Michael Wilde

Michael Wilde, born on the Wirral, Cheshire in 1952, is a businessman who became Chairman of Southampton Football Club for two periods after the Club's relegation from the Premiership, resigning on 2 April 2009, the day after the Club's holding company, Southampton Leisure Holdings Plc, went into administration.

Wilde attended Wirral Grammar School before going to the University of Westminster in 1973 where he obtained a first degree in Urban Estate Management before going on to do his Masters in Town and Regional Planning at Sheffield University. He later went on to work in estate agency, planning consultancy and in local government with Sheffield City Council, before going to Singapore in 1978. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and became a Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute in 1981. He has authored many papers on housing issues and was a Senior Lecturer in Real Estate Economics and Town Planning at the National University of Singapore from 1978 to 1983. During his time in Singapore he also acted as an advisor to the Government's Housing Development Board and Urban Redevelopment Authority becoming a Member of both the Singapore Institute of Planners and the Singapore Institute of Surveyors and Valuers.

He moved to Hampshire in 1985 upon his return from Singapore and became a major sponsor of a number of Southampton players including Kevin Davies, Dan Petrescu and Graeme Le Saux before acquiring a 10% stake in the Club from existing Director Paul Thompson, the former West Bromwich Albion Chairman in February 2006. He went on to purchase further shares over the following months soon becoming the Club’s largest individual shareholder.

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