SA-BORN CEO FOR ARSENAL

Arsenal Football Club recently appointed Ivan Gazidis as their new CEO. The 44-year-old South African-born Oxford graduate starts in January, ending his 14-year association with the American Major League Soccer. Ivan is a solicitor and amateur soccer player. He joined Major League Soccer in April 1994, two year’s before the League’s inaugural game, as a member of its founding management team. He was born in 1964 in Johannesburg, and moved to England when he was four years old. Ivan attended Oxford University, graduating in 1986 with a Master's Degree in Law. While at Oxford University, he was twice awarded an Oxford soccer Blue. He took the Solicitor's Final Examination at the Guildford College of Law in 1987 and worked as a corporate lawyer in London and Los Angeles until 1994, when he was recruited by Major League Soccer.