TWEED’S CEO SWAP
MONTHS after being overlooked for the position, Paul Stephenson has taken the reins as Tweed Heads chief executive and is determined to drive an upturn in the club’s fortunes.
Stephenson admitted his promotion – confirmed on Wednesday – came as a surprise after predecessor Matt Jobson’s shock resignation less than two months into the role.
The popular 34-year-old finished his rugby league playing days at the Seagulls in 2014 and had been holding a fulltime position focusing on wellbeing and sponsorship when
the board decided to elevate him to the top job.
An “excited” Stephenson confirmed he had put an application forward when Scott Clark announced in November he would be resigning.
“It probably came a bit ahead of time for me (when
Clark resigned),” Stephenson, a former Sea Eagle and Shark, said.
“It’s something that I one day had aspirations of doing, though it’s not the reason I came back here to work – I came because I’m passionate about player wellbeing.”
Jobson conceded it had become apparent his ambitious vision did not fully align with that of the club’s board.
Stephenson made no secret of the fact that change needs to occur for Tweed, who are winless after four Intrust Super Cup rounds, to move up the pecking order.
“We definitely need to make some changes, there is no doubt about it,” Stephenson said.
“We are not where we would like to be from a results point of view at the moment, not that it is unexpected.
“We were expecting to have a difficult season but we have also known that we needed to make some changes off the field, which we are doing at the moment and we have done over the last six months to be able to facilitate some better results on the field.”