Malcolm Offord: Incoming Rangers chairman who steered previous club through funding crisis
Rangers will replace John Bennett as chairman with Malcolm Offord from the House of Lords.
Bennett, who succeeded Douglas Park as chairman in March 2023, resigned in September due to health reasons. Former director John Gilligan took over temporarily. The Ibrox club has turned to Malcolm Offord, a merchant banker and Conservative peer, for financial stability.
Offord, also known as Baron Offord of Garvel, will join incoming chief executive Patrick Stewart in a new-look Ibrox boardroom. The former Manchester United supremo has replaced James Bisgrove, who moved to Saudi Arabia six months ago. Record Sport profiles the candidate for the top role in Glasgow’s south side.Who is Malcolm Offord?
Offord was born in Greenock in September 1964 and earned a law degree from the University of Edinburgh before embarking on a 25-year career in investment banking. After leaving the city, he founded the Edinburgh-based management consultancy Badenoch & Co in 2013, but is no longer registered as a director on Companies House. He now serves on six boards and has held 64 positions at additional companies that are no longer operating.
Aside from his professional career, Offord is an active political figure who was named a Conservative life peer in the House of Lords in 2021, having previously served in the governments of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak. He was an outspoken opponent of Scottish independence and founded the pro-UK campaign organization No Borders ahead to the 2014 vote.
How well does he fit the role at Rangers?
This will be Offord’s first foray into football, but he has vast financial experience, which might benefit the rest of the Ibrox board after the club announced losses of more than £17 million earlier this year. And this isn’t his first venture into sports; he was inducted into the London Scottish Rugby Club’s Hall of Fame in 2023.
Leave a Reply