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arlton Football Club has announced the appointment of former Geelong Football Club CEO, Brian Cook.

Cook will arrive at Carlton with over 30 years experience across the industry, including 23 years in the top role at Geelong.

Carlton president, Luke Sayers, said Cook’s experience and ability across high performance with every side of a club, made him the perfect fit for the new CEO.

“This is a significant pillar of the club’s ‘reset’ strategy, whereby our football club is striving to bring in the best available people with strong leadership, who thrive on building and driving a high-performing culture,” Sayers said.

“That is exactly what Carlton needs to take our next, significant step, and nobody fits that criteria better than Brian Cook.

“Brian is an experienced leader who, to put it simply, knows what success looks like and more importantly, knows everything that is required to achieve it, on and off the field.

“He has directly overseen necessary changes and driven elite standards to generate an improvement in football performance, ensuring these elite standards are not only met but are sustained over a long period of time.

“Brian has also been the driving force behind GMHBA Stadium’s redevelopment and that invaluable experience will be crucial as we move towards completion of the IKON Park Masterplan redevelopment in 2022.

“While our club is in a strong position off the field, we intend to take this to another level, by being proactive and innovative and Brian, as CEO, will play a pivotal role in leading that approach.

“To attract arguably Australia’s most highly regarded sports administrator to the position of chief executive officer at our club is significant and from this point on, our plan cannot be clearer and more resolute to achieve the sustained success we are striving for,” he said.

On his new role, Cook said: “When Luke presented this opportunity to me, he did so with a clear vision, to make the Carlton Football Club a benchmark in striving for high performance in all areas, the chance to help achieve that for a club with such a massive supporter base, with unmatched passion, this decision was a simple one for me.”

“Football clubs are built on its people, its players, coaches, staff, members, supporters and commercial partners, my first focus will be connecting with as many of our people as possible and making sure we are all aligned on how we are going to push this football club to achieve the success it is striving for.

“There is no doubt that is going to take a lot of hard work, from a lot of Carlton people.

“In my experience though, there is absolutely no better feeling than when a group of people come together for one common cause and achieve the ultimate success.

“That thought should get every Carlton person excited for what lies ahead for their football club and we are going to share that experience every step of the way together,” Cook said.