Geoff Brown

Geoffrey Brown is a Scottish businessman and chairman of St. Johnstone since 1986. He is one the longest-serving chairman in Scottish football.

In 1970, he founded [http://www.gsbrown-construction.co.uk/ G. S. Brown Construction] , which specialises in house building. Brown is still chairman of the company, which is a family business with two of his sons also on the board of directors.

Brown took control of St. Johnstone in 1986, when they were in deep financial trouble and near the bottom of the SFL. A rights issue raised £150,000, which solved the club's short-term financial problems [ [http://www.stjohnstonefc.co.uk/HISTORY.ASP St. Johnstone FC] ] .

Alex Totten was soon appointed as manager. Under his guidance, the club made a remarkable rise from second bottom in the Scottish Second Division in 1986 to mid-table in the Scottish Premier Division in late 1990. During this period, Brown oversaw the sale of Muirton Park to ASDA and the club's move to a new-build stadium at McDiarmid Park, which was opened in 1989. Totten's dismissal in 1992 sparked criticism amongst the Perth faithful, though time has healed those wounds.

Brown underwent a successful operation for prostate cancer in July 2001.

In August 2006, to mark Brown's twentieth anniversary as chairman of St. Johnstone, the "Perthshire Advertiser" published his best-of-Saints XI from the past two decades:

#Alan Main
#Mark Treanor
#Callum Davidson
#Tommy Turner
#Sergei Baltacha
#Alan Kernaghan
#Allan Moore
#John O'Neil
#Roddy Grant
#Paul Wright
#Harry Curran

On November 25 2007, Brown saw St. Johnstone win their first national cup competition, not only in his twenty-one years as chairman but in their 122-year existence. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/scot_cups/7110899.stm Dunfermline Athletic 2-3 St. Johnstone - BBC Sport] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.theherald.co.uk/sport/68314.html Article from "The Herald" - includes a snippet about Brown]
* [http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=17575942&method=full&siteid=66633&headline=i-m-browned-off-when-fans-knock-geoff--name_page.html Article from the "Daily Record" - "I'm Browned Off..."]
* [http://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/output/2006/04/13/images/GFSTJ13T.jpeg Hail the new manager] Brown (right) with Saints manager Owen Coyle (centre) and his assistant Jim Weir (left)