Ian Ayre on his journey from Kop to boardroom

It's been some journey for Ian Ayre. Forty years ago he was minding cars on matchdays and now he sits proudly as the managing director of Liverpool Football Club.

The Kirkdale-born lifelong Reds fan's delight at his appointment this week by owners Fenway Sports Group shines through as he takes a break in his Chapel Street office.

"It hasn't really sunk in yet," he said. "If you grow up in this city and you support this football club it doesn't get any bigger or better. It's a great honour both for me and for my family.

"Whatever you do in your life and your career you work towards a goal. I never set out with this as my goal but it became it over the last few years and here we are."

Ayre has picked up a wealth of experience working across the globe but it was the 47-year-old's first business initiative which enabled him to raise the funds to kick-start his love affair with the Reds.

"I would have been five or six, running up and down Suffield Road in Kirkdale in my short pants minding cars," he said.

"I used the money I got from minding Evertonians' cars to come and watch Liverpool. So if anyone is to be credited it's Everton fans for giving me this job ultimately!

"I'll probably have guys coming up and telling me they contributed to my eventual succession to the throne by giving me sixpence.

"When I've got a quiet moment or I'm waiting around on non matchdays at Anfield I quite like to go on the Kop. I've roughly worked out where I used to stand. It's nice to go there and just reminisce a little."

Ayre, who attended Litherland High School, achieved one childhood dream back in 1978 when he scored in front of the Kop but not even that feeling comes close to landing the role as Liverpool's MD.

"I won a competition and put one past Everton's goalie George Wood during Chris Lawler's testimonial," he said. "But being managing director is a bit better and lasts longer than the 30 seconds I spent out there that day.

"I think it's all part of the journey and part of the experience of being a Liverpool fan. It all has equal poignance to me."

The owners' search for a new MD after Christian Purslow stepped down last October had been long and thorough. They conducted a worldwide search to find the ideal person to take the club forward before concluding the best candidate was under their nose. Ayre was happy to bide his time.

"What we've learned about the new owners is that they do things in a very measured way," he said.

"They don't dive in, they don't make decisions too quickly. I respected a process whereby they went and saw what the market had to offer.

"They started to understand over that process what they needed to manage this football club for them.

"I'm very fortunate they felt I was the right person with the right skills."

His appointment is recognition for Ayre's remarkable success in the role of Liverpool's commercial director since August 2007. He oversaw a massive 85% increase in revenues and was instrumental in securing the record-breaking shirt sponsorship deal with Standard Chartered.

Prior to working at Anfield he had run businesses in Asia either side of three years at Huddersfield Town as chief executive and chairman.

Ayre said: "I think what we've achieved on the commercial side was a big part of it but I'd like to think it was also down to the mix of skills and experience I've got over many years.

"I've spent a lot of time in the markets that we will go and grow the business in significantly, like Asia in particular.

"I've run a football club before, I've run a media TV company and I've been a CEO of a major business several times before so it kind of fits around all those types of skills.

"I think when you put all those skills together and add in what I've been doing here for the past three or four years then hopefully that stands me in good stead."

Having travelled home and away to follow the Reds in action, Ayre has the benefit of going into the job knowing exactly what makes Liverpool fans tick.

"We joke about minding cars but even that gave me a sense at a young age of what the club means to people," he said. "The ultimate reward of how much we got paid depended on how the team got on. If they won they would be buoyant, if we lost they'd jump in the car, drive off and it was 'see you later'.

"I see that now with the staff here and throughout the city on a Monday. You get a sense of the difference the performance of the team makes to people. A few weeks ago after we beat Manchester United this place and the whole city was buzzing.

"You learn through that journey. You learn from being here, from being at games yourself and doing things at the football club

"You have to have that in mind when you try to run the business. You have to understand what's important to Liverpool fans because they are different. You need to know how to relate to them and manage expectations."

As he embarks on the biggest challenge of his professional career, there's no chance of Ayre getting carried away with the trappings of power.

He said: "The great thing about being a Scouser and having a family full of Scousers is that they always make sure you keep your feet on the ground. My brother texted me and said: "I thought you said these guys know what they are doing!"

"I certainly won't be getting a big head with the family I've got but that's a good thing. It keeps you aware of what's really important."

Source: Liverpool Echo

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