Ken Paul
Commercial Manager
Ken (pictured above flying the flag for the Academy in Canada) has been involved in football at various levels for over 24 years. This includes playing amateur, and then managing at boys’ club level with some of the players moving up to senior level. During his management period he took teams to international tournaments in England, Holland and Canada and was heavily involved in fundraising and sponsorship during this period. On a business level he has recently been promoted to Deputy Manager within a pawnbroker.
Ken would be pleased to discuss any commercial or sponsorship opportunities and can be contacted by email at ken.paul@live.co.uk or by phone on 07743 232654
Stewart Jardine
Welfare Officer
Stewart manages his own educational support services business working with schools, Education authorities and the Scottish Government. He was headteacher of Carrick Academy during the eighties and later became a chief inspector of education with the former Strathclyde Regional Council. Recently he has worked with HM Inspectors of Education developing materials for school improvement and writing training materials for child protection and children’s services. He has also worked with a number of education authorities supporting the work of their child protection committees. He is a member of the Education Advisory Board of Capability Scotland. Most importantly, he has supported Ayr United through the good and bad times for more than 50 years.
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Dennis McLellan
Registrations Secretary
Dennis has been an ardent follower of Ayr United all his days. He was actively involved in coaching youth football for over 14 years. However, when approached by Ayr United Football Academy to get involved in an administration capacity he jumped at the chance and has been on board since June 2006. His main responsibilities are the signing and registration of players, but he is also responsible for liaising on behalf of the Academy with the SFA, the SFL and the club.
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Lawrence Grace
Kit Manager
Lawrence is currently a part of the ‘Academy’ administration team and was a former youth coach with Ayr Boswell Boys Club for 15 years. During his spell with Ayr Boswell Boys Club, Lawrence also had a spell as ‘Club Secretary’ and was also served on the SFA affiliated ‘Scottish Amateur Youth Football’ committee.
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Chris Johnston
Education Co-ordinator
Born in Ayr and brought up in Dundee and Clydebank, Chris returned to Ayrshire after qualifying as a Chartered Accountant to work for the Dodds Group in Troon where he became Company Secretary. After subsequent employment with Scottish and Universal Newspapers, he entered Local Government from which he has recently retired as Education Finance Manager at East Ayrshire Council having previously held various positions including Sub Region Chief Auditor with Strathclyde Regional Council and Assistant Director of Finance at Kilmarnock & Loudoun District Council.
As a lifelong football fanatic, as well as playing, he has followed teams wherever he has lived, and is said to have supported more clubs than Jack Nicklaus’s caddy. Other sports in which he currently participates include golf and squash. His other passion is music and singing.
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Cheri Burns
Sports Journalist, Girls’ and Women’s Football
Cheri is currently in her third year of a BA (Hons) degree in journalism at the University of the West of Scotland. Her main ambition has always been to become a sports journalist, with a particular interest in football reporting.
Over the last few years, She has developed a passion for writing about and exploring the different aspects of women’s football. This is an issue which, in her opinion, is significantly under represented within mainstream British media.
As she is a wheelchair user, she is also keen to look into the issue of people who have disabilities gaining access to sport, and more specifically, examine how easy it is for them to become involved with sports clubs and initiatives within their own local areas.
In terms of journalistic experience, she has completed various work placements within large Scottish media organisations –catering for both print and broadcast areas of the industry. All of these opportunities have allowed her to experience what it is like to work in a newsroom on a daily basis, and because of this, she has gained the invaluable confidence and skills that a working journalist needs to have.
As a freelance journalist, some examples of her work have been printed in newspapers including the Scotsman, the Daily Record and the Evening Times.
