Ivan Gazidis

Ivan Gazidis (born 13 September 1964) is a South African-Greek business executive and former footballer who last held an executive position at Italian Serie A club AC Milan. Biography Of Greek origin, Gazidis was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. At the age of 4, he moved to the United Kingdom and later attended independent Manchester Grammar School and St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford, where he was twice awarded a blue playing football against Cambridge in 1984 and 1985. He graduated with a degree in law in 1986 and in 1992 he moved to the United States to work for Latham & Watkins. In 1994, he joined the founding management team of Major League Soccer, becoming in 2001 its deputy commissioner. He oversaw MLS's key strategic and business decisions and its marketing arm, Soccer United Marketing, of which he was president. He also helped promote the Mexican Football Federation and the CONCACAF Gold Cup. In November 2008 Gazidis accepted the post of chief executive of Arsenal, a post he formally took up from 1 January 2009. He succeeded former managing director Keith Edelman and was expected to take over many of the roles formerly undertaken by ex-vice-chairman David Dein.