Anthony Kleanthous

Anthony Andrew Kleanthous (born January 1966) is an English businessman and the current chairman of Barnet Football Club. He became the youngest football chairman in the Football League when, aged 28, he bought the club in 1994. Early life The Kleanthous family moved to London from Cyprus and Tony Kleanthous was born in Finsbury Park, north London in 1966. He went to school in Highgate then on to college in Waltham Forest to study motor vehicle engineering. Career Kleanthous started out in the motor trade and then moved into petrochemicals. At the age of 21 he formed a telecommunications company called NAG Telecom. He won several industry awards as one of Cellnet's (now O2) largest distributors of mobile phones. In 1994 he bought Barnet F.C., starting his career in football. In 1996 he bought Samsung Telecom when chairman of Service Direct UK PLC to form what was then the largest independent supplier and maintainer of telephone systems in the UK. Kleanthous today owns a £250 million group of over 30 companies across the UK and Europe involved in the property, leisure, football and medical sectors. Football Kleanthous was the youngest director of the Football League and youngest ever director of The Football Association as well as serving on the Professional Game Board and sitting on several committees for the governance of football in the UK. He was the first FA Director appointed League representative to the FA Women's Super League Committee (now Board) and was involved in the inauguration of the Women's Super League competition. He has served three times as a director of the Football Conference and was responsible for re-branding the competition as the National League. He formed and chaired National League Broadcasting, which trained students in camera and sports filming techniques that were then utilised to produce the BT Sport highlight shows.