Raith Rovers director hailed as being 'vital' in keeping ship afloat amid mass exodus from board
To say cash-strapped Raith Rovers’ board of directors and general hierarchy have undergone significant change could be described as a huge understatement.
The mass exodus has included the resignations of David Sinton and chairman Steven MacDonald in November 2024 – he returned to the baord in February 2026 - with Andrew Barrowman dismissed as CEO in February 2025 as this role was made redundant.
Willie MacGregor quit in December 2025, before the club’s first technical director John Potter was dismissed in February 2026, when general manager Dean Mckenzie resigned.
Colin Smart then quit as chairman in March, with Stark’s Park Properties owner John Sim made interim chairman and Davey Byrne installed as general manager.
Thailand-based businessman Sim – who played a key role in the 2005 ‘Reclaim the Rovers’ takeover - was back at the coalface having sold his majority stake in the club to a six-strong consortium in 2023.
Speaking to Raith TV, he emphasised the importance of fellow director Ruaridh Kilgour – one of only three people still on the Raith board who were part of the takeover three years ago along with MacDonald and football operations manager Allan Halliday – in keeping the ship stable in a year in which crisis-hit Raith had almost been placed into administration.
Sim said: “At a Partick Thistle game at Stark’s Park two years ago, one of the directors said: ‘We need to meet before the game’.
"We arrived and it was humming because we had a big game that night.
"We sat down and at one point Ruaridh asked me: ‘In all the years, how could you always be confident that we weren’t going to go into receivership?’ I said: ‘Ruaridh, because I could control it’.
"Ruaridh has really stepped up to the mark in the last few months when others deserted the supposedly sinking ship.
"And I’m very comfortable that he’s around because I know that if anything happened to me tomorrow the club would be in very good hands.”
When asked if the Raith ship would go down with him at the helm, Sim added: “No it’s not. We may not win the European Cup but the ship’s not going down.”