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Keith was Chief Executive of HSBC Investment Bank Plc until April 1999. He has extensive experience in all aspects of mergers and acquisitions, fund raising and securities, having previously been President of Morgan Grenfell in New York and Managing Director of Drexel Burnham Lambert and Apax Partners & Co. He is a non-executive director of a number of private and public companies with particular expertise in the sports and media sectors, having advised a number of leading UK football clubs. He is a director of Wembley National Stadium Limited. |
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William Lamar "Billy" Beane (born March 29,1962 in Orlando, Florida) is a former Major League Baseball player and the current General Manager of the Oakland Athletics.
Beane has crafted the Athletics into one of the most cost-effective teams in baseball, by applying sabermetric principles toward obtaining relatively undervalued players. For example, in 2006 the A's ranked 21st of 30 major league teams in player salaries, but had the 5th-best regular season record. This reflects a typical pattern throughout this decade of Beane's stewardship.
Combining a down-to-earth style, humorous anecdotes, and concrete lessons for business success, Billy Beane is a celebrity speaker with a difference – real content that will help members of the audience to become more effective managers and leaders. His presentations explore his own approach to management – an approach that is a stunningly successful example of identifying undervalued assets and using these to create a sustainable competitive advantage. In the process he has assembled a wealth of practical advice on how to compete with opponents who have more money than you. It is a presentation of brains over brawn, and one that helps listeners from any profession to achieve greater success in both their personal and professional lives. |
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Randolph D. Lerner is an American entrepreneur and owner of the American National Football League (NFL) team, the Cleveland Browns, since October 2002. He has also been the Chairman of Aston Villa Football Club since 2006.
Lerner graduated from Columbia University in 1984, spending 1983 at Clare College in Cambridge, England. During his time at Cambridge, Lerner followed English football, taking an interest in three teams: Arsenal, Fulham F.C. and Aston Villa. He graduated from Columbia Law School and is a member of the New York and District of Columbia Bar Associations. Prior to entering the business world, he worked as a lawyer in New York City.
On 14 August 2006, after talks with Doug Ellis, it was confirmed that Lerner had reached an agreement of £62.6 million with Aston Villa for a takeover of the club. The statement to the London Stock Exchange confirmed that 60% of the clubs shares, including the 39% stake of Doug Ellis had been sold to Lerner, beating off stiff competition.
The takeover was met with delight by Villa fans, who to this day are noted to chant "U.S.A!" during matches as well as "There's Only One Randy Lerner!" Lerner thus far has spent over twenty million pounds since his takeover on transfers, two of the most notable being Ashley Young and Nigel Reo-Coker. |
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David Dein is the former vice-chairman of Arsenal Football Club and former vice-chairman of the Football Association. He was also the chairman of the G-14 group of European football clubs between October 2006 and May 2007. In August 2007 he sold his shares in Arsenal F.C. to London-based business company Red & White.
He was responsible for football matters at the club, taking an active role in the transfer of players and contract negotiations where he was able to use his extensive network of football contacts. Dein was behind the appointment of the then little known Arsène Wenger to the manager's job in 1996; under Wenger Arsenal have won the FA Premier League three times and the FA Cup four times, and Dein strongly backed him and his transfer wishes throughout.
In 1986 Dein was voted onto the board of the Football League Management Committee and subsequently achieved a place on the FA Council. He was also a major force in the inception of the FA Premier League in 1992. He eventually rose to the position of vice-chairman of the FA in 2000, a post he held until 2004 when it was scrapped after restructuring. He was subsequently re-elected to the FA Board as a FA Premier League representative.
Dein also helped obtain Arsenal's entry into the G-14 group of major European football clubs in 2002, and became chairman of the G-14 in October 2006. A keen promoter of women's football, he was also President of Arsenal Ladies Football Club, the most successful English women's football team, while Arsenal vice-chairman. |
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Ferran Soriano is Vice-President of FC Barcelona, One of the most iconic names in sport.
Soriano has played a leading role in the clubs recent financial upturn. Their revenues have nearly doubled since his arrival at the Nou Camp and the hope is that the FC Barcelona will be debt free by 2010.
Alongside President Joan Laporta, Soriano has helped reposition the clubs philosophy which is now based on two pillars: spectacular football and social commitment.
This philosophy was highlighted when Soriano shunned the advances of big business to sign a contract with UNICEF to have their name on the shirts of the likes of Ronaldinho and Thierry Henry. |
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Dan is a partner and head of the Sports Business Group at Deloitte. He leads the activities of the specialist Group across all its services, but with a particular emphasis on Consulting and Corporate Development. He has over 10 years experience working only on sports related projects, his first sports business consulting project being the review of the Football League in England in early 1997.
