Wednesday 5 June 2019 11:11, UK
Gloucester Rugby CEO Stephen Vaughan will leave the club this summer after six years.
Vaughan has overseen a number of crucial changes at the club which has saw them rise up the table, finishing with their highest points total (68) since Gloucester last finished top 11 years ago and making the play-offs for the first time in eight years last season.
The success of the club has been largely attributed to the change of coaching structure, with David Humphreys arriving as director of rugby in 2014 and Johan Ackermann appointed head coach in 2017.
Vaughan also helped bring Danny Cipriani to Gloucester last summer.
The England international scooped an awards double this year, winning the Rugby Players Association's annual award and Premiership Player of the Season, to become only the second player, after Wasps' Jimmy Gopperth in 2017, to win both awards in the same season.
In a club-issued statement, Vaughan said "With what we have achieved at the club and the position it is now in, the timing felt right to pursue a new challenge. Leading Gloucester Rugby has been a huge honour and I will greatly miss the staff, players and management, as well of course the supporters, many of whom I have become very close to.
"It feels very much like mission accomplished from my perspective. I have delivered against the objectives I set out to, and I leave the club in arguably the healthiest position it has ever been in and it is a legacy that I am very proud of.
"The culture at the club is in a really good place and the restructure of the playing department in 2014 has started to deliver the benefits it was designed to, which are apparent in both our final league position and early qualification for next season's Heineken Champions Cup. Club memberships are at an all-time high and last year we succeeded in rolling out an award winning rebrand of the club."
Owner and chairman of Gloucester Rugby, Martin St. Quinton, added: "Of course, Stephen will be missed, and I would like on behalf of everyone at the club to wish Stephen all the very best for his future. The process will now begin to find a successor that can continue to take the club forward."
