American investor Stephen Pagliuca refused to rule out an interest in a potential takeover of Manchester United when asked about the prospect at the Financial Times Business of Football Summit.
Stateside interest in United has been rumoured in recent months after the club's owners announced they had began a process to "explore strategic alternatives". Since then, New York-headquartered hedge fund Elliott have reportedly 'offered to provide the financing for a bid' but are not interested in an outright takeover.
Along similar lines, Los Angeles-based buyout financier Ares have also reportedly offered funds to assist any potential bidder. Pagliuca, though, is the first American individual to publicly respond to questions about their interest in United, and we've profiled the New Yorker, who already has plenty of involvement in sport across Europe and North America.
READ MORE: Boston Celtics co-owner Pagliuca responds to United takeover question
Who is Pagliuca?
The 68-year-old is a private equity investor and a senior advisor to Boston-based firm Bain Capital. Pagliuca first joined the company in 1989 after previously working as an accountant and international tax specialist at the organisation that is now known as KPMG as well as advising several Fortune 500 companies.
His career has also seen him serve on the board of directors at a diverse range of companies such as restaurant chain Burger King, pharmaceutical company Warner Chilcott, management consulting company Gartner Group and the Hospital Corporation of America.
Pagliuca is also involved in politics and is a member of Congressman Joe Kennedy's Finance Committee, the Campaign to Fix the Debt and the Democratic National Advisory Committee. Back in 2009, he was also a Democratic candidate for a U.S. Senate position in Massachusetts.
What is Pagliuca invested in?
Most notably, sports teams. Since 2003, Pagliuca has been a co-owner of the NBA team the Boston Celtics and is a managing general partner and a member of the team's executive committee.
At a league-wide level, he also serves as a member of the Board of Governors and the Competition Committee. While Pagliuca was a freshman basketball player at Duke University in the 1970s, that's not the only sport he has business interests in.
In February last year, the investor led a consortium that acquired a 55 per cent stake in Italian football club Atalanta. Pagliuca also serves as the co-chair of the Serie A side and previously held that position on the Boston 2024 Olympics Finance Committee before the bid was ended due to the popularity of a rival proposal from Los Angeles, where the 2028 Summer Olympics will be hosted.
Most recently, though, Pagliuca was last year one of the shortlisted candidates to purchase Chelsea when they were put up for sale and attended a Premier League match against Southampton during the bidding process. That proposal ultimately proved unsuccessful as the Todd Boehly and Clearlake Captial-led consortium won out.
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