During his career Dan has advised a number of high profile clients in the sports industry in the UK and across the world, including clubs, leagues, governing bodies, central & local government, financiers & investors and sports marketing companies, on a range of issues including strategic, commercial, financial, regulatory, organisational and structural matters.
Dan has led several corporate finance due diligence assignments in the football and wider sports market in recent years.
He is a regular speaker and expert commentator on sports business matters and is the editor of Deloitte's widely respected publications, the Annual Review of Football Finance and Deloitte Football Money League |
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Andy Walsh is a fervent campaigner for fan involvement in football clubs. As Chair of the Independent Manchester United Supporters’ Association, he led the successful campaign to stop the takeover of Manchester United by Rupert Murdoch’s BSkyB. Andy was one of the prime movers in uniting the football supporters’ movement through the establishment of the Football Supporters’ Federation bringing together The National Federation of Football Supporters and the Football Supporters Association.
An Associate Research Fellow at Birkbeck College. He is widely published and was co-author of the influential book 'Not For Sale! Manchester United, Murdoch and the Defeat of BSkyB', he has worked in TV, radio and new media as well as writing for numerous newspapers and magazines. He is a regular speaker at conferences on the subject of fan involvement in football and served on the Home Office Working Group on Football Disorder.
Andy is currently the General Manager of FC United of Manchester, a fan-owned football club formed by disenchanted and disenfranchised Manchester United fans when the Glazer family bought Manchester United in 2005. The club has 2,500 members and won successive promotions in its first two years of existence and is now playing in the Northern Premier League Division 1, watched by crowds of up to 6,000. |
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From 1983 until 1988 Howard Wilkinson was the manager of Sheffield Wednesday. His first season saw Wednesday win promotion to the First Division and they were still there when he left four years later.
Wilkinson's greatest success as a manager came after moving to Wednesday's Yorkshire rivals Leeds United in 1988. The team won the Second Division in 1989-90 after the signings of Gordon Strachan whom became captain, Vinnie Jones, Mel Sterland, Chris Fairclough and Lee Chapman.
In Leeds' first season in the First Division Leeds played very well for a newly promoted team and ended the season fourth in the league. Wilkinson felt further improvement was required on the squad and brought in Rod Wallace, Tony Dorigo and Steve Hodge finalising his best squad with Éric Cantona in February 1992. Leeds won the last championship of the old-style Football League First Division in 1992. He also guided Leeds to the Charity Shield in 1992, beating Liverpool 4-3 at Wembley.
Soon after leaving Leeds, Wilkinson was hired by the sport's governing body in England, the Football Association, to act as its Technical Director, overseeing coaching and other training programmes at all levels of the game. In his position as Technical Director of the FA, he managed the England team on a caretaker basis in 1999 for a friendly against France. Following this he acted for a time as the permanent coach of the England Under-21 team.
To date, Wilkinson is the last English manager to have coached a team to the English league championship title. Since his win with Leeds United in 1992, the four subsequent winning managers have been Scottish (Alex Ferguson and Kenny Dalglish), French (Arsène Wenger) and Portuguese (José Mourinho).
Howard Wilkinson is currently the Chairman of the Leagues Managers Association. |
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Sir Alexander Ferguson CBE, is a Scottish football manager and former player, currently managing Manchester United F.C. He has won more trophies than any other manager in the history of English football and has been in charge of Manchester United for more than 1,000 matches. With 20 years under his belt, he is the second-longest serving manager in the history of Manchester United after Sir Matt Busby. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football managers of all time.
He has previously managed East Stirlingshire and St. Mirren, before a highly successful period as manager of Aberdeen. He was briefly the manager of the Scotland national team, before becoming the manager of Manchester United in 1986.
At Manchester United, Sir Alex has become the most successful manager in the history of English football, having guided the team to nine league championships. In 1999, he became the first manager to lead an English team to the treble of league championship, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League. As well as being the only manager to win the FA Cup five times, he is also the only manager ever to win three successive league championships in the top flight in England with the same club (1998-1999, 1999-2000 and 2000-2001). |
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Sam Allardyce is an English former professional football player and current football manager. He is currently the manager of Newcastle United of the English Premier League. He was manager of Bolton Wanderers between 1999 and 2007, leading them to a League Cup final and guiding them to UEFA Cup qualification for the first time in their history. He is often referred to by the nickname "Big Sam".
He joined Bolton Wanderers as a centre-half in 1973 and is best remembered as a player for being part of the side which won the Second Division title in 1977-78 to secure promotion to the First Division.
