Hartlepool United are pleased to confirm that Andy Steel, Lennie Lawrence and John Pearson will adopt newly created roles on the HUFC Board to support and deputise key functions of Commercial, Football and Supporter Engagement respectively. The trio will take up their Director positions with immediate effect.
Andy Steel is Hartlepool born and bred and a lifelong supporter. He spent over 30 years working at Hartlepool College in many roles from Lecturer in Business and Management to Assistant Principal and was responsible for project management of the £53million town college centre campus which was opened in 2011. Andy has also chaired and held multiple long standing Board level roles in both private and charitable sector organisations including Hartlepool Business Forum, Changing Futures North East and Orange Box Training Solutions. Andy has already been supporting Club commercial endeavours in recent years as well as holding an Ambassador role.
Lennie Lawrence comes with vast and impressive football experience having personally managed over 1,000 games across all the divisions including a promotion to the newly formed Premier League back in 1992 with Middlesbrough FC. He has worked as a coach, a manager and a Director of Football including for Bradford, Stevenage, Newport County, Cardiff and Crystal Palace. Lennie is now actively involved in mentoring managers with the League Manager Association and that role has continued at Hartlepool with his support for Club coaches and managers since he joined in 2022.
John Pearson is a lifelong season ticket holder and follower of Pools. For nearly 10 years he has worked with Club executives on fan led initiatives. He is Trustee of The Hart Of Our Club 1908, formed to help improve fan match day experience and to support the Club in fan and community led initiatives. He is actively engaged with various HUFC supporter groups during his travels whilst following Pools as well as those from other clubs. Professionally and away from Pools, John has carved out a successful career in the chemical manufacturing industry where he now works as a European account manager for OQEMA Group.
Commenting on the appointments Chairman Raj Singh said:
“I’m delighted that Andy, Lennie and John have all accepted positions. I’d like to ensure that there are solid and shared responsibilities in place at Board level moving forward, that supplement my position as Chairman.”
“There is a good balance of skill sets across the three and I’m sure they will support and become excellent additions to the Club. Andy will primarily focus on commercial, Lennie on football and John on fan engagement, however they will overlap in some general duties also. Both Andy and John have lifelong affiliations with Pools which was important and John specifically is going to look at ways in which fans can be heard more effectively by establishing a formal platform for supporter groups to represent and feedback through him to the Board.”
“We may look to add further Directors to the Board in due course and we will release more information as to how the full Board will work in coming weeks.”