David Murray (Scottish businessman)

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David Edward Murray (born Ayr, 14 October 1951) is a Scottish entrepreneur, businessman and Chairman of Rangers Football Club.

[edit] Business and personal life

By the age of 23 he had formed Murray International Metals Limited, which was to become leading distributor of structural steel. However, in 1976 he was involved in a serious car crash following a Rugby match and lost both his legs.

Murray continued to succeed in business despite this personal tragedy. In 1984, at the age of 33, he was awarded Young Scottish Businessman of the Year, followed shortly by an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1986.

The Murray Group of companies is amongst the United Kingdom’s most successful privately-owned conglomerates and includes interests in surface mining (GM Mining), commercial property development (Premier Property Group), venture capital (Charlotte Ventures), and call centres (RHL, trading as 'RESPONSE' from February 2007 onwards, formerly Response Handling Limited).

Alongside his high-profile business activities, other Murray interests have helped cement his prominence in Scottish life. In the late 1980s, Murray established the Sunday Scot, a tabloid newspaper which proved not to be commercially viable. He has also provided occasional contributions to Scottish politics. In the lead-up to the 1999 referendum on the establishment of a Scottish Parliament, Murray endorsed the 'no' campaign, reflecting a long-held support for Unionism and opposition to the devolution of power from London. Murray's longstanding support of amputees is reflected in his establishment of the Murray Foundation created in 1996. Murray’s business success has been accompanied by another personal tragedy, with the death of his wife Louise in 1992 due to cancer.

Murray was knighted in the New Year Honours 2007 List^[1]

[edit] Football life

Murray’s involvement in football has overshadowed his business and personal lives and explains much of his prominence within Scottish society. In the 1980s Murray made a bid for Ayr United which was rejected 56:60 by the shareholders of the club. This setback saw Murray focus attention on acquiring Rangers, a club which, following the appointment of Graeme Souness as manager in 1986, had regained its ascendancy in Scottish football and, through the purchase of a number of English internationals, enhanced its standing within British football more generally. Attracted by the idea of owning one of Scotland's most high-profile football clubs, on 23rd November 1988 Murray secured the purchase of Rangers from the club's then owner, (the Nevada based Lawrence Marlborough), and its chairman, David Holmes for a sum of £6 million [1].

Throughout what was later to transpire as his first period of chairmanship, Murray began a radical overhaul of the club. His investment saw further development to Ibrox stadium, which had already undergone extensive remodelling in the aftermath of the Ibrox disaster of January 2, 1971, which claimed the lives of 66 fans following an Old Firm derby with Celtic. Murray oversaw the construction of a third tier on the existing Main Stand, raising the ground's capacity by some 7,000. Accompanying this were changes on the pitch. 1989 saw Rangers secure a first trophy under Murray's chairmanship, with victory over Aberdeen in the Scottish League Cup. More significantly, the same season saw the first of what was to become nine successive Scottish League Championships over the period 1989-1997. This period was to be significant for more reasons than silverware accumulation. In 1989 Murray and manager Graeme Souness signed Mo Johnston, the first high-profile Catholic to play for the club since the Second World War, from French club Nantes for £1.5 million. As Johnston had previously played for Old Firm rivals Celtic, this transfer was highly controversial. Other high profile players were to follow in later years, including Paul Gascoigne, Brian Laudrup, Ronald de Boer and Tore André Flo.

Following Graeme Souness’s departure to Liverpool in 1991, Murray appointed his former assistant Walter Smith as manager. Under Smith, and his eventual replacement in 1998 Dick Advocaat, Rangers embarked upon an unprecedented period of success that saw the club win 11 Scottish championships over 14 years. Regrettably for Murray, who asked that he be 'judged on Europe', this domination was not accompanied by success in European competition. Aside from the 1992/1993 UEFA Champions League campaign, in which Rangers came within one victory of reaching the final, the club's record in Europe from 1989 was one of consistent frustration and under-performance, interrupted only by sporadic victories against top European sides. However in December 2005, Rangers secured qualification from the group stage of the Champions League, becoming the first Scottish side to reach the financially rewarding last-sixteen knockout stage of the competition.

In 2001/02, Murray abandoned his previous insistence that Rangers would never leave Scottish football, arguing in support of a move by the Old Firm to the better-resourced English leagues, and with it the potential for the club to operate in a more competitive environment which could help boost performance in European competitions.

Reflecting the success Rangers experienced on the playing field, Murray's first period as chairman saw him benefit from the kind of support, from fans of the club and from the media, relatively uncommon for football club owners in Britain. However, in a quest to fulfil Murray's ambitions for Rangers in Europe, a period of unprecedented spending under the managership of Dick Advocaat saw the club's debts spiral. The result was that, for the first time, Murray's effectiveness as the club's chairman and owner began to be questioned. By 2001, with the appointment of Alex McLeish as manager, Rangers' indebtedness had reached a level that potentially jeopardised the club's solvency. A radical programme of cost-cutting was instituted in an attempt to re-establish the club on a stable financial footing. In July 2002, Murray relinquished the chairmanship and limited his day-to-day involvement in its running. His status as by far the club's biggest share-holder remained, however, and Murray was said by some to continue to exercise a significant behind-the-scenes role in the management of Rangers. In September 2004, Murray announced his return to the chairmanship, and with it a rights-issue to raise the funds with which to reduce - and ultimately eliminate - the club's debt. In doing so, Murray also saw his shareholding in the club increase to around 90% of the total stock.

Rangers' comparative lack of success after 2001 was attributed by some critics to excessive caution in Murray's stewardship of the club. To the critics, league championship successes in 2003 and 2005 came in spite of an overall strategy geared towards reducing the club's indebtedness. Spurred in part by this criticism, Murray responded in 2006 with the coup of securing as manager Paul Le Guen, the former coach of Lyon, whose talents were said to be coveted by many of the highest profile clubs, most in leagues considerably more prestigious than Scotland. The capture of Le Guen was seen by some as a return by Murray to the boldness of his earlier approach, and perhaps a rejection of the 'living within our means' conservatism of the period after 2001. However, Le Geun's tenure at Rangers - by far the shortest of any of the club's managers - ended with his resignation in January 2007. Some ascribed blame for Le Guen's failure to Murray's apparent reluctance to sanction appropriate transfer spending for what was widely agreed to be an inadequate squad of players.

By 2006, there was a growing consensus that Murray's enthusiasm for Rangers had waned. For some, fiscal conservatism was the result not of prudent management after the excesses of the Advocaat era, but of a desire by Murray to limit debt and increase the club's attractiveness to potential buyers (Murray hints at end of Ibrox era). Murray himself continued to articulate a more ambiguous stance on his desire to sell or retain ownwership of the club: "It's not a 'For Sale' sign per se, but obviously I don't want to do this forever" (Murray ready to sell up at Rangers).

[edit] References