He played in the United States in the nascent North American Soccer League for the Tampa Bay Rowdies. The football team shared facilities with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Allardyce applied many practices of American Football towards soccer (with regards to training, player management and tactics). These innovative ideas helped him progress in football management. |
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Alan Curbishley became joint manager of Charlton Athletic FC with Steve Gritt and took sole command from 1995 and proceeded to presided over the revival of the club's fortunes with two promotions and their consolidation into the Premier League.
Curbishley gained a reputation for signing good players for low prices. Examples of these include John Robinson, Dean Kiely, Mark Kinsella, Chris Powell, Danny Mills, Andy Hunt and Darren Bent. Curbishley also proved adept at bringing young players through the ranks, such as Lee Bowyer, Richard Rufus, Scott Parker and Paul Konchesky. On 10 September 2005 he celebrated his 600th game in charge of the team with a 1-0 victory at one of his old clubs, Birmingham.
Richard Murray, chairman of Charlton Athletic, announced on 29 April 2006 that Curbishley would leave the club at the end of the 2005/06 season. Curbishley managed his 729th and final game as manager of Charlton away to Manchester United on 7 May 2006, which Charlton lost 4-0. Overall, he managed 729 games for the Addicks, just one less than the record held by Jimmy Seed.
After a short spell away from the game, which was augmented by work as a television pundit, Curbishley returned to management on 13 December 2006 when he was appointed the new manager of West Ham United. After looking certain for relegation, Curbishley led West Ham to seven wins out of their last nine games, including a last-day 1-0 win at Manchester United, to keep the Hammers in the Premiership. |
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Lawrie Sanchez is a former Northern Irish football player who is the current manager of Fulham. As a player, Sanchez is most famous for scoring the goal that won Wimbledon the FA Cup in 1988 against Liverpool, a match widely believed to be one of the biggest cup final upsets in history.
Lawrie Sanchez became player-manager of League of Ireland club Sligo Rovers in 1994 and in his first season led them to the semi-final of the 1995 FAI Cup. In 1995, he returned to Wimbledon and became reserve team manager, winning the Football Combination in his first season in charge. He managed the reserves for under four years, before becoming manager at Wycombe Wanderers in 1998.
Sanchez rescued the team from the threat of relegation that season, and in 2001 guided the club (then in the Second Division) to one of its greatest moments, playing Liverpool in the FA Cup semi-finals; Wycombe lost 2-1, having held Liverpool to 0-0 for most of the match.
Sanchez was appointed as Northern Ireland's new manager in January 2004. The side improved markedly during Sanchez' time in charge, winning their first game in nearly three years, breaking the team's 1,298 minute-long goal drought, and rising from an all-time low of 124 in the FIFA world rankings when he took over, to the joint highest position the nation had ever achieved (33rd) at the time when he left the post.
While still manager of Northern Ireland, Sanchez was named as caretaker manager of Fulham, and after helping the side avoid relegation, Sanchez was given the manager's job on a permanent basis. |
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Jim Rosenthal is one of the most famous faces in television sport. He is the face of Formula One on ITV and has presented every Grand Prix since 1997. This has taken Jim to all the continents around the world several times.
He was named as the Royal Television Society’s Sports Presenter of the Year in 1997 and 1990 and has been involved in many other award-winning programmes. In his television career he has also presented football, boxing and athletics, plus other minor sports. He anchored ITV’s coverage of the Rugby World Cup in 1999 and has been part of the team covering World Cup Football and Olympics.
He currently fronts Champions League Football in digital television. Jim also has a strong portfolio of corporate work – hosting conferences and award ceremonies for clients like Emirates Airlines, UEFA and Electronic Arts. He has done numerous voice-overs for commercials, and appeared as `himself’ in the football drama `Renford Rejects’. |
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Garry Richardson has been a broadcaster for the BBC for over 30 years. He is best known as the sports presenter on Radio Four's prestigious "Today" programme. He also presents "Sportsweek" on Five Live every Sunday morning and is a regular contributor to BBC Television.
Garry has covered all the main sporting events, including the Olympic Games and Wimbledon for the programme.
During that time he has interviewed a galaxy of sports stars including Ali and Tyson from the boxing world, and the likes of McEnroe, Borg, Graf and Henman at Wimbledon.
He says the strangest interview he ever did was with the late Robert Maxwell. Mr. Maxwell insisted on doing the interview in the back of his Rolls Royce. Garry was taken on a 20-minute journey before Maxwell was dropped off. The entrepreneur then instructed his driver to take Garry home in the Roller. |
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