Carlton president Mark LoGiudice has flatly denied speculation that Simon Lethlean has been offered the Blues CEO position, following the resignation of incumbent Steven Trigg.
He also rejected rumours that the AFL has pushed the axed former football operations boss in their direction, declaring he would have to enter a recruitment process if he wanted the job.
The club has enlisted the services of Egon Zehnder’s David Campbell to find their new CEO, having previously been involved in the appointment of Trigg and coach Brendon Bolton.
“They’re not true (the rumours). We have not approached Simon Lethlean,” LoGiudice told SEN Breakfast.
“I would hope Simon Lethlean would be part of that process because he does have the right skillsets, but we expect multiple candidates to apply for this job, it’s an exciting position to be the CEO of this football club.”
LoGiudice said while it was a difficult decision to part with former Adelaide CEO Trigg it was necessary to find someone else to grow the club to the next level.
“It’s certainly not an easy time, but they’re tough decisions boards have to make and we made a tough decision yesterday,” he said.
“We’ve got a strategy in place at Carlton to continue to grow the football club. That is first and foremost. We just believed we needed a different type of leader to grow the next stage.”
He told Carlton supporters to expect the new CEO to be “more commercially driven”, with success still being the main aim.
“The most important (skillset) is a more commercially driven CEO to lead the club, but there’s other areas we need to improve on,” LoGiudice said.
“The engagement will continue, the Carlton Football Club and its success is the priority.”