Freddy Shepherd
| Freddy Shepherd | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1941 (age 75–76) England |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Net worth |
 £100 million (2014) |
Freddy Shepherd (born 1942), is an English businessman and the former chairman of Newcastle United football club.
During his time at Newcastle, both as an active assistant to and later replacement of Sir John Hall as chairman for ten years, Shepherd proved an often outspoken and controversial figure, at times alienating the club's support.
Freddy Shepherd was born into a working class home, the son of a lorry driver; and with his brother Bruce, expanded a road haulage business into a series of marine and related businesses; and property development through redevelopment of the former ship facilities along the River Tyne. The assets of the company now include Mitford Hall.
The brothers often worked with Sir John Hall, who owned the property development business Cameron Hall Developments, and had become a key share-holder in Newcastle United. After Hall's vision of building Newcastle into a sporting club along the lines of AS Roma or FC Barcelona, he looked to consolidate the operations of Newcastle United. Shepherd Offshore had started to build a holding in Newcastle United, and so Shepherd became involved in the football business, alongside Hall's son Douglas Hall.
Initially, Shepherd became involved with the consolidation of the Newcastle sporting club to just Newcastle United, selling or reducing Hall's controlling stakes in: Newcastle Falcons rugby team, Newcastle Eagles basketball team; and the then Newcastle Cobras ice hockey team.
In 1996, Shepherd was tasked by Hall with bringing Alan Shearer to the club, which he did for a-then world record fee. The confidence Shepherd showed in completing the deal persuaded Hall, who wanted to retire to Spain, to effectively offload the day-to-day running of the club to Shepherd as chairman, and his son Douglas as the active Hall family member on the board. Shepherd agreed with his brother Bruce to take the position, while Bruce continued to run Shepherd Offshore.
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