THE SCOTSMAN REVEALS

Interview: Kenny Baillie, Glasgow Warriors chief executive

Published Date: 31 July 2010
By David Ferguson
TAKING over a club when it is at the top of the league could be viewed as folly in the harsh world of professional sport, but Kenny Baillie has only become more convinced of his decision in the 18 months since he was appointed chief executive at Glasgow Warriors.

If it were Manchester United or even Rangers, there might be some merit, but when it is a rugby team competing as the under-funded minnows of a league now involving three richer rugby nations, folly would seem an under-statement.

Throw in the fact that this 34-year-old Glaswegian walked away from a lucrative career in software production, a rare business that continues to toss about annual salaries well into six figures like confetti, and which for Baillie involved office stops across America, Hong Kong and the middle east, the move shifts into the incredulous.

But Baillie could not appear happier, making himself at home in Glasgow Warriors' new Scotstoun base out in the leafy west end. But why? The simple explanation is that Baillie never lost his passion for rugby and it finally reeled him back in; an ambition seared within him to see his native city being lauded as a rugby giant being ignited again.

He had been a decent full-back, winning an under-21 cap against New Zealand before collecting a healthy bounty of league and cup silverware with the newborns of Glasgow Hawks. He even represented Glasgow against Montferrand (now French champions Clermont Auvergne) in the district's first European adventure 14 years ago.

And Glasgow now have the Anniesland club to thank and the manner with which they embraced rugby's epochal move to professionalism, trumpeting a new vision in Scotland, for enticing Baillie back from computer software to his first love.

As startling as the move to the Hawks and then to the Warriors might seem outwardly, the relative youngster in the world of executive boardom retains his natural mix of sharp-suited, suave, ever-smiling exterior and innate enthusiasm, something that served him well when he told Glasgow Hawks, including a few hardened cynics of the SRU, that he was crossing the divide and becoming a union man.

He smiled, and said: "I did think about that (the enmity between clubs and the union], but this was an opportunity to drive a professional rugby team and there are not that many of them around.

"And it was a fairly straightforward transition. The principles of running Glasgow Hawks, Currie, Kelso or whoever, are just the same: organising teams, facilities, committees, sponsorship, income, promoting events; on a bigger scale, obviously, but very similar.

This article was posted on 30-Jul-2010, 23:20 by Hugh Barrow.