Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Huge privilege to be chief executive
Jamie Clifford has been at Kent for 14 years and says he considers it a huge privilege to be chief executive of the club he grew up supporting and still does. He came to Canterbury from a marketing role with Wisden where his work regularly brought him into contact with then England captain Nasser Hussain, whose slightly grumpy but incredibly focused demeanour gave him an ‘interesting’ early insight into working with professional cricketers. He joined Kent in 2002 as director of cricket development – succeeding Bill Dover – and some of the young players identified then are now part of the Kent first team squad. The development team in those days comprised two development officers plus an administrative officer but the county’s community set-up today employs more than 10 full-time staff plus a large network of others. Keen to play a part in the club’s redevelopment plans, Mr Clifford took on the role of Business Development Director in 2009 and later that same year became acting CEO following the retirement of Paul Millman. He was appointed on a full-time basis in March, 2010, after the job had been advertised nationally and says he never comes into work with anything other than huge enthusiasm. He also revealed that most of the time he is able to keep a lid on his emotions while watching the team. Mr Clifford, who turned 40 in January, said: “I’m a fairly calm watcher, I’ve only kicked the wastepaper basket once and that was during a T20 match when a crucial catch was dropped. “Where my heart rules my head is that I always want young players to get an opportunity, whether that’s me being impatient but I do like to see young players get their go.”