Shad Khan acquires his second sports team.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Shad Khan, the Pakistani-American business mogul, has purchased the English Premier League team Fulham FC. The acquisition, rumored to be north of 150 million British pounds, makes Khan the owner of two large sports teams, one on either side of the Atlantic, as he is already the owner of the National Football League (NFL) team Jacksonville Jaguars in the US.
With a net worth estimated at over $2.5 billion, Khan is the 179th richest American, the 491st richest person worldwide, and the richest person of Pakistani origin.
Born Shahid Khan in Lahore in 1952, Khan moved to the US when he was 16 years old in order to pursue undergraduate studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Three years later, in 1971, he graduated from the UIUC School of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering with a BSc in Industrial Engineering.
His first job out of college was at Flex-N-Gate automotive manufacturing company as its engineering director. In 1978, through a $50,000 loan and $16,000 in personal savings, Khan started his own custom bumper manufacturing business called Bumper Works.
Two years later, Khan bought Flex-N-Gate and merged his company with the newly acquired one, and began supplying auto parts to General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler (colloquially known as the “Big Three” American car companies). In 1984 the company began supplying bumpers to Toyota; by 1987 it was Toyota’s sole supplier for pickup truck bumpers and by 1989 it was the only supplier of bumpers for the entire Toyota line of automobiles.
As of 2010, Flex-N-Gate has grown into a $2 billion-sale company under Khan’s stewardship.
After a deal in 2010 to become co-owner of the St. Louis Rams NFL team fell through, Khan bought 100% of the shares of the Jacksonville Jaguars from owner Wayne Weaver in November 2011. On January 4th, 2012, the deal was approved by the NFL and became final, effectively making Khan the first minority owner of an NFL team in the league’s history. The deal was valued at $760 million. The team has struggled in recent years due to poor win-loss records and decreased ticket sales. Recently, the team had the second overall pick in the 2013 NFL draft, meaning last season the Jaguars were the second-worst team in the entire NFL.
Khan is married to his wife, Ann. They have two children, Tony and Shanna Khan. He currently resides in Naples, Florida.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com