Meet The American Billionaire Running The Premier League’s Liverpool FC

John Henry, the principal owner of Fenway Sports Group (FSG), shared a memorable anecdote in May about his experiences with sports ownership. He reminisced about the Boston Red Sox’s early-season struggles and the infamous promise that winning a World Series would grant eternal patronage in Boston. However, he conceded that such a guarantee does not exist, lamenting the team’s failure to live up to the expectations.

Henry, now 76, has faced criticism and even chants to "sell the team" in Boston, despite his ownership’s ability to end a 86-year World Series championship drought by securing the Red Sox’s victory in 2004 and adding three more titles over the following 14 years. Mike Gordon, FSG’s president, prefers to remain anonymous. Unlike Henry and Tom Werner, the group’s billionaire chairman, whose faces are well-known to fans, Gordon remains less recognizable.

Despite this, he owns around 10% of FSG, valued at approximately $1.4 billion, making him a billionaire. Gordon joined FSG in 2001, participating in the group’s acquisition of the Red Sox, Fenway Park, and NESN. Since then, he has expanded his portfolio to include NASCAR team RFK Racing and the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, which were sold two months ago.

Currently, Gordon oversees Liverpool FC, the Premier League soccer team FSG purchased for about $475 million in 2010. Recently, FSG sold between 30% and 40% of Liverpool at a reported $7.4 billion valuation to a consortium led by Amit Bhatia, Jeff Bezos’s son-in-law, and investor. This price places Liverpool as more valuable than FSG’s original investment in the Red Sox, estimated at $5.25 billion by Forbes.

Gordon attributes the club’s success to their long-term vision, stating that Liverpool has always been built with the team’s future in mind. Former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp once praised Gordon as the "brain behind all the things at Liverpool," and Henry echoed this sentiment, recognizing Gordon as FSG America’s most knowledgeable person in soccer.

Gordon’s career in sports began in Milwaukee, where he sold popcorn at Brewers games as a teenager, thanks to his mother’s friendship with Bud Selig, who later became MLB’s commissioner. After studying at Tufts University, Gordon worked at Fidelity Investments, eventually joining Vinik Asset Management as a cofounder of a hedge fund that, under his leadership, averaged a 17% annualized return over 17 years.

Henry, impressed by Gordon’s success, invited him to visit Liverpool in 2009 to assess the team as a potential acquisition. Gordon, seeing the team’s untapped potential, agreed, and the rest is history.