Bruce Craig (born December 1962) is a businessperson, entrepreneur and owner of

Bath Rugby Bath Rugby is a professional rugby union club in Bath, Somerset, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. Founded in 1865 as Bath Football Club, since 1894 the club has played at the Recreation Ground in the c ...

club. As of 2017, Craig has a net worth of £300 million, according to ''The Sunday Times Rich List''.

Early life

Born in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, Craig's father John Craig an English businessman worked for

British American Tobacco British American Tobacco plc (BAT) is a British multinational company that manufactures and sells cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine products. The company, established in 1902, is headquartered in London, England. As of 2019, it is the large ...

. Craig was educated at St Brendan's College while it was still a

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

and captained the school's rugby 1st XV. At the age of eighteen he was selected to play

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

for the south of England schools, but missed the trial for the England Under 19 final due to a fractured leg. Craig then studied Sport and Business management at

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, when L ...

, achieving a Bachelor of Science degree. Between 1987 and 1993, Craig played rugby for French team

Racing Club de France Racing Club de France, also known as RCF, is a French Sports club, omnisport club that was founded on 20 April 1882 under the name Racing Club. Racing Club changed its name to Racing Club de France (RCF) on 21 November 1885. The club is located a ...

Career

Craig joined Marken, a logistics business founded in 1980, as a graduate. In 1997 Marken was acquired for £2.5m by Ocean Group (later to become Exel Logistics and merge into

Deutsche Post The Deutsche Post AG, operating under the trade name Deutsche Post DHL Group, is a German multinational package delivery and supply chain management company headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is one of the world's largest courier companies. T ...

). In 1999 Craig was appointed CEO of the Company, and from that point Craig led a number of successful management buyouts over a period of 10 years. The first transaction in 2003 saw 3I venture capital enter into the shareholding of Marken for a price of £210m. 3i then exited the business for £420m after 2 years making £100m profit from the transaction. In 2005, Craig led a secondary

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of 1 ...

with the backing of ICG. Craig and the management now owned a significant majority stake in the new business. By this stage Marken had become a pharmaceutical support services company, specialising in transporting pharmaceutical products between clinical trials, research companies and biotechnology laboratories. It also distributed vaccines, clinical trial kits, and investigational drugs. It was growing revenues at more than 20 per cent a year. In 2009, the company was bought by

Apax Partners Apax Partners LLP is a British private equity firm, headquartered in London, England. The company also operates out of six other offices in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Munich and Shanghai. As of December 2017, the firm, including its ...

for £975 million. Apax aimed to finance the company's continued expansion into emerging markets, such as Asia, South America, and central and eastern Europe. (This was the first major private equity transaction in the world after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the financial crash of 2008). Apax was understood to own some two-thirds of the business and the management team much of the remainder. Craig continued to hold a minority stake. Craig stood back from the business as non-executive chairman to concentrate on other activities.

Rugby

Bath Rugby

In 2010, Craig acquired 100% of

and moved the club's administrative headquarters into

Farleigh House Farleigh House, or Farleigh Castle, sometimes called Farleigh New Castle, is a large English country house in the county of Somerset, formerly the centre of the Farleigh Hungerford estate. Much of the stone to build it came from the nearby Farleig ...

, where the new training facilities were situated. Craig also announced plans to build a new 18,000-capacity stadium for the club. Between 2010 and 2018 Craig is believed to have put £18m into Bath Rugby.

Future of rugby

Craig has advocated for an integrated global rugby season.

Personal life

Craig's wife Catherine is French, and they have two sons. They have homes in Bath and Aix en Provence in the South of France. He has a private jet.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Craig, Bruce 1962 births Living people Bath Rugby English businesspeople English rugby union players People from Bath, Somerset Rugby union players from Bristol