Dear Hawthorn members and fans,

I wanted to officially introduce myself as your new acting president, following Andrew Newbold's resignation this week.

Andrew has done an outstanding job throughout the past 13 years as a director and president. He has led the Hawks with a clear sense of vision and purpose and our recent success is in part a result of his outstanding direction and leadership. He has been a strong advocate for the club and leaves Hawthorn in a position of strength, both commercially and culturally.

On behalf of all the Board, Hawthorn staff, members and fans, I want to thank Andrew, his wife Sarah and their family for their wonderful contribution over the last 13 years.

As your new president, I want to share with you my Hawthorn journey and my vision for the future.

Firstly I need to disclose that I was not always a Hawks fan. Although this is not the normal pathway to being a club president, I do believe this has made my journey and love of Hawthorn even more absolute.

I first became associated with the club in 1997 when KPMG was asked to become the club's auditors. I was appointed the lead partner and retained this role until my retirement from the firm in early 2008. Over these 11 years I gained a deep understanding of the club's finances and commercial operations but more importantly developed close relationships with the club's directors, senior staff and key stakeholders.

In 2010, I received an unexpected invitation from Andrew Newbold and Jeff Kennett to join the Board as part of the club's succession plan. The Board's primary focus was on ensuring the continued long term financial viability and strong governance of the club. This focus was an ethos that I respected and so I officially joined Hawthorn in October 2010.

As a lifelong lover of football, I saw this appointment as an opportunity to serve at the highest level and was encouraged to do so by my wife and family. It was less than a year later when I undoubtedly became Hawthorn, always. My wife passed away and the club organised for the players to wear black armbands at the next game I attended. This meant so much to me and I was so overwhelmed. In this moment I realised that Hawthorn was more than a business and football team - they were family.

There is a famous Hawthorn quote; "If you embrace Hawthorn, Hawthorn will embrace you" and this has been my experience.

Since joining the Board, I have served as chairman of the club's Finance and Risk Management Committee and our WestWaters Hotel joint venture at Caroline Springs. I am a member of our Training and Administration Facility Committee and in November 2014 was fortunate to be part of a club study tour of leading sports facilities in London and New York.

Being appointed vice-president of the club at the start of 2015 was a huge honour and I feel even more privileged to have the support and backing of the Board to now take on the acting presidency position.

Away from the club I am a director and adviser to several private business groups. I have recently remarried, have two adult sons and a newly arrived grandson.

The club's and my vision for the future is simple - to continuously strive for further success.

A large part of this vision is our proposed new training and administration facility in Dingley. This is the largest project the club has ever undertaken and should the facility come to fruition it will be Hawthorn's home for many decades. There is still much work to do, but this will continue to be a major focus area for the Board and our management team under the leadership of our CEO Stuart Fox.

Another key to the future success of our club is to maintain strong leadership across all areas of the business.

We are fortunate to have a wonderful group of players, management and staff under the leadership of Luke Hodge, Alastair Clarkson and Stuart Fox. There is clarity in our strategic direction both on and off the field and our Board of Directors will continue to provide support, cohesion and broader advice to this leadership group.

With this in mind I am pleased to announce that we have secured Stuart Fox as our CEO for a further five years, until December 2020. Stuart has been instrumental in delivering growth in all areas of the business including membership, merchandise, sponsorship and collective club profit since 2009.

He has been a driving force in Hawthorn's commitment to a state-of-the-art training and administration centre, is very well respected for his strategic innovation, leadership and people management, and has implemented many development programs for staff in order to make Hawthorn the 'destination club'.

I am delighted that we have been able to retain Stuart and I am looking forward to working with him closely to ensure continued financial viability and strong governance of the club.

Hawthorn Football Club is a very special organisation which has been served by many wonderful leaders over the years. Our most recent presidents - Ian Dicker, Jeff Kennett and Andrew Newbold - have each left our club with a great legacy.

I am very honoured to serve as the next acting president and look forward to seeing all of you over the coming season.

If you have any questions for me I will be available for a Q&A via the club's Facebook page at 12pm Thursday. I look forward to chatting with you then.

Yours faithfully,

Richard Garvey