Early life
Mike Garlick was born a few yards away from the football club Burnley in Turf Moor, Lancashire, United Kingdom and had dreamed from his childhood about being the club’s chairman one day. He studied in Burnley Grammar School and then moved to London to make his career. Then in 1989 he founded a management consultancy called the Michael Bailey Associates from a small office in London and with only two staffs. He being both the CEO and managing director slowly increased the expertise of his company and now he has thousands of employees working in his company from all around the world.
Career in Burnley FC
Even though he was running a successful management consultancy, he never forgot his childhood dream of being the chairman of Burnley FC and after a lot of hard work, he finally got the chance to be it’s co-chairman along with John Banaszkiewicz when the previous chairman Barry Kilby stepped down due to ill health after being its chairman for 13 years. Both of them worked very hard to make Burnley FC a prominent club in the Premier League and even managed the 10th place in the last Premier League season. In 2015 John Banaszkiewicz stepped down as the co-chairman due to family and business reasons and Mike Garlick became the sole chairman of the Burnley FC. Now he is the majority shareholder of the club owning 49.3 % while ex-chairman John Banaszkiewicz owns 27.55%. Mike has a net worth of $80M and he plans to invest more in his team. He believes that a club’s links and sources with the local community are very important for the future of a club.
Team management strategies
Mike’s contribution to the Burnley FC is immense considering the fact that the town has a very small population of just over 70,000, making it the smallest place to have a Premier League team. He focuses his attention mainly on the training grounds to build good players and his second priority being on expanding the corporate facilities to give young and new players a chance to play. He is the poorest club owners among all the clubs in Premier League but he has no regret because he has been taking his club ahead slowly but steadily. Starting from a small team playing at local turfs, his club has been in the top 10 premier League twice. He is looking forward earnestly for the 2020/21 Premier League season and hopes to bag a place in the top teams.
