OUTGOING Port Adelaide chief executive John James says the offer to join global funds management giant Vanguard in the USA was simply too good to refuse.
James, who joined the Power in August 2004, will move to Philadelphia later this year to head up Vanguard’s national broker/dealer operation, starting on September 1.
“I really have mixed emotions. It should be an easy decision, but I suppose the opportunity for myself and my family to go to the US is a little bit surreal,” James said.
“I guess the mixed emotions are because I love this football club. I love the people at the club and it’s been just an awesome experience for me.
“I will always be a Port Adelaide football person. I don’t have any interest, ever, in working for any other sporting club in the world.
“The Port Adelaide Football Club is certainly, I think, a part of my DNA.
“I’ll be living in Philadelphia watching the scores in the middle of the night because I won’t be able to help myself.”
James was head-hunted to join Vanguard after sitting down to a casual coffee with his former boss and the company’s managing director before Christmas last year.
“My wife and I have both had ambition and we’re at the right age with our family that we see there is an opportunity in the USA. We’ll be able to hop on a train and spend Sundays in Grand Central Park. It’s just something we want to do,” he said.
“There was no way that myself and my family weren’t going to go to the USA.
"The first thing (Port coach) Mark Williams said when I spoke to him last night was, ‘I knew you would go to America’, and he’s already booked a stay with us, which is a bit of a worry because they are a big family.
“But anything I can do to assist with the club, I’ll be doing it. Even if it’s just starting a supporter group in Philadelphia.”
James, who played a significant role in petitioning for the recently announced AAMI Stadium re-development, said it was particularly difficult to leave given the club’s disappointing on-field results this season.
“It is [difficult to leave now]. I certainly want to be part of the solution and I will be doing anything I can do in the time I have left at the club to be part of that solution,” he said.
“This place has given me a great background. I just feel very privileged to be part of what I think is the greatest sporting club in the world and if I could look back after our next premiership and think that I’d played a small part; I’d be very pleased.”
Port Adelaide president Greg Boulton said James had been “outstanding” in his time at Alberton.
“From 30 years of business, I’ve found that there’s no good time for great people to leave you,” Boulton said.
“We’ve had three or four years in duration, but we’ve probably had ten years of input and output. What we’ve got out of John has been great.”
The Power have formed a sub-committee to find the club’s next CEO and Boulton was hopeful they would have a replacement by October 1.
