Ellis Short Biography
Ellis Short is an American businessman based in London. He is also the founder of Kildare Partners, a private equity fund investing in distressed European real estate assets and was also the chairman and owner of English football club Sunderland A.F.C. for 10 years from September 2008 to April 2018. He went to William Chrisman High School and graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from Missouri University Of Science and Technology in 1993.
Ellis Short Age
Short was born in the year 1960 October 6th. He is 58 years old as of 2018.
Ellis Short Family
Short was born in Independence Missouri. Information about his parents and siblings is not disclosed.
Ellis Short Wife
Short married former tennis player Eve Zimmerman Short and the two are blessed with a son who also plays tennis.
Ellis Short House
Billionaire Ellis short had his home in Chelsea on market for 49.5 Million euros. He was relocating from London to move back to USA Florida. Short also has another house in Kailua, Hawaii which topped to number two on the 2010 list of most expensive homes in the state of Hawaii.
Ellis Short Career | Sunderland
After graduated from Missouri University of Science and Technology in 1983 and started work at General Electric. Later in 1995, he joined Lone Star Funds, a Dallas-based private equity firm. He became the president of the fund and headed its Asian operations. Short paid £23 million for Skibo Castle in 2003. The castle operates as a members-only hotel and country club in Scotland and is famous for hosting Madonna’s wedding to Guy Ritchie in 2000. In 2013, Short founded a new company called Kildare Partners, to invest in distressed property assets and non-performing debt.
In 2008 September, Short gained a controlling interest in Sunderland A.F.C. The same year in December, Short came to an agreement with Drumaville Consortium to gain the remaining shares in the club. Roy Keane who was Sunderland manager left the club after ownership of the club changed. Short later gained the club’s ownership in 2009 May. Him purchasing the club made Sunderland the fourth club in the Premier League to have American owners, alongside Aston Villa, Manchester United and Liverpool.
Ellis Short Photo
Advocaat was also replaced with Sam Allardyce, who left the club in July 2016 and replaced by David Moyes. Moyes resigned after Sunderland finished last in the 2016–17 season and were relegated to the EFL Championship. Football Manager Simon Grayson was appointed a manager in June 2017 and after a dire run of results with a 3-3 home draw with fellow strugglers Bolton Wanderers, he was dismissed. November 19, 2017, Chris Coleman was appointed as the new Sunderland manager, however, on April 21, 2018, Sunderland were relegated and Coleman sacked and the club sold on April 29, 2018, to a consortium headed by Stewart Donald, chairman of Eastleigh F.C.
Ellis Short Net Worth
Short has an estimated net worth of $1.36 billion.
Ellis Short Skibo Castle
Skibo Island is located in Dornoch West in the Highland Country of Sutherland, Scotland. It was the home of industrialist Andrew Carnegie. The castle was bought by billionaire Elis Short for $27 million in 2003. The castle now operates as a member only residential club. The Castle includes Lake Louise an artificial lake.
Ellis Short Sells Sunderland
Elis Short sold Sunderland football club to an international consortium that’s headed by the chairman of non-league Eastleigh. This happened after short sacked Chris Coleman and announced that he had cleared all the clubs debts which was previously listed at £110m
Ellis Short Kildare Partners
Short founded Kildare Partners in 2013. He is the Chief Investment Officer and also a member of the Investment Committee. The firm invests and manages distressed assets in the US, Asia and Europe for over 20 years.
Ellis Short Lone Star Funds
Short worked for Lone Star Funds from 1994 to 2007. The fund is a Dallas based private equity firm and he served as the company’s president and as a member of committee. He relocated to Japan in 1996 and served as Head of Asia Operations. He managed all the investments transactions that were acquired by Lone Star in South Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Taiwan.
Ellis Short Interview
Source: Chronicle Live
WHY HAVE YOU CHOSEN TO DO THIS INTERVIEW NOW?
We’ve obviously got a bit of a crisis to solve right now. When things are going this poorly, lots of things become issues – may be things which shouldn’t be. And the fans should know that when a reporter talks about what I am thinking, what I am doing, he is only guessing or making it up because I don’t talk to the Press. Right now the issue is the performance on the pitch and how we can turn things around, and I thought if I addressed some of these issues directly we could maybe focus on that a little bit more.
CAN YOU UNDERSTAND THE FANS’ FRUSTRATION?
