Alan Pace - Chairman
Alan Pace is an accomplished leader in sports and financial services with more than 20 years’ experience on Wall Street overseeing multibillion-dollar divisions and 10 years in sports management.
The dual British-American citizen has long held an affinity for football, beginning with stories from his father who lived in northern England as a young adult before falling in love with the beautiful game while attaining a Master’s degree in International Finance at IESE Business School in Barcelona.
During the 1992 El Clasico at the Camp Nou Alan watched Hristo Stoichkov score an 87th-minute winner for a team managed by Johan Cruyff that went on to win La Liga, lighting a long-term ambition to be at the cutting edge of the sport.
Alan began his financial career at Lehman Brothers where he became a Managing Director before being headhunted by sports and entertainment entrepreneur and Real Salt Lake owner Dave Checketts, who installed him as CEO & President of the Major League Soccer team.
There, he oversaw a remarkable turnaround in the club’s fortunes, rebuilding from the ground up to take a consistently last-place team onto becoming the 2009 MLS champions in just two seasons.
Alan continued as a sought-after sports business advisor for team owners and leagues as part of SCP Worldwide LLC where he was responsible for oversight of football assets and assistance with investments in other sports and entertainment properties.
But with the industry facing major crisis, Alan returned to financial services in 2008, taking up a key role as Head of Americas Prime Finance at leading bank Citi, where he helped guide the bank through one of the most challenging periods in its history. He later served as Managing Director and the Global Head of Sales Securities Services, overseeing a multibillion-dollar division.
Alan left Citi to found ALK Capital in 2019 with the ambition to acquire a football club with fellow investors and apply the best-practice learnings in business and sports management to this field.
Alan splits his time between New York and London with his wife Kristen and, having grown up in Southern California, enjoys surfing and snowboarding. He has three daughters whose initials make up the ALK in ALK Capital.
Stuart Hunt - Director
Having achieved success both in financial services for JPMorgan and a variety of hedge funds on Wall Street, Stuart Hunt has also built a restaurant business which operates across 40+ locations in the US and employs nearly 1000 members of staff.
Having excelled at lacrosse in college, Stuart has retained a keen interest in sports and the business of sport and joined Alan Pace as a partner of ALK Capital bringing his expertise in investing and operating high-returning businesses across a variety of industries.
Mike Smith - Director
As an experienced legal professional Mike Smith has represented some of the largest companies and most successful entrepreneurs in the world in the areas of financial operations, strategic positioning, complex problem solving and high-profile crisis management.Enjoying a rapid rise in the legal industry, named in the ‘Top 40 under 40’ by the American Legal Media, Mike spent 20 years at New York-based Brewer Attorneys & Counselors – becoming their youngest person to be made partner – before moving into the world of start-ups and joining ALK Capital.Within sports Mike has advised American Football leagues, professional sports franchise owners, and served as Strategic Advisor and Counsel in development of the world’s largest ice centre.
Dave Checketts - Director
A leading figure in sport and entertainment for nearly four decades, Dave Checketts brings a wealth of experience in growing successful sports franchises, stadia and hospitality business to Burnley. He will officially join the club in the summer after completing a three-year term of service as President of the LDS Church's London mission.
At 28, Checketts became President and General Manager of the Utah Jazz, making him the youngest Chief Executive in NBA history. He then spent a year as the General Manager of NBA International, where he worked to increase the league's presence around the world, before joining the New York Knicks in March 1991 as President, overseeing a period where the team set records for attendance, television ratings and revenue.
He went on to become President and CEO of Madison Square Garden, overseeing all venues and sports franchises owned by the group, before starting his own firm SCP Worldwide in 2001, an owner of sports and entertainment properties. In July 2004, SCP established Major League Soccer franchise Real Salt Lake and later installed Alan Pace as the club’s President and CEO.
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