Steve Hollis leaves his position at Villa
Steve Hollis has left his role as Aston Villa's executive chairman ahead of new owner Tony Xia's boardroom reshuffle.
The 57-year-old was appointed by former owner Randy Lerner in January and played a major role in negotiating the sale of the club to Xia.
His departure from Villa Park was expected following the completion of the takeover earlier this week, with Xia planning to appoint a new board, subject to Football League approval.
With an extensive background in business, Hollis quickly admitted he was "not a football man" after replacing Lerner as the club's chairman but won favour with supporters thanks to his straight-talking, honest style during a difficult tenure which included the club's relegation from the Premier League.
Hollis also oversaw the departures of chief executive Tom Fox and sporting director Hendrik Almstadt, while co-ordinating out the difficult process which saw the club make 500 redundancies following their top flight exit.
Incoming chief executive Keith Wyness this week paid tribute to the job done by Hollis while Xia's buy-out, first announced last month, was awaiting the green light from the football authorities.
Wyness said: "Steve has been great, he did a very necessary job. He's the first to admit he's not a football man, but he's done a very good job corporate restructuring.
"He's been a pleasure to deal with and very professional."
Wyness' appointment - along with those of his fellow new board members - is now expected to be approved by the Football League next week. The prospective new board had been due to meet with League chief executive Shaun Harvey yesterday but the latter was called away late on business.
