Trevor Birch

Trevor Birch (born 16 February 1958) is an English chartered accountant, football executive, and former professional footballer. He is the chairman of Swansea City football club. Birch has been chief executive at several clubs, including Chelsea, Leeds United, Everton, Derby County, and Sheffield United, and has worked at Ernst & Young, BDO International, and Duff & Phelps.

Not to be confused with Trevor Birch (footballer, born 1933).

Trevor Birch
Personal information
Date of birth (1958-02-16) 16 February 1958
Place of birth Liverpool, England
Playing position(s) Midfielder
Club information
Current team
 Swansea City (chairman)
Youth career
1974–1979 Liverpool
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1979–1980 Shrewsbury Town 25 (4)
1980–1981 Chester 31 (0)
1981–1982 Marine
1982–1983 Runcorn 31 (2)
1987–1988 Northwich Victoria 6 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Career

Early career

Birch started out as an apprentice footballer aged 16 when he joined Liverpool in 1974. He left to join Shrewsbury Town in 1979 for a then club record fee of £50,000. He also had a brief spell at Chester after which he retired from playing professionally. He then enrolled at Liverpool Polytechnic aged 24 and gained a first class degree in Accountancy before qualifying as a chartered accountant with Ernst & Young. He also continued to play semi-professionally with clubs including Marine,[1] Runcorn,[2] and Northwich Victoria.[3]

Financial career

In 2002, he left Ernst & Young to become Chief Executive of Chelsea, where he led the £180 million sale to Roman Abramovich in 2003.[4] After the sale, Birch chose not to stay at the club and in October that year was appointed Chief Executive of Leeds United, overseeing the takeover by a local consortium. He then moved to Everton in June 2004 to become Chief Executive. Birch was given the task of overhauling the Merseyside club's finances, but resigned after a disagreement over strategy with the board and major shareholders.[5]

Since then Birch has been a partner at Deloitte and Chief Operating Officer of Sportfive, the largest football rights agency in Europe, as well as holding other Chief Executive roles at Derby County and Sheffield United.[6]

He returned to the accountancy profession in 2011 and undertook the role of Administrator at financially troubled Portsmouth. Under his stewardship the club was sold to the Pompey Supporters' Trust, with Birch performing a similar feat as Administrator at Heart of Midlothian in 2013. He subsequently undertook an advisory role to the Board at Bolton Wanderers in late 2015 which finished in March 2016 on the sale of the club.

He joined the global valuation and corporate finance advisors Duff & Phelps as a Managing Director in January 2017, having previously led the professional sports group at global advisory firm BDO International.[6]

In March 2017 Portsmouth confirmed that they had retained the services of Mr. Birch during a period of negotiations with Mike Eisner and his investment vehicle Tornante regarding a takeover of the club.[7]

He became chairman of Swansea City on 18 March 2019.[8]

References
  1. Chas Sumner (1997). On the Borderline: The Official History of Chester City 1885–1997. p. 135. ISBN 1-874427-52-6.
  2. John Hardman (2005). Alliance to Conference 1979–2004: The First 25 Years. pp. 536 & 545. ISBN 1-869833-52-X.
  3. John Hardman (2005). Alliance to Conference 1979–2004: The First 25 Years. p. 485. ISBN 1-869833-52-X.
  4. "Trevor Birch". Duff & Phelps. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  5. Phil McNulty (16 July 2004). "Everton chief Birch resigns". BBC. Retrieved 25 February 2007.
  6. "Trevor Birch to join Duff & Phelps as managing director". Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. 10 January 2017. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  7. Portsmouth FC (23 March 2017). "Update from the Board of Directors". Portsmouth Football Club. Retrieved 23 March 2017.
  8. "Swans name Birch new chairman". Swanseacity.com. 18 March 2019. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
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