Stephen Gibson (born 9 January 1958) is a British entrepreneur and the chairman and owner of

Middlesbrough Football Club Middlesbrough Football Club ( ) is a professional football club in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England, which competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. Formed in 1876, they have played at the Riverside Stadiu ...

. In May 2020, he was listed 481st on the ''

Sunday Times Rich List The ''Sunday Times Rich List'' is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families resident in the United Kingdom ranked by net wealth. The list is updated annually in April and published as a magazine supplement by British national Sunday news ...

'', with a net worth of £270 million. Gibson was born in

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

and raised in the Park End area of the town. Raised Catholic, he attended local schools, St Pius X Primary and St Mary's College. In 1979, he became Middlesbrough's youngest ever

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

councillor, being elected to represent Park End at age 21. He is the uncle of Norwich defender

Ben Gibson Benjamin James Gibson (born 15 January 1993) is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Norwich City. Having graduated from Middlesbrough's Academy, Gibson enjoyed loan spells with Plymouth Argyle, York City an ...

Bulkhaul Limited

In 1981, he founded Bulkhaul Limited, a company dedicated to the global transportation of bulk liquids, powders and gases. He set up the company by borrowing £1,000 from his father. The company operates from a UK base with Bulkhaul centres and offices worldwide. The company covers the principal global routes in European, Atlantic and Pacific regions, using a sophisticated computerised system to track and monitor its tank units in transit around the world and its own fleet of vehicles, both in the UK, and increasingly in Europe. They have done this by building close relationships with most of the world's first class chemical companies. Bulkhaul ceased manufacturing at Teesside, but its main base of operations remains in Middlesbrough. Gibson is the majority owner of the Gibson O'Neill Company Ltd, the holding company for Bulkhaul with a 75% stake. Michael David O'Neill holds the remaining 25%. Gibson O'Neill has an annual turnover of £197,692,000, with annual profits of £29,720,000. The Gibson O'Neill group includes Bulkhaul, Middlesbrough FC and Rockliffe Hall Hotel. Gibson O'Neill profits increased from £5.9m to £23.7m for the year up to 30 June 2015.

Relationship with Middlesbrough F.C.

Taking control

Gibson is a lifelong Middlesbrough fan, having attended matches with

Chris Kamara Christopher Kamara (born 25 December 1957) is an English former professional football player and manager who worked as a presenter and football analyst at Sky Sports from 1992 to 2022. As a player, he was known as a tough-tackling midfielder. H ...

Ayresome Park Ayresome Park was a football stadium in Middlesbrough, Yorkshire, England. It was the home of Middlesbrough F.C. from its construction in time for the 1903–04 season, until the Riverside Stadium opened in 1995. It was demolished in 1997 and r ...

as a youngster. He joined the board as the club's youngest ever director at the age of 26 while

Willie Maddren William Dixon Maddren (11 January 1951 – 30 August 2000) was an English professional football player and manager. A one-club man, he made all his professional club appearances for Middlesbrough between 1968 and 1979, and went on to manage ...

was manager. He helped save the club from liquidation by forming a consortium in 1986. In 1993, he bought

Scottish & Newcastle Scottish & Newcastle plc was a brewing company headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, which expanded from its home base to become an international business with beer volumes growing almost tenfold. The company was listed on the London Stock Exc ...

's shares in the club,Steve Gibson profile
Middlesbrough Football Club website and succeeded Colin Henderson as the club's chairman in 1994, owning roughly 90% of the club.

Chairman

Gibson saw the club leave Ayresome Park in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

for the

Riverside Stadium The Riverside Stadium is a football stadium in Middlesbrough, England, which has been the home of Middlesbrough since it opened in 1995. Its current capacity is 34,742, all seated, although there is provisional planning permission in place t ...

, a brand new all-seater stadium worth 54 million. He also made money available for the purchase of big-name players. Gibson's appointment of

Bryan Robson Bryan Robson OBE (born 11 January 1957) is an English football manager and former player. He began his career with West Bromwich Albion in 1972, where he amassed over 200 appearances and was club captain before moving to Manchester United in ...

as manager in May 1994 helped raise the profile of the club and achieve three

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

cup final appearances within 12 months during

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

. As a result of ongoing investment in supporting Robson's successor,

Steve McClaren Stephen McClaren (born 3 May 1961) is an English former professional footballer and coach who currently serves as an assistant coach for Premier League club Manchester United, in his second spell at the club. McClaren began his coaching care ...

, in 2004 the club was able to win its first trophy in 128 years, the English

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

. His tenure as chairman has also seen the club reach the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

final, Europe's second biggest club cup competition. Gibson has since stated that his aim for the club is to see it play more regular European football. In 2004, Gibson was given the Freedom of Middlesbrough after the club won the English

. Gibson was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to the economy, sport and the community on Teesside.

Politics

Before becoming involved with Middlesbrough FC, Gibson was the local Labour Party's youngest ever councillor. He has occasionally raised his profile when commenting on the local political situation. He did so when working with Middlesbrough's elected mayor

Ray Mallon Ray Mallon (born 1955) is a British politician who served as the independent Mayor of Middlesbrough from 2002 to 2015. Prior to his political career he served in the police until he resigned after pleading guilty to charges of misconduct. Earl ...

in 2009 in the fight to save Teesside's steel industry. They accused the Government and local Labour MP's of "betrayal", with Gibson quoted as saying: "We have got five Labour seats here. If the steelworkers lose their jobs, we are going to work our socks off to make sure the five MPs lose their jobs. It is an absolute betrayal." In October 2015, Gibson launched a scathing attack on Stockton South Conservative MP James Wharton over the collapse of the Redcar steelworks, saying that he would "bury him" if he did not improve. Gibson later made peace with James Wharton and they jointly visited a local school to give a newspaper interview and explain the reconciliation. In March 2017, Gibson said that he would support the election of Labour's Sue Jeffrey in the forthcoming Tees Valley mayoral election. In May 2017, Gibson sent out a message of support to thousands of local residents for James Wharton's re-election campaign in the form of a letter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson, Steve 1958 births Living people English football chairmen and investors Middlesbrough F.C. directors and chairmen English businesspeople English Roman Catholics Labour Party (UK) councillors Councillors in North Yorkshire People from Middlesbrough Officers of the Order of the British Empire