Personally, I see this as a positive appointment, following twenty years of incompetent old boys, or those who clearly weren't up to the role.
In Peter Edwards' era, the Club did not appoint a CEO, it only migrated to professional sport in the decade that followed. However to all intents and purposes it was a role that PE performed, brilliantly.
As others have identified, yes John Stephenson is an old boy, he was also a member of the most successful ECCC team in their history.
However, he has experienced cricket life outside of the millennium onwards incompetence of the Essex CCC administrative bubble and patently performed well over more than a decade and a half.....unlike ECCC, where as long as your face fits and you are good mates with the captain, you can stay in post as long as you want, irrespective of performance!
He also had the courage to leave Essex, for Hampshire, when he was overlooked for captain in the mid-nineties.
