Celtic’s owners are a collection of shareholders with Dermot Desmond in control of the largest single stake. The Irish businessman first bought into the Glasgow giants back in 1994.
The Celtic Park natives have been a public limited company since 1994 when former owner Fergus McCann gained majority control. He later sold off his stake in 1999, with there now a combined 10 investors financing the Premiership club’s bid to add to Celtic’s long list of trophies.
When did Dermot Desmond join the Celtic board?
McCann ended one family’s century-long ownership of Celtic as he and Brian Dempsey led a consortium in buying the club in March 1994. The Bhoys were rooted in debt at the time of the coup with the Bank of Scotland threatening receivership as their overdraft reached £9m.
One of McCann’s first acts in control of 50% of the shares in Celtic was to publicly list stakes. Desmond secured a mixture of preference and ordinary shares as part of the share issue for £4m. He also paid a further £8m in September 1999 when McCann put his stake up for sale.
The £8m investment made Desmond the largest single shareholder Celtic with 20% of the shares, up from 14%. Desmond also underwrite £10m of a £15m share issue in October 2005. It was set up to raise cash needed to build Celtic’s Lennoxtown training ground and also reduce debts.
Today, Desmond has 34.7% of the shares in Celtic PLC to be the largest minority shareholder. He also has a seat on the club’s board of directors as a non-executive director. The Irish businessman was first appointed to the Bhoys’ hierarchy in May 1995 and is the longest-serving member.
Who is on the Celtic board?
Desmond is officially a non-executive director of the board, with those alongside him delegating tasks to executive directors that run the day-to-day operations of Celtic.
Celtic executive directors
- Michael Nicholson – Chief Executive Officer (Appointed in 2021)
- Christopher McKay – Chief Financial Officer (Appointed in 2016)
Celtic non-executive directors
- Brian Wilson – Interim chairman (Appointed to the board in 2005 but became interim chairman in January 2026)
- Sharon Brown – Chair of the Audit Committee (Appointed in 2016 but became chair of the audit committee in January 2017)
- Dermot Desmond – Largest single shareholder (Appointed in 1995)
- Brian Rose (Appointed in 2013)
Who are Celtic’s shareholders?
- Dermot Desmond (34.7%)
- Lindsell Train Limited (18.6%)
- Christopher D Trainer (11.02%)
- James Mark Keane (6.25%)
- Individual Celtic fans (15-20%)
