At the board meeting on Monday 20th February 2006 Terry Baker was named as the Club's new Chairman while Fans' Director Brian Attmore is the new Vice-chairman. Both men were elected unanimously to their new positions at the board meeting.
Terry Baker was a Vice President at Cambridge United for many years and most recently an Associate Director of the club, and he was invited to join the Board of Directors in July 2005.
He started watching Cambridge United when his family moved to Cambridge in 1947, when he was 13 and the club was competing in the United Counties League.
He spent 27 years working for Pye Philips in a senior management position and the company were regular match sponsors. His involvement with the commercial staff at the club - particularly Keith Loring and John Holmes - led to an invitation to join the Vice-Presidents Club.
However, he adds, "I've never really been one for the pre-match meals and post-match drinks and all that; I'm quite happy just to come along and watch the football, although I realise now I'm Chairman I'll be doing a bit more of that!"
A regular in the Habbin Stand for many years until he became an Associate Director, Terry has also watched games from the seats when his son used to come to games with him, but United's relegation to the Conference this season has brought back memories of years ago, as he explains:
"I've watched games from various places in the ground, and many years ago you used to stand in your accustomed position, say behind the goal, and if your team lost the toss and had to attack the other end everyone would troop down to that end. Funnily enough, this season we've been to clubs where this still happens. It's like a throwback and unfortunately we're part of it."
Terry is the founder and former chairman of BEAM Group, a company which he built into a highly successful regional home electronics wholesaler. Now semi-retired, Terry has passed on day-to-day management of the company to his business partner but retains a close interest in the company's affairs.
Asked about the skills he will bring to the role of Chairman at Cambridge United, he responded, "One thing about working for an organisation like Philips for so long is that you get extremely well-trained in many ways, including managing people and getting the best out of people. I think the current jargon is 'maximising human resources'.
"I can bring that to the club in terms of knitting everyone together and pulling in the same direction to achieve our objectives. Obviously the ultimate objectives are to get the club out of the Conference, to get the club back onto a sound financial footing - which we're in the process of doing - and to resolve the ground situation to everyone's satisfaction.
"The emotions attached to the Abbey are obvious and I have them as well, but time moves on and nothing is set in stone these days, and we may have to consider moving one day."
Expanding on those objectives, Terry continued, "It's obviously important that on the pitch we get this poor away form sorted out, and for the boys to somehow get over this mental hang-up they seem to have about performing away from home. There seems to be something in the psychology of the players that makes this happen, so that's one of the first challenges.
"We're obviously not going to get out of the Conference this season so the next thing is to concentrate our efforts on resolving the ground situation, and I think we're getting closer to a solution that we hope everyone will be happy with.
"Then of course building a squad for next season is very important. We have to send a signal out to the supporters that we're serious about getting back into the Football League and we want to be a successful club again, and we can only do that by bringing quality players into the club, which is our intention.
"Financially our goal is first to break even, which we haven't done for many years, and not many football clubs do. The most direct route to doing that is by putting 'bums on seats', which means we have to perform well to achieve that. We have been performing well at home this season and we are extremely grateful for the continued level of support.
"A lot of people thought our support would collapse but it hasn't and the hardcore still come. It's those who have drifted away in the last few years that we need to get back, so that has to be part of our priorities and I think if we continue to win at home that will help to bring people back.
"Then of course in the summer we want to increase our season ticket sales, and making it clear that we intend to strengthen the squad and get back into the Football League will help to do that. Season ticket sales are vital to our existence and help to keep the wolf from the door in the summer when there is no cashflow.
"There are other plans to boost income, for example the pop concerts in the summer for which we will be releasing details very soon, and one or two other things we are working on.
"We are going to be very busy on the commercial side and we've been lucky to bring Chris Whitehall (pictured below) into the boardroom. He's young and energetic and a great supporter with a very successful business, so he's got all the ingredients to help us achieve our targets."
Closing with a message to all supporters, the new Chairman said, "Thank you for continuing with your support and please talk to your friends and family and get them into the club to help us make progress. I've set out on a personal crusade because I know people who used to stand in the Habbin and have got out of the habit for one reason or another, and I've been chivvying and nagging them to give us another chance and get back into the habit of coming to the Abbey.
"If every one of us does that with anyone we know who has fallen out of watching the club, for whatever the reasons, whether it was personalities or the way we played or the financial problems or whatever. That's all behind us now - we're clear of administration, we've got a little bit of money in the bank, we don't owe anyone any money - so the future's looking much better but to get to where we want to be we must have people coming through the turnstiles to support the club. Let's get some more children coming to games, they're our future.
"You can never say enough about our supporters. On Tuesday night at Burton it was blowing a gale around the pitch and there was still a couple of hundred supporters who had made the effort on a Tuesday night to get there and support the team, which is wonderful.
"All of the support and voluntary help is very much appreciated and I hope you can encourage more people to come along and help us get where we want to be," Terry concluded.
"Hang on in there - we're going to make it!"
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Paul Barry
Rob Newman
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