Ian Lenagan (born 1946, Scholes,

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

) is a business entrepreneur, theatre producer and shareholder of

London Broncos The London Broncos are a professional rugby league club in London, England. The club competes in the RFL Championship. It was a member of Super League from its inaugural season in 1996 until the end of the 2014 season, when they were relegat ...

, chairman and owner of

Wigan Warriors The Wigan Warriors are a professional rugby league club in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the Super League. Formed in 1872 as Wigan Football Club, Wigan was a founding member of the Rugby Football League, Northern Rugby ...

, and former owner of

Oxford United F.C. Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and t ...

In 2016 he was appointed Chairman of the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

Early life

Born in Scholes, Wigan, Lenagan attended St Patrick's Primary School as a child and gained an appreciation for

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

, playing for the local amateur club also named St Patrick's. He was educated at West Park Grammar School in St Helens before eventually moving onto university. Lenagan attended both

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

and

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

universities and graduated with a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and a MSc in

Magnetohydrodynamics Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD; also called magneto-fluid dynamics or hydromagnetics) is the study of the magnetic properties and behaviour of electrically conducting fluids. Examples of such magnetofluids include plasmas, liquid metals, ...

respectively.

Career

Workplace Systems

In 1985 Lenagan set up his own business, Workplace Systems, in

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...

, to develop and supply

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

products for workforce management. Following a contract with

Asda Asda Stores Ltd. () (often styled as ASDA) is a British supermarket chain. It is headquartered in Leeds, England. The company was founded in 1949 when the Asquith family merged their retail business with the Associated Dairies company of York ...

, the business became expanded across Europe, Australasia, the US and the Middle East. Major retailers known to use Workplace Systems include

Argos Argos most often refers to: * Argos, Peloponnese, a city in Argolis, Greece ** Ancient Argos, the ancient city * Argos (retailer), a catalogue retailer operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland Argos or ARGOS may also refer to: Businesses ...

Focus Focus, or its plural form foci may refer to: Arts * Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in South Australia Film *''Focus'', a 1962 TV film starring James Whitmore * ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based ...

, Sports Café,

Next Next may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Next'' (1990 film), an animated short about William Shakespeare * ''Next'' (2007 film), a sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage * '' Next: A Primer on Urban Painting'', a 2005 documentary film Lit ...

and

Morrisons Wm Morrison Supermarkets, trading as Morrisons, is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Scotland, as well as one in Gibraltar. The company is headqua ...

. With the success of Workplace Systems, the company was floated on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

in 2000 under the name Telework Systems PLC to incorporate another company founded by Lenagan in 1981, TeleWare, which focused on the telephony software products market. A decline in the telephone market saw TeleWare sold off to its management in 2003 and the company change its name to WorkPlace Systems International plc, 49% owned by Ian Lenagan. In December 2011, Workplace Systems was acquired by a Lloyds Banking Group-backed management buyout, and Lenagan stepped down from his role as chairman, receiving £19m from the buyout.

Theatre producer

Lenagan is also a successful theatre producer, with over 30 productions to his name. His most recent West End hit is a co-production of ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' starring

Christian Slater Christian Michael Leonard Slater (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor and producer. He made his film debut with a leading role in ''The Legend of Billie Jean'' (1985) and gained wider recognition for his breakthrough role as Jason "J.D." D ...

Rugby league and football clubs

Lenagan is a

fan. In July 2005 he took over as chairman and majority shareholder of

Harlequins RL The London Broncos are a professional rugby league club in London, England. The club competes in the RFL Championship. It was a member of Super League from its inaugural season in 1996 until the end of the 2014 season, when they were relegat ...

, buying 65% of the shares and also taking a place on the board of directors. He also became a major shareholder in

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and t ...

, who were controlled by long-time friend

Nick Merry Nicholas Merry (born Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England) is a British businessman who made his money in the United States running a now defunct Florida-based dental biotechnology company called MicroDenteX as well as investment in gemstones in Guine ...

. In July 2012 he replaced Kelvin Thomas as chairman of the League Two club. Lenagan sold his interest in Oxford United and left the board in 2016 when he was appointed Chairman of the Football League. In 2007 it was announced after months of speculation that Lenagan would become the new owner of

rugby league club, his boyhood team. Lenagan bought the club from former

JJB Sports JJB Sports plc was a British sports retailer. On 24 September 2012, shares in JJB Sports were suspended, and the firm called in administrators. On 1 October 2012, it was announced that Sports Direct had purchased part of the business, includ ...

magnate and

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

chairman

Dave Whelan David Whelan (born 24 November 1936) is an English businessman and former footballer. During his football career, he played for Blackburn Rovers and Crewe Alexandra. Whelan is the former owner of club Wigan Athletic, having also been the chai ...

. Lenagan also bought the training facilities at

Edge Hall Road The Edge Hall Road Community Stadium is a rugby union community stadium, located in Orrell, Greater Manchester. Originally built as the permanent ground of the local Orrell rugby union team, but the club departed the stadium in 2007, with the d ...

, the former stadium of Orrell R.U.F.C. as well as a 50-year lease on the

JJB Stadium The DW Stadium is a stadium in Robin Park, in Wigan, within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The ground is owned and managed by Wigan Football Company Limited, which is 85% owned by Wigan Athletic and 15% owned ...

. Lenagan's first signings for Wigan were

George Carmont George Carmont (born 30 June 1978), also known by the nickname of "Chicken George" or "Gorgeous George", is a former Samoa international rugby league footballer who played as a for the Newcastle Knights in the National Rugby League (NRL) and t ...

and

Richie Mathers Richard 'Richie' Mathers (born 24 October 1983) is an English former professional rugby league footballer. An England international representative , he started his professional career at the Leeds Rhinos, with whom he won the 2004 Championship ...

, both from the NRL, and

Karl Pryce Karl Pryce (born 27 July 1986), also known by the nicknames of "Big Karl", and " Hightower", is an English former professional rugby league footballer, best known for playing for the Bradford Bulls. His usual position was on the . Pryce previou ...

, who returned to rugby league from

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 ...

club

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

. Lenagan also signed Cameron Phelps and

Tim Smith Tim, Timothy or Timmy Smith may refer to: Musicians * T. V. Smith (born 1956), British singer and songwriter *Tim Smith (Cardiacs) (1961–2020), English singer-songwriter and frontman of Cardiacs *Timmy Trumpet (born 1982), Australian DJ and prod ...

during the 2008 season.

Other businesses

Lenagan is also the non-executive chairman and 1% owner of the Sports Café, an expanding chain of sports bars and restaurants. Lenagan has recently started a new business called Animalates, a children's educational exercise club which is expected to be sold as a franchise.

References

External links

Company Profile.
WorkPlace Systems plc. Accessed 8 November 2007.
Board of Directors.
WorkPlace Systems plc. Accessed 8 November 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lenagan, Ian 1946 births Living people People from Wigan Rugby league people in England Rugby league chairmen and investors Sports owners London Broncos Wigan Warriors