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Frank O’Callaghan, Non Executive Chairman; February 1999 – June 2000
Frank O’Callaghan took up the position of director on the 5th February, 1999 and when Fergus McCann left the club he became non-executive Chairman. Prior to Fergus McCann’s departure the Board was re-organised and the post of Chairman divided into non-executive Chairman and Chief Executive. Allan McDonald was chosen as Chief Executive. Both O’Callaghan and MacDonald had been through a vetting process via the Board’s Appointments Committee and both were unanimously approved.
Frank O’Callaghan was born in 1940 and educated at St Aloysius College, Glasgow. After graduating from Glasgow University he built a successful business career. He was the financial controller of Stakis plc and then the company’s financial director for 16 years until 1989. Through the 1990’s he worked guiding a number of companies and he became chairman of MacDonald Hotels, which owned 24 provincial hotels and manageed another 37.
“I was flattered when I was asked to be the next chairman of Celtic. I consider myself a Celtic supporter, and it is the ultimate accolade to be involved with the club at this level,” he said.
“I think the decision to have a non-executive chairman is the right one, and if you look at the most successful club in Britain – Manchester United – that is the structure they have.”
It was clear, though, that McCann had greatly altered the role of Chairman for his successor and almost all the power resided with the Chief Executive. O’Callaghan knew of this change of role and restructuring of power and as such had lobbied long and hard for Allan MacDonald to be appointed Chief Executive. MacDonald would go on to controversially appoint Kenny Dalglish as Director of Football Operations.
The biggest elements overseen during Frank O’Callaghan’s chairmanship were the major investment in football operations and the endorsement of John Barnes as Head Coach. The dent that both these activities made in the fortunes of Celtic Football Club meant that Frank O’Callaghan was undoubtedly far busier than he would probably have expected to have been as a non-executive chairman. During that one brief, hectic season of 1999-2000 he had to smooth over rifts within the Board and to try to counter really bad press generated within the club during this time.
Following the debacle of the Inverness Caledonian Thistle game in February 2000 it was O’Callaghan that had insisted on Dalglish returnng from Spain to deal with the crisis and it is probable that it was him that left MacDonald in no doubt that Barnes would need to go. As such he had the bad luck to be chairman at one of the worst periods in the recent history of the club with leaks, cliques and schism throughout the club. He backed MacDonald again in the pursuit of Guus Hiddink as the Head Coach to succeed John Barnes and met with Hiddink at least twice.
All these high tension activities clearly took their toll on O’Callaghan. When Martin O’Neill’s appointment as Head Coach was announced in June 2000, O’Callaghan also announced his resignation as non-executive Chairman for personal reasons. He had discussed his reasons for resignation with the Board some weeks before and they had acceded to his request to stand down. He was succeeded by Brian Quinn.
Frank O’Callaghan has continued as a non-executive director of MacDonald Hotels.
