A lifelong "Killie" fan, Bircham is a former chief executive of Wrexham Football Club, now of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney fame.

Bircham started his career in travel in the Scottish town with AT Mays before joining Thomas Cook. There, he rose through the ranks, eventually moving south to manage Cook's north Wales and Merseyside region.

In 2000, he struck out on his own, launching his own agency Just Go Travel, which he eventually grew to 47 shops across the region – latterly as a Hays Travel franchisee.

He sold up to Hays Travel in September 2023, retaining just his original branch in the North Walian town of Mold and telling TTG at the time of the huge emotion he felt handing over the majority of his network to Hays.

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During his career, long before Wrexham's stratospheric rise under its Hollywood owners, Bircham served as chief executive of Wrexham and also sat on the club's board.

"To have represented my adopted team at board level and now to have the opportunity to do the same for my boyhood club is something I never dreamt would happen," said Bircham.

"I stood outside the main entrance of [Kilmarnock ground] 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."

(Credit: Hays Travel North West)

Jim Thomson, chair of the Kilmarnock Trust, said Bircham would bring a wealth of experience from his stint with Wrexham to the role.

Bircham, who also runs a hospitality business in north Wales, recently bought a house in Scotland to split his time between his commitments to the club and his business interests.

He remains an active member of the travel industry, and most recently acted as a judge for Jet2holidays' Scale Up Your Street initiative, which saw the operator invest more than £100,000 in helping nearly a dozen agencies expand their high street presence, or expand into retail for the first time.