MELBOURNE has appointed one of its board members, Dan Taylor, as its new CEO, after the shock sacking of Paul Guerra on Tuesday.
Taylor is the executive director of Stan Australia, the streaming service owned by Nine, and only joined the Demons board at the annual general meeting in December last year.
Taylor, who is a lifelong Melbourne fan, will begin his role in the coming months, with former West Coast, Geelong and Carlton CEO Brian Cook to serve as interim club boss.
Guerra was dismissed on Tuesday, just seven months into his tenure as Melbourne CEO.
Melbourne president Steven Smith and interim CEO Cook fronted the media on Wednesday morning and said the board had made a unanimous decision to part ways with Guerra after losing confidence in his ability to lead the club.
"There was no one particular thing,” Smith said when pressed on why Guerra had been sacked.
"It was a difficult decision for us to make… we had to go through the information that was available to us, and we were unanimous in deciding it was time to move Paul on.
"We think we just got this one wrong, and it’s time to move on."
Smith said he had sounded out Taylor in the past fortnight about his interest in taking over as CEO, and had spoken to Cook about an interim role in the past week, before moving on Guerra.
In a statement released ahead of the media conference, Smith said Taylor's expertise made him an outstanding choice as the club's new leader.
“Dan has built his career making complex businesses work in competitive environments, and he brings to us the strategic and commercial thinking we need," Smith said.
“His leadership experience and understanding of what it takes to grow a high-performance organisation will be a great asset for the club.
“Dan has already made a significant contribution to the club as a non-executive director and we look forward to continuing to work with him as CEO to achieve sustained success."