GOLD Coast hopes to appoint a new chief executive before the premiership season starts, but it won't be former head honcho Travis Auld, says Suns chairman Tony Cochrane.
Andrew Travis resigned as the club's CEO on Monday afternoon following two-and-a-half years in the role, and it didn't take the rumour mill long to kick off.
Auld, the Suns' original CEO and currently on the AFL's Executive, was linked with a move back to Carrara, but Cochrane rubbished the speculation.
"We are not talking to Travis," Cochrane told AFL.com.au.
"There is absolutely zero truth in that. Not even a skerrick."
The outspoken chairman said he had known for a couple of weeks Travis was looking to move on.
He has been at the Suns from their inception, first as their COO, then the CEO and has overseen the acquisition of Metricon Stadium and more recently the $22 million training and administration facility.
In a statement on Monday afternoon, Travis said he was looking forward to a break before his "next challenge".
The feeling at Gold Coast was Travis accomplished all he could and had invested everything he could in the club.
Cochrane said the Suns' board of directors hadn't started a formal process to find a replacement, but had a "very, very strong position of what sort of person we're looking for".
He would not be drawn on whether the club would look outside the AFL or outside the country.
"I hope I can find the right person and we hope we can bring that to bed as soon as possible," Cochrane said.
"Sitting here tonight I don't have a clue how long that's going to take.
"I am a persuasive son of a bitch, so hopefully we can move on that sooner rather than later."
He said the replacement would be leading a club on the rise.
"We are a club determined to have success, we're determined to continue forging ahead," Cochrane said.
"We've got a tremendous playing list, a lot of quality people at the club, we've just moved into arguably the best T&A facility in the country, which we've got no debt on. I think we're in great shape.
"We are a club that is going to be aspirational. A critical role in that is CEO, so we'll be doing our best to attract the very best candidate."
