Ron Gourlay 'pulling no punches' in fight to move club forward
Albion chief executive Ron Gourlay has opened up on his relationship with WBA Group director Xu Ke and how he will 'pull no punches' in his fight to steer the club forward.
Gourlay oversees the day-to-day running of Albion with controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai based in China. Xu Ke, the previous chief executive known as Ken, is now a non-executive director but the sole director of WBA Group, of which the club is a subsidiary.
While Gourlay does hold regular contact, often via email, to chairman and major shareholder Lai, who has not been on these shores for more than a year, they often communicate through one of Lai's chief members of staff, Ken.
Ken's role as sole member of WBA Group after Gourlay's decision last year to resign to focus on football matters was met with some trepidation and unease by supporters, who are concerned that just a single board member oversees Group's interest.
Asked on his relationship with Ken, chief executive Gourlay said he often offers his forthright views to those decision-makers calling the shots above him.
"I cause friction anyway!" Gourlay smiled. "If I don't agree with it, I don't agree. I won't pull any punches. I've been in football for 30 years.
"I can't change the way I am, if I don't agree, I will do it in a professional manner and offer advice. Things must stay private at certain times, but people in this football club know my view."
He explained: "When Ken was chief executive, he was obviously around a bit more. I'm more based at the training ground, and Ken is based at the stadium – at the moment we're talking quite a lot because he's passing a number of messages on for me, on a daily basis. I do have access to him via email, and we do have regular board meetings.
"One of the first things when I came in that needed to happen was for Lai to be chairman, for access.
"Every monthly board meeting, I have access, but it also gives me the ability to communicate. Recently, it's been everyday."
Former Reading CEO and senior Manchester United director Gourlay initially joined Albion as an advisor in late 2021 before officially beginning in his role as chief executive in February 2022.
"When I joined the football club, it was as an adviser," he said. "I had one day a week at the training ground and then a second day going to the games.
"I didn't join any meetings, it was just seeing with my own eyes what was and what wasn't going on. When I took the job, the challenge increased. I could see it was going to be a bigger – and I've had big jobs.
"I could see that there were challenges emerging that I didn't know about. That isn't anybody's fault, I didn't need to know about it, people didn't tell me – and in some cases it would've been nicer if they did, but it doesn't always work that way. I just have to get on and deal with them.
"I'm dealing with things going back to 2014. I can't talk about the investigation (into the historic Jeremy Peace loan), but why am I, in 2023, dealing with it?
"It has to be dealt with, because otherwise it'll be here in 2028. It won't go away, so I'm not one for sweeping things under the carpet."
Gourlay revealed there is a suggestion controlling shareholder Lai could visit Albion before the end of the current season, though that is not set in stone. The businessman's previous visit to the club was in January last year.
"We're just going into Chinese New Year now, so I don't think it'll happen in the near future," Gourlay said. "We were told that he was going to come back around Easter time, but I don't know."
