Ferran Soriano

Ferran Soriano is an MBA and Business studies graduate at ESADE, the New York RPI and Université Catholique de Louvain of Belgium.

He speaks Catalan, Spanish, English, Italian, French and Portuguese.

Soriano has held a number of positions in companies in a variety of industries, such as consumer products, telecommunications and entertainment, and has held senior positions at The Mac Group, Reckitt Benckiser, and Cluster Consulting, a management consulting firm he co-founded in 1993.

Between 2003 and 2008, Soriano was Economy Vice President of Barcelona, having been elected with the Joan Laporta’s ticket to the club's Board of Directors. He also acted as interim CEO. Barcelona's revenues, during Soriano's tenure, increased from €123 million to €308m, while a €73m loss was turned into an €88m profit.[1] On July 6th, 2008, Soriano and seven other Board Members resigned, after a vote of non-confidence against the Board, amidst growing disagreement with Laporta’s "leadership style."

In April 2009, Soriano was elected Chairman of the Catalonia-based airline Spanair, rescued by the Catalan government from SAS with the objective of creating a hub in the Barcelona airport. Revenue improved and the company started cutting costs, but, on 27 January 2012, after a deal with Qatar Airways fell through, the airline ceased operations.[2]

On 1 September 2012, Soriano was appointed Manchester City F.C. CEO. In the first year and months of his tenure, Manchester City cut its losses in half.[3]

Soriano was instrumental in replacing manager Roberto Mancini with Manuel Pellegrini in 2013, tasking him with winning “five trophies in five years”.[4] Mancini hit back at Soriano after his replacement, saying: "Soriano? For him I was too big within the club. A manager in full control, loved by the fans still today. He judged a person and a context without knowing anything about the people he should have dealt with. I never thought of him as an interesting person from a football perspective. We never spoke the same language. And I'm not talking about Italian, Spanish or English."[5]

In the same period City has bought an MLS franchise in New York to create New York City FC and an existing football club in Australia (Melbourne Heart FC) initiating the club’s expansion strategy.[6]

In January 2013, Barcelona president Sandro Rosell claimed that "Manchester City have attempted to entice a number of staff from the Camp Nou", but added "there were no fish left".[7] Rosell alleged that the Manchester club tried, in an "offensive" approach, to sign players "from all levels of Barcelona's structure," and also other employees of the Catalan side.[7] These allegations were not pursued.

In February 2013, Soriano was accused by the FC Barcelona board, led by Rosell, of authorising a £1.7 million e-mail surveillance of club employees suspected of "working against" Barca's then president Joan Laporta.[8] In March 2014, a judge cleared Soriano of these allegations.

Rosell resigned from the post of Barcelona president in January 2014, one day after a Spanish court opened an investigation into Barca's €57.1 million signing of Brazilian Neymar, for an alleged "misappropriation of funds."[9] In 2017, Rosell was jailed without bail after being accused of misappropriation of funds from the €57m signing of Neymar.[10]

In September 2014, Soriano was found guilty in Spanair’s bankruptcy case and fined with £8.6 million. In May 2016, the decision was overturned by the appeal court judges who concluded that Spanair’s executives were acting in trying to "save the company," and its subsequent bankruptcy was “fortuitous”.[11]

• La pilota no entra per atzar, Ferran Soriano's personal website (in Catalan)