Marcus Paul Bruce Evans (born 18 August 1963) is an English businessman. He is originally from
Walsham-le-Willows, near
Bury St Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...
in Suffolk, but grew up near
Wimbledon, London
Wimbledon () is a district and town of Southwest London, England, southwest of the centre of London at Charing Cross; it is the main commercial centre of the London Borough of Merton. Wimbledon had a population of 68,187 in 2011 which includes ...
. He founded his company, Marcus Evans, in 1983. The group organises live business, sports and entertainment events around the world. Its global regional head offices are in Dublin, Chicago, and APAC –
Kuala Lumpur
, anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera''
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. Evans is best known for being the former chairman and owner of
Ipswich Town F.C., which he bought in December 2007. He remained the owner for over 13 years before selling the club to a new U.S. consortium in April 2021 while retaining a 5% share in the club. Evans himself has maintained a low public profile throughout his professional career, with limited photos and interviews of him available online.
Career
Marcus Evans attained a
bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...
at
King's College, Cambridge University
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city. ...
and a
M.B.A.
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as account ...
from
Waseda University
, abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902.
The university has numerou ...
Graduate School in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
. According to
Companies House
Companies House is the executive agency of the company registrars of the United Kingdom, falling under the remit of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. All forms of companies (as permitted by the Companies Act) are i ...
, Evans started his first firm, Associated Promotions, in 1983 when corporate hospitality was a relatively new market. By 1992 he had renamed his company The Hospitality Group (THG Sports Tours). That same year, he bought into a clothing and gifts company, Castle Mills International, but sold it to investor Brian Rousell within a year.
THG Sports
THG Sports (The Hospitality Group) was a provider of sports ticketing services and corporate hospitality programmes at sporting events around the world It has 69 offices globally and has around 3,000 employees who provide access to over 350 major ...
Tours is now part of the wider Marcus Evans Group. In 1994, he paid £325,000 for a stake of just under 5 percent in the electronics firm Ross Group, where he was appointed Chief Executive. In 1999, he was reportedly removed as CEO after a shareholder coup.
In 2004, Evans made an unsuccessful £700+ million offer for the
Daily Mirror
The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...
, followed by another rejected offer of £550+ million in 2006.
2007 Rugby World Cup
In June 2007, the organizers of the
Rugby World Cup
The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...
failed to secure exclusive control over corporate hospitality at the event. In a ruling, the Paris Commercial Court awarded Marcus Evans the right to run hospitality packages without the approval of the organizing committee.
Marcus Evans won his case after arguing that the Hospitality Group's packages included receptions before and after the matches, but not tickets to see them. This claim was contested by the organizing committee. However, despite taking The Hospitality Group to the highest appeal courts in France, in 2008
THG Group won its case in the courts.
2012 Olympic Games (London)
In 2007, The
Olympic Council of Ireland
The Olympic Federation of Ireland or OFI ( ga, Cónaidhm Oilimpeach na hÉireann) (called the Irish Olympic Council until 1952 and the Olympic Council of Ireland until 2018) is the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of the island of Ireland. At ...
(OCI) officially appointed the THG Sports Tours, another company owned by Marcus Evans (and part of the Marcus Evans Group), as its official ticketing agency for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Subsequently, both the
Greek Olympic organization and the
Maltese Olympic organization have appointed
THG Sports
THG Sports (The Hospitality Group) was a provider of sports ticketing services and corporate hospitality programmes at sporting events around the world It has 69 offices globally and has around 3,000 employees who provide access to over 350 major ...
Tours as their agents.
Ipswich Town
In 2007,
Ipswich Town Football Club
Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system.
The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...
announced that Marcus Evans would be buying a controlling stake in the club subject to contracts, pending due diligence and shareholder approval. The deal saw Evans purchase Ipswich Town's £32 million debts with
Aviva
Aviva plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It has about 18 million customers across its core markets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. In the United Kingdom, Aviva is the largest general ...
(
Norwich Union
Norwich Union was the name of insurance company Aviva's British arm before June 2009. It was originally established in 1797. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
On 29 April 2008, Aviva a ...
