YORKSHIRE Carnegie president Sir Ian McGeechan insists it is onwards and upwards for the club after their search for new owners and board members came to fruition.

The Leeds-based outfit now have a new agreement for the long-term use of Headingley Carnegie Stadium, the training facility at Kirkstall and a range of other services.

McGeechan said: "The search for new owners and board members has been thorough and the new group is an excellent one, which will provide a new focus and energy to deliver our vision for rugby union in Yorkshire.

"I would like to pay credit to the previous board – in particular Paul Caddick, who has supported and nurtured professional rugby union in the county for nearly 20 years and who has stepped aside to try and secure a sustainable and successful future for the game in the county.

"I would also like to thank our sponsors and supporters for their patience during the last year. This has been a complicated process but now provides stronger foundations from which we can build over the next three years."

The board of new owners Yorkshire Tykes Ltd now consists of three executive directors and three non-executive directors.

The executive directors are McGeechan as executive president, Gary Hetherington, who continues as chief executive officer, and Rob Oates as commercial director.

The non-executive directors are Alastair Da Costa, chief executive of Prince's Trust International – a charity which focuses on youth employment and strategies for countries around the world – Jon Wright, the founder and chief executive of Xercise4less, an award-winning gym group whose headquarters are in Leeds, and board chairman David Dockray, formerly the European managing partner of PwC Consulting and subsequently global board member for IBM Global Business Services.

Dockray, who has overseen the transfer of ownership, said: "The appointments to the board seek to combine the in-depth knowledge and experience of rugby as a sport and as a business with the business experiences and contacts of the non-executive directors to enable us to take advantage of the new opportunities we see ahead of us, particularly on a cross-Yorkshire basis."

Hetherington added: "When we held a press conference earlier this year, we indicated that we were seeking to generate new sources of funding in the range of £2-4million over the next three years and we are on track to do that.

"Those funds will underpin the business and we see a number of major opportunities available to us.

"However, we are only at the start of our journey and are still keen to hear from like-minded people. Any additional funding generated will be directed to increasing the likelihood of our return to the Premiership as soon as possible."

The new shareholders in Yorkshire Tykes Ltd are directors Wright and Dockray, Mike Shotton (former chairman of textile group Quantum Clothing), Dr Keith Howard (a founder of Emerald Group Publishing and chairman of the trustees of Emerald Foundation), Tony Snowdon (until recently marketing director for Leeds-based specialist engineers FTL Technology for 30 years), Howard Illingworth (a director at Robinson Group and Northern Energy), and John Swarbrick (head of portfolio at the Business Growth Fund).