“First of all, I would like to thank the board.

“I have known Duncan Fraser and Stewart Milne for 20 years and the message that is hopefully conveyed is evolution rather than revolution.

“We have been working on this for a number of years now and we felt this was the right time in particular with the collaboration agreement that we have coming up with Atlanta.

“I would personally like to pay tribute to Stewart who has put himself second for over 20 years. In the 90’s most clubs overspent on the basis that the TV deal would mirror what clubs in England would be getting. In the last 20 years there have only been three clubs who have not gone into administration or been relegated – Aberdeen, Kilmarnock and Celtic.

“In that period clubs go into administration and owners walk away from their responsibility. Stewart has stayed true to the club, in a tough period where we got close to around £15 million in debt, it took the club about 15 years to get rid of that. Without Stewart’s stewardship during that period of time it would have been very difficult for myself and my partners to be here today.

“We have been debt free now for a number of years now and under Stewart’s stewardship we have been through three planning phases and eventually got the planning permission for Kingsford.

“I would also like to thank Duncan (Fraser) as well. I have known him for a long time, and he has been Stewart’s right hand man over that period.

“We would like to consistently be a UEFA top 100 club. To be consistently there we need to get to the group stages of the Europa League.

“For us it is looking at having great people at the club both on and off the park so we can punch above our weight, increase turnover, we have seen great performances in the last few years with Derek and the team.

“It is about infrastructure and having the facility out at Cormack Park is critical. I can’t tell you the accolades we get from our youth players and their parents when they see the facility there.

“That facility has been 116 years in the waiting, and we have delivered that.

“Another thing that is important for us is looking at football worldwide. I think you are going to see a lot more collaborations take place.

“With the Atlanta relationship, they have great capabilities in America and South America and our ability to tap into Europe, from a scouting perspective it makes sense.

“We are going to take the next 90 days to get Cormack Park done, there is still some work to be done.

“With Atlanta we are going to take the next 90 days to go through best practices on the football side as well as on the commercial side.

“Darren Eales and I have known each other for a few years now. We got to know the Atlanta people, they have been here, there have been a number of visits. Their Director of Football Carlos Bocanegra has been here doing a best practice with our Youth Academy.

“Derek McInnes and Steven Gunn our Director of Football Operations have been over there and spent a few days seeing the training facilities and seeing how they go about their business and vice versa.

“We have been slow and deliberate about putting this relationship together.

“I have got two good friends of mine as main investors with me, Tom Crotty and Roger Lee. We have been involved in a number of ventures together.

“Tom agreed to join our board earlier this year and he brings a wealth of experience from a business perspective as well as with the charitable side.

“For both Tom and Roger this isn’t a venture fund or private equity, this is their personal cash like it is with my family’s money.

“Their motivations is that they want to be involved in a professional club in the UK.

“Roger is heavily invested in a number of E-Sports businesses. As we look forward to E-Sports and look to potentially host events in Aberdeen as well.

“Roger won’t be joining the board as he doesn’t have the time but as Stewart alluded to earlier, we have brought in some smart guys.

“The relationship with Atlanta is a strategic relationship, it is fairly typical of Arthur Blank’s businesses to put some ‘skin in the game’ to show that a partnership means something which is why the £2million has come in from them.

“From a personal perspective when I got back involved in the board, it was clear from Stewart and myself that the money wasn’t going to come from Aberdeen. We have got some great support from people like Willie and Elaine Donald, the McIntosh’s and Mike Loggie at Saltire.

“It was clear we had work to do. I agreed to step up at that stage.

“There is about £16.2 million that has come into the club, £1.4 million to the trust itself, about £9.2 million of that is from my family and the balance between that is from Atlanta, Tom and Roger.

“It is a lot of money outside of Celtic and Rangers.

“The £5 million that has come in is working capital is really because we recognise that we want to be able to see as we evaluate clearly the consulting we go through for Kingsford and the stadium.

“It is important that we have cash flow for day to day operations. For example, Kingsford is going to cost us £750,000 a year to run. Over four years that is £3 million that we need to cover there.

“We have looked ahead to a four/five-year plan and pulled that together.

“I would say personally that I am anxious, nervous a bit, but I am really excited. I have found that to be a healthy combination in business.

“I have talked to successful people and what drove them to success is the fear of failure. Which is an awful way to do it, but I have that in me.

“Our goal is to put a smile back on the faces of the city of Aberdeen. In Aberdeen we don’t talk ourselves up enough, maybe that is the North East mentality.

“A big thank you to Stewart and the board for continuing to work with us.”