed so it feels like the right time to take a step back and to slow down just a little.
“We have been working towards it for a while - Vanessa joined us last season with this plan in mind and has been fantastic. She has been there to help me for a while and now I get to help and support her at a really exciting time for the club.”
Vanessa told us
“Mick is the one that other clubs go to for help and advice. He has such amazing experience and knowledge and I am very proud to be asked to try and carry on the incredible work he has done for the club. To work with the intensity and the integrity that he has shown over so many years is unbelievable.
“For me, personally, it’s exciting to take on the role and it’s great to have Mick there to call on whenever I need to.”
CEO Tim Williams added:
“I was told very early on that without Mick Brown there likely wouldn’t be an Oxford United as we know it today. Having worked with him for a year, you start to hear stories of how he helped hold the club together through some pretty difficult times, without seeking gratitude or limelight. He has spent almost 50 years behind the scenes and has always put the club first, but now it’s time for him to think about Mick Brown for a change.
“Typically, it was Mick who came to us and started taking about succession planning and how we looked to replace him in the future. Vanessa has done something very impressive indeed: proved the perfect successor to such a long-standing member of the team. They work very well together, and we are very fortunate as a club to have them both here.”