New role created at Brunton Park
Carlisle United Football Club can confirm that financial controller Suzanne Kidd has been appointed as deputy managing director as the club looks to fine tune and improve its day-to-day operations behind the scenes.
Kidd, who has worked at the club for just over five years, will be responsible for decision making across all areas of the business in the absence of an on-site director.
Talking about her new role, she said: "John [Nixon] has increased his Football League and FA commitments and that means he isn't always at Brunton Park.
"The other directors also have other responsibilities away from the club so, by having someone who can deputise for them, it means we can keep things moving forward. It should help the operational side of the business to work in a much smoother way."
"The creation of this role is very much focused on that operational side of things," she confirmed. "As the financial controller, I'm already in a position where I have to know what's going on in each department and it's probably the logical thing for me to take these additional responsibilities on.
"Everything we want or need to do at this club has a financial impact, so I'm generally involved in the decision making process anyway. In terms of the day-to-day running of the club, we feel that this can only be a positive step.
"We worked hard over the summer to build up some momentum and it's important that we carry that on. We've listened to feedback and we know we have work still to do, but we have a lot of dedicated staff here who keep chipping away in an attempt to improve every area.
"It isn't going to happen for us overnight but, by having someone here who can make decisions when the directors can't be on site, it means we can carry that good work on and keep the wheels in motion."
"It's been a smooth transition into this role for me because we have a small group of office staff and we work very closely together on almost every issue," she told us. "We discuss everything as a group and this means that I should be able to help everyone out, which can only be a good thing.
"There aren't huge decisions to make every day but this is a means to keeping things going which, in itself, is a very positive step."