Without people like Martin, the club quite simply would not be in the position that it is today. A state-of-the-art training complex and stadium the envy of many are just two visual examples of how far the club has come during his 22 years of service on the board.
During his lengthy service, our esteemed executive director has worked with 15 managers and submitted 77 planning applications.
Continuing along the theme of impressive statistics, Perry has worked with four chief executives of Brighton & Hove City Council and worked alongside six vice chancellors of the University of Brighton and University Sussex.
Aided by chairman Tony Bloom, Perry has also overseen some incredible investment in improving the club’s infrastructure, having already spent a staggering £164 million, with another £25 million on the way to help expand the American Express Elite Football Performance Centre.
Martin was about as far away as you could conceivably imagine from those multi-million pound figures, when he first became involved in the club in April 1997, in the days leading up to the last-ever game at the Goldstone Ground against Doncaster Rovers, as Perry joined Dick Knight to form a consortium to help save the club from oblivion.
he talks were by no means straightforward, with plenty of toing and froing with reviled former chairman Bill Archer.
It included some detailed negotiations, which eventually resulted in Knight and Archer claiming 45% of the shares, while Perry in an independent role, would hold 10%.
All appeared to have been agreed before Archer tried to change the deal at the last moment, before the Doncaster game, resulting in Knight and Archer holding 49.5% each, with Perry taking a 1% share.
That fateful day of 26th April 1997 was the last day at the Goldstone and began Perry’s involvement as an acting director, which eventually became official on 2nd September 1997.
Perry took up the role of chief executive in 1999 and stayed in the role for 13 years, overseeing a tremendous amount of change during that time. With the club at a temporary home in Withdean, it was left up to him to help mastermind a move to the new stadium at Falmer.
It was anything but a straightforward process, with permission needing to be secured from the city council and the government.
Helped by the club’s supporters, a series of lengthy campaigns, a petition, some intense lobbying, and three public inquiries, planning permission was eventually acquired in 2007.
Amidst the considerable drama off the pitch, Perry was at the helm as Albion claimed back-to-back league titles in 2001 and 2002, after winning the Division Three and Division Two titles respectively, before watching on, as Leon Knight’s penalty secured a 1-0 win over Bristol City in the Division Two Play-Off Final in 2004.
Promotion to the Championship was achieved with a League One title triumph in 2011, ahead of a much-anticipated move to the Amex Stadium.
With the objective of acquiring a stadium now accomplished, attention turned to building a training ground fit for purpose to match a club challenging for promotion to the Premier League.
In January 2012, Perry in his role as chief executive confirmed that the club had requested planning permission for the site at New Monks Farm, along with an additional 8,000 seats at the Amex.
Permission was granted the following October, and Perry led the team that designed and built the facility, which took just under two years to complete, opening in June 2014.
What made the achievement even more impressive is that the design construction and delivery of the £32 million project was delivered on time and within its original budget.
With the club’s profile growing all the time and the need for an ever-improving infrastructure, Perry helped to push through plans for an additional £25 million investment in the training ground, including new improved sports science facilities for the first-team squad, and a ‘club-hub’ facility for Albion in the Community and the club’s women and girls’ programme.
Amidst all of Perry’s extraordinary achievements for the club, his work with Albion in the Community as chairman of trustees is arguably just as impressive, helping the charity develop from just two people to 60 full-time and 120 part-time staff members, working on programmes that reach up to 43,000 people.
He had already contributed to the local community as a past chairman of City College and chair of Albion’s women’s team, and served on the Board of Governors of Falmer High School for seven years until it became the Brighton Aldridge Academy.
This immense contribution to the club and wider community has been recognised with a series of accolades in recent years, which included a University Fellowship from the University of Sussex for his outstanding contribution to the community and the award of “Outstanding Brightonian” at the Brighton & Hove Business Awards in 2013.
Thanks Martin, we salute you!