) and
Barclays Bank
Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services.
Barclays traces ...
. The official announcement did not state the terms of this deal, though various unsourced media reports speculated that he paid anything between 20 pence to £1 for the club. He injected £12 million into the club and gained a controlling 87.5% stake, with existing shareholders retaining a 12.5% stake. The deal was finalised following an EGM on 17 December 2007.
When Marcus Evans took over the club in 2007, the club was £32m in debt to Evans. Due to the club paying Evans around 5.4% interest on the debt every year, club accounts in 2012 showed that the figure had more than doubled to £67m and he hadn't converted any of it to equity.
After 11 years of Evans's ownership, the club finished bottom of the
Championship
In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.
Championship systems
Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.
Title match system
In this system ...
in 2019 and was relegated to
League One
The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...
, the third tier of English football, for the first time since 1957. Following relegation the club's debt, which is owned exclusively to Evans, rose from £95.5m to £96.3m.
Following relegation, discontent over Evans's ownership began to grow within the club's fanbase, which led to the popular fan group 'Blue Action' staging several demonstrations against both Evans and club manager
Paul Lambert
Paul Lambert (born 7 August 1969) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player, who was most recently the manager of Ipswich Town.
Lambert played as a midfielder and won the Scottish Cup in 1987 with St Mirren as a 17-year-ol ...
during the 2020–21 season. Notably on 15 February 2021, several fans defied
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
rules and staged a protest outside the club's training ground, with many throwing flares onto the ground and chanting for Lambert to be dismissed. Lambert would leave the club at the end of the month by mutual consent, with
Paul Cook
Paul Thomas Cook (born 20 July 1956) is an English drummer and member of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. He was also called "Cookie" by his friends on the punk music scene.
Early life and career
Cook was raised in Hammersmith and atte ...
appointed soon after.
On 7 April 2021, Evans officially sold the club to US investment group Gamechanger 20 Limited and agreed to write off the majority of the club's debt owed to him in the process. As part of the deal, Evans will take up a 5% stake in Gamechanger 20 Ltd, with the Three Lions fund (managed by Brett Johnson, Berke Bakay, and Mark Detmer) owning a further 5% stake and the remaining 90% of the group owned by the US investment fund ORG. Evans confirmed in his final statement that despite retaining a stake in the club, he will no longer be involved in the day-to-day running of the club.
Marcus Evans Group
Marcus Evans Group was founded in 1983. It employs over 3000 staff and has around 56 offices globally. The group produces high-end and sector-focused business events, summits, and conferences, in a number of business sectors.
Television
In 2004, Evans set up Marcus Evans Television with ex BBC Producer Mark Wilkin. The TV division created a range of "The World of ...." series. The magazine program ''The World of Football'' enjoyed the most success and was broadcast in the UK by Sky and
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
and was licensed across most major global territories.
In 2012, World Productions became part of Marcus Evans Entertainment. World Productions have been making television drama for the last 20 years where they have produced critically acclaimed dramas including ''
''.
In 2017, ITV Studios took a majority stake in the television division.
In 2007, a spokesman for the Liberal Democrats confirmed that the party received significant support from Marcus Evans Ltd to establish a national phone bank to promote the party in future elections.
Guest speakers at summit events run by the Marcus Evans Group have included:
, 46th US Vice-President (2001–2009); The Honorable William H. Frist, MD, 18th Majority Leader, US Senate (2003–2007);
, 58th Speaker of the US House of Representatives (1995–1999).
. When he was a director of
, documents filed revealed that his contract as chairman required him to spend 60 days a year in the UK. Companies House lists his fifteen firms, including his core company The Marcus Evans Group, as all being registered in Bermuda. Marcus Evans is believed to be based in Ireland where his European headquarters are located, although he still owns his two homes in Britain (Kingston upon Thames and Chelsea).
Evans resigned all his UK-based directorships in 2000. However, he does appear on the UK
at his London address for the years 2004–2005, and 2008. He bought the
, Cornwall for a reputed £9 million, which is currently being renovated.