{"id":637806,"date":"2026-04-29T05:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T05:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/637806\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T05:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T05:48:09","slug":"melbourne-demons-appoint-dan-taylor-as-new-chief-executive-ceo-paul-guerra-sacked-after-just-seven-months-press-conference-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/637806\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne Demons appoint Dan Taylor as new chief executive, CEO, Paul Guerra sacked after just seven months, press conference, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne has confirmed Dan Taylor as their club\u2019s new chief executive, after the sacking of Paul Guerra after just seven months in the role.<\/a><\/p>\n

The appointment of Taylor, who was previously the CEO of Stan Entertainment and Stan Sport, marks the fifth Melbourne leadership departure in the past 18 months, with Guerra joining Gary Pert, Simon Goodwin, Brad Green (from President to board member) and Kate Roffey in vacating roles recently.<\/p>\n

Watch every match of every round of the AFL Premiership Season LIVE and ad-break free during play on FOX FOOTY, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Experienced AFL figure Brian Cook will act as the interim CEO in the months before Taylor enters the role.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Board is delighted to appoint Dan as CEO of the Melbourne Football Club,\u201d Melbourne President Steven Smith said via a club statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cDan has built his career making complex businesses work in competitive environments, and he brings to us the strategic and commercial thinking we need.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis leadership experience and understanding of what it takes to grow a high-performance organisation will be a great asset for the club. <\/p>\n

\u201cDan has already made a significant contribution to the Club as a non-executive Director and we look forward to continuing to work with him as CEO to achieve sustained success.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Melbourne Demons chief executive Dan Taylor (Photo via Melbourne FC)Source: Supplied<\/p>\n

Speaking to media on Wednesday morning, Melbourne president Steve Smith addressed Guerra\u2019s sacking. <\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday, the board of the Melbourne Football Club made a unanimous decision that Paul Guerra would depart as Chief Executive Officer, effectively immediately,\u201d Smith began.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a loss in confidence in his ability to lead the club, and a breakdown of relationships with the board. These are not decisions we take lightly. As a board, we are here to act in the best long-term interests of the football club. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have shown that we can make hard decisions, and we have done so again in this instance. We do wish Paul all the very best in the future, and sincerely thank him for his contributions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guerra was reportedly \u201ccompletely blindsided\u201d by the board\u2019s decision when being given his marching orders on Tuesday morning, with the club revealing they had spoken to Taylor in \u201cthe last week or two\u201d about the role.<\/p>\n

Guerra launches suit against Demons | 02:29<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a difficult decision for us to make, it wasn\u2019t tread lightly. We still as a board yesterday went through the information that was available to us. Basically, we were unanimous in deciding it was time to move Paul on,\u201d Smith said when questioned.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could\u2019ve been clearer in the messaging, and we\u2019ll learn from that. But, by the end of the day, I think the messaging was clear that it was our lack of confidence and a breakdown of relationships(s).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt that when we appointed Paul that he was the right choice at the time. The fact he was a non-football (background) director again wasn\u2019t a concern for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving said that, you get to a point where you realise that we\u2019ve had 15-20 people appointed over the last six to 12 months. Basically, sometimes you get one wrong … it\u2019s time to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early reports suggest that Guerra is heavily considering legal action for his dismissal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re of a view that it was a hard decision for us to make, but we think it\u2019s the right decision to make as we strive to add stability to the club. If Paul chooses to do that, so be it. But we think we\u2019ve made the right decision going forward,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s Paul\u2019s call as to whether in fact there\u2019s legal action ensued. But, we think we\u2019ve made he right decision and we\u2019ll run with the consequences of that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melbourne has confirmed Dan Taylor as their club\u2019s new chief executive, after the sacking of Paul Guerra after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,85,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-637806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}