Perth Bears Rugby League Club CEO Anthony De Ceglie has today decided to step down from his role.
Mr De Ceglie has led the Perth Bears as its inaugural CEO through the establishment and start-up phase.
"I'm extremely proud of what the hard-working Perth Bears team has achieved in the past year," Mr De Ceglie said.
"I have no doubt that the Perth Bears will continue to grow and grow, and become a behemoth of the national sporting stage”.
"The Perth Bears have a professional and dedicated executive leadership team supported by very talented group of committed staff. The club is in exceptional hands under the leadership of Head Coach Mal Meninga and Assistant Coach Ben Gardiner. Getting to work alongside both of them for the past year has been one of the greatest highlights of my professional life.
"I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity and would like to thank ARLC executive chairman Peter V'landys; whom I have the utmost respect for as an administrator, businessman and human.
"I would also like to thank all of our major partners and our affiliates who helped the Perth Bears grow so successfully and so exponentially.
"I would like to thank the Perth Bears Board too and wish them all the best moving forward.”
"Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank the fans both in Western Australia and North Sydney. They are - and will always be - what matters most. Go Bears!"
Perth Bears Chair Ben Morton thanked Mr De Ceglie for his leadership of the club.
“I thank Anthony for his leadership of the Perth Bears in our startup phase and we will now turn our attention to the leadership of our organisation as we enter the next phase of our story,” he said.
“Under Anthony’s leadership, in our start-up phase the Perth Bears have secured record commercial partnership agreements, launched our merchandise range, successfully welcomed more than 20,000 people as our Foundation Members, progressed key infrastructure programs and most importantly recruited what will be a competitive on field team.”
Perth Bears General Manager of Football Gareth Holmes will assume the responsibilities of the CEO for an interim period.
The Perth Bears will make further statements on future CEO arrangements over the coming days.
