Ian Ayre has been a senior figure at Liverpool Football Club since 2007, first as commercial director and later as managing director and CEO.

Today it was announced his tenure will end early, at the end of February.

But how did he get the top job at Liverpool and how much to fans really know about the psyche of the man who has led the club for the last six years?

Last week he spoke at Anfield to an audience of 50 school pupils to inspire them to follow their own successful career path.

Here, in his own words, is how he got to the big seat at Anfield and became “Jurgen’s boss”.

Liverpool chief executive officer Ian Ayre in the stands during the Premier League match at Goodison Park, Liverpool. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Monday December 19, 2016. See PA story SOCCER Everton. Photo credit should read: Martin Rickett/PA Wire.

The Royal Marines and Navy

“It’ll surprise some people but I grew up round the corner from Anfield in Kirkdale. I wasn’t very good at school, in fact I was really bad, so I left school with very few qualifications. Really at that time in the late 70s I was looking for an opportunity and I made a decision to do something life-changing.

“I decided to join the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. It was the right choice for me, it’s not the right choice for everyone.

“It was fantastic for me, it gave me a lot of things I didn’t have, it gave me discipline and structure and I learned so much for when I do this job and all the jobs I’ve had in between. That early formative time in my career, I learned skills which I still use today.

“I left the navy after 10 years, I went into the electronics industry as a result of – in my latter years in the military – connecting with people, showing them I was dependable and could deliver on things.

The Electronics and TV years

“One of the bosses of a company who supplied equipment to the military recognised my potential, gave me a chance, and kept giving me chances. I took those chances, usually with a lot of fear, but I took them.

“I eventually became CEO of that company, it was very successful, floated on the stock market in the UK and then the owner (Barry Rubery) – after selling his shares – decided to buy a football club.

Liverpool CEO Ian Ayre Peter Byrne/PA Wire

“It was a much smaller club, Huddersfield Town, and he approached me again... and asked me if I wanted to run this football club. I had no idea about running a football club but I’d always believed that if chances are there and opportunities you should grasp them.

“You can only give it your best. I took that opportunity, worked there for three or four years and then we sold the club and actually I was involved in setting up a business I ran around sport and the media side, a TV company called Premium TV.

“So I ran that for a few years so I was finding this theme of staying in sport but bringing different experience – my technology background – into it.

The call from Liverpool

“That company was sold and during my time in the Marines I’d spent a lot of time in Asia, especially Hong Kong where I’d lived for most of my career. I’d gone back there with the electronics company and I loved Asia, I love that it was new countries, new people with different cultures and environments. I loved the opportunity to immerse myself in different culture. I felt it gave me skills and told and great friends from such a wide disparate group across Asia and the word.

George Gillett and Tom Hicks at Anfield

“So I packed my bags and went back there and started up a business which I ran for six and a half years. It was a sports marketing business, so when teams like Liverpool came on tour to the Far East we’d organise their tours, sell TV rights for sport in Asia – buy the rights in Europe and sell them in Asia.

“And then after I sold that business I was wondering what to do next and got a call from the guys who’s just bought Liverpool (Hicks and Gillett) and after a lot of negotiations I decided to come back and I’ve been here 10 years this year and it’s been incredible.”

The big mistake

“I’ve made loads of mistakes and I don’t think you can be successful without making mistakes. I remember when I ran the electronics company, some of you may know it, it was called PACE and it makes the set-top boxes for Sky at home. When I was CEO based in Hong Kong we were chasing this huge deal in Thailand and I sent through the offer to supply this equipment and I missed a zero off the number.

The view from the Peak, Hong Kong
The view from the Peak, Hong Kong

"It should have been hundreds of millions and it was millions... They thought that was a great deal for them! There was a big legal challenge because we’d offered this price, it was wrong and it was my fault.

"I thought I’d get fired for it. My boss’s solution was to make me go to the boss of the company involved and tell him the truth and they let it go. We did the deal at the right price. I learned integrity and honesty are right at the heart of everything.

Tips for success

“My youngest son is 20 and just recently he was struggling a bit with what he’s doing a s a job. And I said to him when I think back to me at 20 I was in the Falklands War, my ship got sunk, it was a terrible time. But the point is that had nothing to do with what my career would be or where I went in it. It might have had some influence on it.

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“But what you do today or what you think you might want to do isn’t necessarily the end. You need to focus on what you’re doing now, the other stuff will come. When I came to Liverpool I always said there was two or three things I wanted to achieve. They were big things but there were small plans for each of them.

“I think if you set realistic goals in the short term the other stuff will come.

“I was in the marines, then ended up in sales in electronics and at no point on that journey did I have any ideas I would be the CEO of Liverpool.

“I was a Liverpool fan my whole life but people say to me ‘it must be your dream job’ but I never dreamed of having it until that phone call 10 years ago.”