Adrian Bevington believes he is perfectly aligned with 'driven' Dave Cormack on how they want to bring sustained success to Aberdeen. The Dons chairman is known to be demanding as he looks for his home-city club and his boyhood club to be the best they can be.
Bevington believes Cormack's passion is a good thing and can be a massive asset to the Pittodrie club. The new chief executive admitted: "I'm delighted to be working for a chairman who has so much drive, because it mirrors how I operate."
Support plan for Stephen Robinson
Bevington explained his role in supporting both the chairman and manager Stephen Robinson: "My job is to make sure that I support him in the same way that I'm supporting Stephen (Robinson), to help him, because he's got other business. But his drive and commitment and enthusiasm is something I actually welcome."
He added: "I think it's a bigger worry if you've got a chairman who isn't interested, who's non-existent, and you're trying to chase them for things. Trust me, the dialogue and communication with Dave so far has been absolutely spot on. As I say, we spent the first few days together when I first came up here, which was really helpful because that allows you to form that initial relationship."
Relationship with Dave Cormack
The pair have known each other for several years. Bevington said: "I have so much admiration for Dave for having that commitment and I am very confident that the two of us can strike a really good balance in how we work together. My role is to find that right working balance with him as it is for any CEO with any chairman.
"That I can give him the confidence that I am the person to lead the club on a day to day basis. I think any good club you will always have the CEO and the chairman or owner in a regular dialogue - you just expect that. I want to make sure he is appraised on what I am working on so that he is comfortable with the direction I am taking. Likewise because of the innovative approach Dave has to his career he does have some fantastic ideas he puts forward."
Parallels with Steve Gibson
The former Football Association chief rates former Middlesbrough Steve Gibson as the best chairman he has worked under, and thinks Cormack is cut from similar cloth. Bevington said: "I genuinely see so many parallels with Steve Gibson. Steve Gibson is the person that I would say is the most inspirational person to me in my football life. I can't describe how much respect I've got for that man. I've worked for him twice and I still have a lot of dialogue with him.
"He sent me a message this week saying, make sure you enjoy every minute of it - and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it, even when the challenges are there. But Dave's drive and determination - they're different people - but Dave's drive and determination is so similar to Steve. Steve is so committed to the club. He took over outright ownership in 1994."
Cormack in his time at Aberdeen has put his money where his mouth is and backed his managers, giving the Reds a stability that other clubs could only dream about. Bevington confirmed: "Dave has now been here for a decade. Let's be honest there are a lot of other clubs crave that. That takes a massive commitment from an individual to want to put themselves forward with the financial commitment and public pressure and the responsibility that comes with that."
A genuine football fan
The new Aberdeen chief also admitted the best thing about Cormack is that he is a genuine football fan. Bevington added: "There are a lot of people involved at ownership level who are not football people. Dave absolutely cares and loves football.
"We went for dinner last Friday and ended up chatting about our memories and players we loved growing up. Teams of influence and you know when you meet and someone that they are a true football fan when they have reference points in their lives. We were talking about World Cups in 1970 and 1974 - the Brazilian team, the Dutch team, the French team in 82 and the Danish team in 86. That is the other side of it when you are not having every conversation about Aberdeen football club but are still talking football. And I love that."
