What was Plymouth Argyle owner Simon Hallett doing before he joined the Pilgrims? | OneFootball

The boyhood Argyle fan is the current majority shareholder of the club.

Plymouth Argyle have largely enjoyed success since Simon Hallett became the majority shareholder in the club.

Hallett became the majority shareholder in the club in August 2018.

The season that followed his takeover was the one spot on his Pilgrims record. They were relegated from League One to League Two. Since then, the club has gone from strength to strength.

They came straight back up to the third tier and in the four subsequent campaigns they consolidated their position in the league, mounted a push for the play-offs, won the league, and then stayed up in a very competitive Championship relegation battle that came down to the final game of the season.

He has made some smart decisions when it comes to the club's recent managers, including appointing Ryan Lowe and Steven Schumacher to lead the team. There have also been some questionable choices, like bringing in Ian Foster after losing Schumacher to Stoke City and then making Wayne Rooney prior to the start of the new season.

It remains to be seen whether Hallett made the right choice by bringing in Rooney, but you can't question many of the big calls he has made since taking over as chairman.

But, as is the case with anyone in his position, there was life before owning a football club. Much like his relatively short career as a sporting chairman, Hallett was very successful.

What Simon Hallett did before owning Plymouth Argyle

The Plymouth owner is originally from the Devonshire town, but his working life was preceded by a period studying at Oxford University.

From 1974-77, Hallett undertook an undergraduate degree in Philosophy and Politics at the esteemed educational establishment.

While going to Oxford University was and still is a remarkable achievement, Hallett continued his success when he joined Harding Loevner as their Global Equity Portfolio Manager in 1991. He then went on to become the Chief Investment officer of the $80 billion American asset manager and investment service in 2003.

The majority owner of Plymouth still has connections to Harding Loevner, over 33 years on from originally joining them. He is the Vice Chairman of their executive committee.

Simon Hallett on being the majority shareholder of Plymouth Argyle

Three years ago, on the Money Maze podcast, Hallett described owning Plymouth as a "Romantic journey to my birthplace," rather than a "hard-nosed investment decision."

He continued: "At root I'm a stockpicker and an investment analyst, and we all know that the value of a security is the value of the cashflows associated with it, discounted at the appropriate rate. There are no cashflows associated with a football club, certainly not to shareholders.

"If ever I paid myself a dividend out of the profits - well, first of all, let's get to the point where there are profits - if I then paid myself a dividend there would be a riot and I would be the least popular in Devon and Cornwall.

"Football clubs have no value. To me, as an investment analyst, they're just vanity assets, emotional assets; I mean they are just great fun.

"I own my boyhood [club]. You can see our main stand behind me, and I used to sit at the end that's orthogonal to the stand with the 'E'.

"So it's every football fan's dream and I'm having a blast, I have to say."