Ivan Gazidis (born 13 September 1964) is the Executive of Italian Serie A club AC Milan.

Biography

Gazidis is of Greek origin, but was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. At the age of 4 moved to Manchester in the United Kingdom and attended independent Manchester Grammar School. Being an adopted Mancunian from a young age, he supported

Manchester City 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 tw ...

. Later he attended

St Edmund Hall St Edmund Hall (sometimes known as The Hall or informally as Teddy Hall) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. The college claims to be "the oldest surviving academic society to house and educate undergraduates in any university ...

at the University of Oxford, where he was twice awarded a blue playing

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

against Cambridge in 1984 and 1985. He graduated with a

degree Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics ...

in law in 1986 and in 1992 he moved to the United States to work for Latham & Watkins. In 1994, he joined the founding management team of

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

, becoming in 2001 its deputy commissioner. He oversaw MLS's key strategic and business decisions and its marketing arm, Soccer United Marketing, of which he was president. He also helped promote the Mexican Football Federation and the CONCACAF Gold Cup. In November 2008 Gazidis accepted the post of chief executive of Arsenal, a post he formally took up from 1 January 2009. He succeeded former managing director

Keith Edelman Keith Edelman (born June 1950) is an English businessman. He was managing director of Arsenal Football Club between 2000 and 2008. Biography Business Keith Edelman graduated from UMIST in 1971 with a BSc (Hons) in management sciences. He then ...

and was expected to take over many of the roles formerly undertaken by ex-vice-chairman David Dein. In 2017–18, he oversaw significant personnel changes at the top of the club in preparation for then manager Arsene Wenger's departure, which was announced in April 2018. Gazidis spearheaded the search for a new Manager, eventually hiring Unai Emery in May. Upon announcing his departure, it was revealed his successors would be

Vinai Venkatesham Vinaichandra Guduguntla Venkatesham is a British-Indian football administrator. He has served as the Chief Executive of Arsenal Football Club since 2020. Life and career An employee of Arsenal F.C. since 2010 in a variety of roles, he was a ...

as Managing Director, and

Raul Sanllehi Raúl Sanllehí (born September 18, 1966 in Barcelona) is a Spanish football administrator and former Head of Football at Arsenal and Director of Football at FC Barcelona. Sanllehi initially joined Arsenal in February 2018 as Head of Football Rela ...

as head of football. On 18 September 2018, Gazidis announced that he would be leaving Arsenal to join A.C. Milan. He took up the role on 1 December 2018. During January 2020 transfer window, Gazidis vetoed the arrival of

Zlatan Ibrahimovic Zlatan ( sr-Cyrl, Златан) is a male given name of Slavic origin meaning ''Golden''. The name is common amongst all South Slavic countries, namely in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia and Serbia. The name is found i ...

in Milan despite his free agent status, citing his age as the main reason. He also opted to terminate

Gonzalo Higuain Gonzalo may refer to: * Gonzalo (name) * Gonzalo, Dominican Republic, a small town * Isla Gonzalo, a subantarctic island operated by the Chilean Navy * Hurricane Gonzalo, 2014 See also * Gonzalez (disambiguation) * Gonzales (disambiguation) * ...

's loan deal six months in advance. On the other hand, he approved the transfers of

Krzysztof Piątek Krzysztof Piątek (; born 1 July 1995) is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a forward for Italian club Salernitana, on loan from Hertha BSC. He also represents the Poland national team. He began his professional career with Ekstr ...

and

Lucas Paquetá Lucas Tolentino Coelho de Lima (born 27 August 1997), better known as Lucas Paquetá (), is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Premier League club West Ham United and the Brazil national team. Club car ...

, both carried out by

Leonardo Leonardo is a masculine given name, the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese equivalent of the English, German, and Dutch name, Leonard Leonard or ''Leo'' is a common English masculine given name and a surname. The given name and surname originate ...

. In his first season as the club's CEO, the team finished fifth in Serie A, which was its best result in six years. And just 2 seasons after, the team finished second in Serie A season 2020-2021; making them qualify to the UEFA Champions League for the first time since season 2012–2013. The next season A.C. Milan won the Serie A.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gazidis, Ivan 20th-century English lawyers South African people of Greek descent White South African people Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford Major League Soccer executives Arsenal F.C. directors and chairmen 1964 births Living people Oxford University A.F.C. players People associated with Latham & Watkins A.C. Milan directors South African soccer players Association footballers not categorized by position Lawyers from Manchester South African emigrants to the United Kingdom