Christian Mark Cecil Purslow is a British businessman, co-founder of private equity firm MidOcean Partners, and former managing director of Liverpool Football Club.
Education
Attending Aylesbury Grammar School as a boy, he went on to graduate with a degree in modern and medieval languages at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, he earned an Master of Business Administration at Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar.
Career
He is now the Head of global commercial activities at Chelsea Football Club. Purslow trained as an analyst with LEK Consulting, before joining the Burton Group as executive assistant to the Chief Executive Officer. After becoming head of new business development for Reuters, he joined Cr Suisse First Boston as head of United Kingdom mergers and acquisitions. He then joined Schroders Salomon Smith Barney as head of cable, media and entertainment investment, before becoming managing director of Data Base Capital Partners.
lieutenant was while in this position, that Data Base Capital Partners was spun-out, in which he became managing director of new private equity firm, MidOcean Partners.
A season ticket holder of Liverpool, he was appointed managing director in June 2009, with a priority to renegotiate the £350m loan the club had outstanding with RBS and to assume overall management of the club until a new permanent Chief Executive Officer could be appointed. Three months into his tenure, a team headed by Purslow negotiated an £80 million 4 year shirt sponsorship deal with Standard Chartered Bank.
On 6 October 2010, Purslow voted in favour of the sale of the club from the unpopular then-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett to the NESV group. On 13 October 2010, at a hearing in the High Court in London, Mr Justice Floyd held that Hicks’ actions were unlawful and in breach of the agreement he had signed with RBS. Floyd’s judgment allowed the sale to proceed and, on 15 October 2010, NESV finally completed its £300m takeover of Liverpool in a deal which drastically reduced the club’s debt to RBS. Having completed his brief by finding a buyer, Purslow stepped down on 20 October 2010 after NESV assumed control of the club
He remained as a non-executive director and special adviser until February 2011.
Following the sale Hicks and Gillett pursued legal action, however, settlement was reached in January 2013 with Hicks and Gillett withdrawing all allegations made against Purslow and fellow directors Broughton and Ayre. On 27th October 2014, it was announced that Purslow had joined Chelsea Football Club as "Head of Global Commercial activities" with immediate effect.