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THE thriving Bahrain Rugby Football Club has appointed a new general manager who is giving up one set of clubs to focus on creating a warm welcome to fans of the oval ball game and their families.
Scot Derek McKenzie has extensive experience of managing, hospitality and working in golf clubs across the globe and boasts a professional playing career that took him to the heady heights of playing alongside the game’s greats such as Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Henrik Stenson.
“My role is to bring my membership club experience to Bahrain Rugby Football Club and to not only run the day-to-day activities but improve the overall customer experience that our members and their guests receive,” he said.
“This means looking ahead to create an ideal scenario for us to strive towards and plan the way ahead to reach our goals with all departments pulling together in the same direction as one.
“BRFC is very fortunate to have the facilities we already have but this does not mean we stop there and we should always be looking to provide better and more improved facilities to match the needs and wants of our members.”
Derek has already set his sights on improving the appearance of the entrance of the club in Janabiya which welcomes visitors with fading signage that has seen better days and he always wants to make the reception area more welcoming.
“First impressions are always important not only for members but sponsors too and we’re already looking at ways of improving matters,” Derek, 46, said just one week into the job.
BRFC currently has almost 3,100 members, made up of 2,300 adult members and almost 800 children, but its executive committee are well aware of the transient expat nature of the kingdom and want to keep attracting new members. It is confident the right man has been appointed from a scrum of contenders to guide it forward.
Derek’s already loving the atmosphere of the enterprise, relishing the challenge as an avid sports fan. He played rugby earlier in his life before golf became his passion.
Derek played amateur golf and progressed from schoolboy international to professional golf at various levels, taking in the Tartan Tour, European Challenge Tour, Asian Development Tour, Asian Tour and the European Tour’s 2014 Dubai Desert Classic.
He’s also from a family of devoted Glasgow Rangers FC fans and although football is close to his heart his sporting hero is Northern Ireland’s golfing star Rory McIlroy who he describes as a ‘great ambassador’.
Derek’s career off the fairway includes spells as general manager of Thailand’s Santiburi Samui Country Club, Chippenham Golf Club in the English county of Wiltshire and closer to home at Scotscraig Golf Club, the historic private members club founded in 1817.
Before that he was a director of golf and teaching professional in Spain and Germany and a golf academy manager in Egypt where he also found love. He is married to Nancy, 35, an Egyptian classroom assistant, and they have an eight-year-old daughter, Lamita.
“I love the feel of Bahrain, having lived for so long in Egypt and met my wife there, I felt immediately at home here with the culture and mix of people,” he said. “Having endured two years of cold winters and cold summers we decided that our family’s future lay overseas and preferably in the Gulf area.
“We’re thoroughly looking forward to living the next chapter of our lives here in the Kingdom of Bahrain and looking forward to exploring all that the island has to offer. I look forward every day to coming to work and learning all there is to know about BRFC and meeting all the wonderful members over the next days, weeks and months.”
His first task is to ‘put systems in place back-of-house’ to aid the running of the organisation with a short-term aim to ‘improve the welcome and arrival at BRFC’. “Long term is to prepare and action a clear strategic plan to carry us well into the future,” he added.
Mike Cunningham, rugby club chairman, a British company executive and rugby-playing enthusiast, revealed that 20 applications were received for the GM role from within and outside Bahrain. After review of the CVs and Skype interviews, five short-listed candidates were invited to face-to-face interviews at the club.
“We were fortunate to receive some very strong candidates,” he added. “The executive committee is excited to have Derek joining us. With his experience of club management and the positive attitude he demonstrated throughout the recruitment process, we’re sure he will bring some great changes and new ideas to support the growth of BRFC.
“He has a great personality, which we’re sure our members will warm to as they get the chance to meet him over the coming weeks.”
