What was Middlesbrough FC owner Steve Gibson doing before he joined the club? | OneFootball

FLW takes a look at what Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson was doing before he joined the Boro board in 1986.

Steve Gibson has been on the board of Middlesbrough Football Club since 1986, when he fronted a consortium that saved the club from liquidation.

Gibson, a lifelong Middlesbrough fan, first joined the club's board as a 26-year-old, becoming Boro's youngest ever director in the process, before succeeding Colin Henderson as chairman in 1994.

Still as passionate about his football club as ever in 2024, the local businessman has overseen so many of Middlesbrough's most iconic and memorable moments in its modern history.

Leaving Ayresome Park behind and moving into the state-of-the-art Riverside Stadium, a 2004 Carling Cup victory, two European Cup adventures that saw Boro go all the way to the final in 2006 and everything in-between; Gibson's investment and passion played a leading role in it all.

In May of this year, the annual Sunday Times Rich List published its list of the 1,000 wealthiest people in the UK, with Gibson sitting in joint-253rd with a net worth of £640m.

But what did the 66-year-old do before taking on his role with Middlesbrough? Football League World investigates...

Gibson showed his leadership traits from a young age

Some people flash their ability to lead early in life, and that sentiment would definitely ring true in Gibson's case.

In 1979, at the age of just 21, Gibson became Middlesbrough's youngest ever Labour councillor.

Politics is always something that Gibson has been heavily interested and involved in, both in regard to the real world and the footballing one.

Gibson has always been passionate about his hometown, and that passion has projected itself into his politics on numerous occasions. From publicly damning the handling of the controversial Teesworks sight, to campaigning to save Teesside's long and proud steel industry.

Boro's chairman was also involved in a long-running dispute with former Derby County owner Mel Morris that was finally resolved in February 2022, a feud which birthed somewhat of a new modern-day rivalry between the two clubs.

In 2016, Gibson was awarded with an OBE for his services to the town of Middlesbrough and the football club.

Just two years after his aforementioned election as a Labour councillor, Gibson founded a haulage company named Bulkhaul Limited in 1981.

He set the business up by borrowing £1,000 of his father's money, and since then, the business has become an international transporter of bulk liquids, powders and gases for chemical companies, and whose central operating base remains on Teesside.

Gibson is also the majority owner (75% stake) of the Gibson O'Neill Company Ltd alongside fellow businessman Michael O'Neill. The company's assets include Bulkhaul, Middlesbrough FC, and Rockliffe Hall Hotel, which is on the grounds of Middlesbrough's training complex.

As of 2023, the holding company had an estimated net worth of £188.5m according to CompanyCheck, rising from £148.4m in 2022.

Therefore, from the rise in his company's net worth to his considerable estimated growth in his individual net worth - enough to see him boast a larger net worth than multiple Premier League owners -, it would appear that Boro's chairman is in a very healthy financial position.

That can only be a positive as far as Middlesbrough Football Club is concerned too, as he looks to continue investing his money in to the side, in the hopes that a return to Premier League football isn't too far away.