Don Bircham joins board of Scottish football team Kilmarnock

Travel agency boss Don Bircham has “completed the double” by joining the board of his boyhood team Kilmarnock FC, in the Scottish Premiership.

The former Wrexham FC chief executive and board member has been a lifelong ‘Killie’ fan, who started his travel career in Kilmarnock with AT Mays before moving to Thomas Cook in the town.

Promotion then took him to Aberdeen before heading south to cover the north Wales and Merseyside region for Thomas Cook.

In early 2000 he opened his first branch of Just Go Travel, which ultimately joined Hays Travel as a franchise partner with 46 shops across the northwest and north Wales.

Hays Travel bought 45 of the shops in September 2023, leaving Bircham with his original branch in the town of Mold.

He said: “To have represented my adopted team (Wrexham) at board level and now to have the opportunity to do the same for my boyhood club is something I never would have dreamt would happen.

“I stood outside the main entrance of Rugby Park as a boy collecting autographs and dreamt of pulling on the blue and white shirt one day, that was never likely to happen, so to serve in this capacity is the next best thing and I’m honoured to do so.”

Kilmarnock Trust chair Jim Thomson added: “We are absolutely delighted that our members have voted overwhelmingly to ratify Don to the position on the club board.

“He brings a wealth of experience from his time at Wrexham.”

Bircham has recently bought a house in Scotland and will spend time there and in north Wales where he has business interests in the hospitality sector and his one remaining travel shop.

He is still active in the travel industry and recently joined the senior management team at Jet2holidays on the ‘Scale Up Your Street” initiative.