16 October 2008

To whom it may concern

It is my pleasure to recommend David Friend.

David commenced working for St Kilda Football Club as General Manager, Membership and Merchandise in 2002.

At the time of commencement St Kilda FC had the lowest membership base in the AFL with 17,500 members and the third lowest merchandise turnover at $180K.

David’s strength is in building sales and marketing strategies followed by a detailed implementation plan.  Under his leadership, membership of the club rose to 23,522 in the first year, to 30,900 in 2004 and to 32,500 members in 2005, all club records. David grew merchandise turn over to $1.4 million within three years (which was the highest merchandise turnover for a Victorian AFL club that year) using his creative sales strategies. 

David developed a contract manufacturing program with the AFL that added an additional $400K net profit to the St Kilda football club.

I am very confident that David will develop a very successful strategy and implementation plans for membership and/or merchandise for any organisation that wishes to contract his services.

In addition, David has excellent people & management skills and will work well with his own staff or his clients’ staff to ensure harmony and a team approach to achieving desired outcomes. David also has the ability to train and develop employees and to that end he will leave a legacy with your organisation should his services be contracted to assist you in the areas described above.

During the period 2000 to 2007, I held the roles of Director, Vice President, or Chief Executive Officer with the St Kilda Football Club. I am very happy to answer further questions regarding David and can be contacted on 0413 889 936.

Jim Watts