Former Inverness Caledonian Thistle chief executive officer Scot Gardiner hired as advisor for Seventy 7 Ventures who saw bid to take over the club collapse last year
FORMER Inverness Caledonian Thistle chief executive Scot Gardiner has been appointed as an advisor with a company that attempted to take over the League One club before it went into administration.
Gardiner has been revealed as an advisor with Seventy 7 Ventures which is owned by Ketan Makwana, who made a bid to take over Inverness Caledonian Thistle last year.
Gardiner has appeared on the Seventy 7 Ventures website in the Our Advisors section described being among a consortium of experts that can provide specialist advisory and consultation services to digital and technology ventures in the creative industries.
Makwana runs Seventy 7 Ventures, who originally agreed a deal to become the majority shareholder at Inverness Caledonian Thistle accepted in July. Gardiner was involved in negotiations to find a new owner for Inverness Caledonian Thistle after the club found itself in major financial difficulties in the summer.
However, the deal collapsed in August after Orion Group founder Alan Savage was appointed as a consultant at the club.
Gardiner resigned from his position at Inverness Caledonian Thistle in June, but continued to work his notice until August when he officially left the club.
It was also confirmed at the same time that the deal with Makwana and Seventy 7 Ventures to become the majority shareholder at the club had been suspended before the deal eventually collapsed.
Gardiner was appointed as chief executive officer at Inverness Caledonian Thistle in April 2019 and worked in the role for five years. He previously worked at other football clubs including Heart of Midlothian, where he was chief operating officer between July 2014 and August 2017.
He has also worked as chief executive officer of Dundee FC; commercial manager and acting commercial director of Tottenham Hotspur and commercial sales manager at Rangers.
Inverness Caledonian Thistle then went into administration in October with the club in £3.8 million in debt with administrators BDO taking over the club.
The club’s financial difficulties began last year when its application to build a battery farm near Fairways, worth around £3.4 million in Inverness was rejected by Highland Council.
It received a further financial blow when the club failed to reach an agreement with Statkraft over a lucrative deal operating a park and ride scheme at the Caledonian Stadium’s north car park during its construction of the Loch na Cathrach project in June. The deal was believed to be worth between £1.4 million and £1.7 million.
It was confirmed earlier this month that Alan Savage, who was previously chairman of Inverness Caledonian Thistle between 2006 and 2008, was named as the preferred bidder to take over the club with his £800,000 bid being accepted.
The deal is expected to be concluded in the next few weeks which will bring the club out of administration.