I think the frustration probably goes beyond just having been relegated. Since I have owned it [the club] we have been in the Premier League, we have been in the Premier League for 10 years, and although we weren’t always there in the greatest style, I as a fan always felt like we were fighting. Last year the way we got relegated was particularly frustrating because as a fan, I didn’t really think that we had that fight. Getting relegated in the last place was particularly galling, especially as in the second half of the season when we had survived we had been quite good. I believe it was the best half-season we had ever had, so we went into last season on a bit of a note of optimism.Also coming into this season I think I as a fan, and many of the fans, were optimistic and certainly expected better than what we have seen so far.
CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE DECISION TO PART COMPANY WITH SIMON GRAYSON?
I don’t have to explain the horrible start to the season that we have had. Actually, the very beginning wasn’t so bad, but the stats speak for themselves. I don’t believe that that squad of players belongs in the bottom three of the Championship. What’s worse is that it is not as if we have been putting in great performances and just can’t get the ball to go into the back of the net.
Our goalscoring performance is towards the top of the league, but we have given away more goals than all-but one team, and this is largely with many of the same defensive players we had last season in the Premier League. That’s just not acceptable and our view at the club was that we needed to make the change. Simon is a very good man who tried his best, we have a lot of respect for him, but we felt like as badly as things have gone, we needed to try something different.
HOW INVOLVED WERE YOU IN THE DECISION REGARDING SIMON, AND HOW INVOLVED ARE YOU STILL WITH THE CLUB?
I was very involved with that decision, it was an important decision. I spoke to Martin [Bain, Sunderland’s chief executive] about it probably daily, as things began to get bad. I know it has been in the Press that I don’t care any more and I am not involved, but that is simply not true. That’s reporters guessing or making something up. I’m as involved as I have ever been.
It is true that I am not physically at as many games, which is really a function of me being more involved in my business life and my family spending more time in the US. But I am watching, I am paying attention, and to answer the question that you sing at me during mainly the really bad games: yes, I’m watching. Also, I am involved financially. I put a significant amount of new capital into the club this summer. That didn’t go to buy new players, that went to cover losses relating to our mistakes of the past.
THERE WAS A LOT OF DISCUSSION IN THE SUMMER ABOUT TAKEOVERS, AND A TAKEOVER THAT DIDN’T GO THROUGH, CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THAT?
At that time I was entertaining offers to buy the club. I had hired an advisor to process that. I guess the first thing I should say is that everything that was written in the media about that was wrong, not really remotely resembling the truth other than one thing – there was one group that we did have some advanced discussions with. I decided not to do that transaction and I have heard some criticism that because of the depth of emotion that I should be out, that possibly I should have done that. But that comes from people who don’t know anything about the circumstances of that transaction, don’t know anything about the circumstances of the buyer. I’ve got the interests of the club at heart and I am not going to do anything that is not good for the club.
I do understand the fans want me out, but I am certain they would not have been happy with that transaction, and that’s why it didn’t get done. There is no longer an advisor. The club is not officially for sale. If there is a legitimate buyer that I can have a direct phone conversation with, and it’s a credible person, like probably every other owner of an English football team, I’ll have a conversation.
But that doesn’t matter. What matters is what is happening on the pitch right now and where we are in the table, and what we have to do.I may or may not sell the club at some point in the future. That’s completely beyond my control – well not completely, but mostly beyond my control. But as long as I own it, I’m going to be focused on what is good for the club, and the immediate focus is getting ourselves out of the situation that we are in now.
THE SITUATION IN TERMS OF THE LEAGUE TABLE IS THE IMMEDIATE PRIORITY, BUT WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS BEYOND THAT?
The first order of business is to get ourselves out of this problem, improve our performances, and move up the table. After that we need to continue to get stronger and get back into the Premier League as quickly as we can. This club, the size that it is, the fanbase that it has, belongs in the Premier League and that’s where we want to be. After that has happened, I will go back to my original goal was when we were in the Premier League, which is that we should be trying to finish in seventh place every season.
There are six clubs with much higher revenue than ours – as a function of better sponsorship, much higher ticket prices, higher attendances – but we should be fighting for that seventh spot. In a good season, maybe sixth or fifth, in a bad season, tenth or 12th. Certainly not the kind of performance we have experienced in those last 10 years in the Premier League. That should be our long-term goal. To make that happen I think the most important thing is that, going forward, we don’t repeat all the mistakes we made in the past of paying a lot of money for players which didn’t get us to where we wanted to be.
IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE TO SAY TO THE FANS?
I’m a fan. I know how the fans feel. I know why they are not happy. It would be great if there was something I could say that would make everything better, but the reality is that is not going to be better until we do better on the pitch. That’s the important thing. Although I understand the frustration, I hope that all of us can focus on that.
