Andy Anson

Andrew Edward "Andy" Anson (born 1964/1965) is a British businessman who is the Chief Executive at Kitbag, a sports e-commerce and outsource management company. He was previously chief executive at England 2018 Ltd, the company behind The Football Association's bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Before that, he was CEO for the European division of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP Europe) and also Commercial Director at Manchester United.

The son of a bank manager, Anson was born at the Boundary Park Hospital in Oldham, Lancashire, and grew up in nearby Rochdale. He began playing football at a young age and, despite being a fan of Manchester United, played for Manchester City's schoolboys team after being spotted in a game for the Oulder Hill School team. He did not pursue football as a professional career and earned a place at Exeter College, Oxford, where he attained a second-class degree in mathematics, even sharing a tutorial with child genius Ruth Lawrence at one stage. He continued to play football at university, however, and eventually earned his Blue.

After leaving Oxford, Anson returned to the north-west of England to work for Andersen Consulting, where he represented various clients, including North West Water. However, in the early 1990s, he left Andersen to enrol on a Master of Business Administration (MBA) course at INSEAD in Fontainebleau. To cope with the costs of attending INSEAD, Anson returned to consulting at the end of the course, working for the Kalchas Group. However, he was soon headhunted by The Walt Disney Company, and he moved to Los Angeles for three-and-a-half years, working for Disney's consumer products division. In this capacity, he was responsible for the licensing of all clothes and toys for the company. During Anson's time in the consumer products division, the company generated $7 billion in revenue, and he was promoted to the position of chief financial officer.

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