Jaguars Front Office Roster | Jacksonville Jaguars - jaguars.com

Shad Khan
Owner
Biography
Shad Khan, described in a Forbes magazine cover story in 2012 as the "New Face of the American Dream," and recently by the same magazine as one of the world's greatest living business minds, saw his goal of owning an NFL team become reality on Dec. 14, 2011, in a unanimous 32-0 vote by NFL owners in support of his purchase of the franchise.
Shad Khan, described in a Forbes magazine cover story in 2012 as the "New Face of the American Dream," and recently by the same magazine as one of the world's greatest living business minds, saw his goal of owning an NFL team become reality on Dec. 14, 2011, in a unanimous 32-0 vote by NFL owners in support of his purchase of the franchise.
After closing on the purchase of the Jaguars on Jan. 4, 2012, Khan has been an active owner on NFL matters, a fan-friendly owner for the Jaguars and a tireless supporter for the continued advancement of the Jacksonville community, particularly its downtown.
Khan's passion for the National Football League also took root long before his entry into the league. His dream of one day owning an NFL team began while watching games with his fraternity brothers in the basement of the Beta Theta Pi house as a student at the University of Illinois. Through the success of his own business, Flex-N-Gate, his dream came true 40 years later.
A longtime leader and visionary in the automotive parts industry, Khan was familiar with Jacksonville long before purchasing the team. Jacksonville's port at one time was the United States' largest for automobile shipments, and Khan's fledgling Flex-N-Gate business brought him to Jacksonville's Blount Island terminal to install his patented bumpers on the import vehicles, all part of his company's formative steps toward becoming a global power in the hyper-competitive automotive parts industry.
Flex-N-Gate is currently ranked by Automotive News as the seventh largest original equipment supplier in North America, the 45th largest supplier in Europe and the 31st largest supplier in the world. Flex-N-Gate employs more than 23,000 people at 67 manufacturing facilities and nine product development and engineering facilities throughout the United States, Canada, China, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, France and Spain. Flex-N-Gate's major product lines include complete bumper assemblies, mechanical assemblies, exterior plastic trim, stamped body-in-white and chassis assemblies, forward and signal lighting and plastic tailgate assemblies, and complex welded structural assemblies for the light vehicle market.
In March 2017, Flex-N-Gate Group further expanded its European presence by acquiring seven former Plastic Omnium businesses in Europe – four in France, one in Spain and two in Germany – thereby boosting the company's ability to serve European OEM customers with capabilities and technologies that will enhance Flex-N-Gate's existing international OEM relationships.
Today, Flex-N-Gate has a global footprint reaching from Canada to Argentina and from the United States into Europe and Asia. The company's clients include all of the major automotive manufacturers in North America, Japan and Europe. In 2007, Khan received the Minority Business Leadership Award from the National Minority Supplier Development Council and has continued to earn honors throughout the world for his example as a successful minority business owner, which extends to the NFL, as, in 2011, he became the first team owner of minority ethnicity in league history.
Khan chairs two important NFL committees – the Legalized Sports Betting Committee, to which he was appointed chairman in 2018, as well as the influential Business Ventures Committee, which he has led since 2016. Khan also sits on the NFL Network Committee, the Finance Committee and the Health and Safety Committee, and his vision for international growth, both for his Jaguars and the NFL, has been celebrated throughout sports and business circles as being the only team owner who made a long-term commitment to annually play in the important London and UK market. His initial four-year agreement to play one home game in each season from 2013 to 2016 was extended through the 2020 season, with all games scheduled for Wembley Stadium, the national stadium of England.
In 2013, Khan complemented his sports club portfolio with his purchase of Fulham Football Club, established in 1879 as the oldest professional club in London. Fulham's famed home ground, Craven Cottage, is currently undergoing a spectacular renovation with the introduction of Fulham Pier – a one-of-a-kind , mixed-use destination that will also serve as the club's new spectator stand on the banks of the River Thames.
In September 2016, Khan purchased full ownership of Four Seasons Hotel Toronto, regarded universally as one of the premier destinations in the luxury hotel segment anywhere in the world. The property, located in the fashionable Yorkville neighborhood, continues to be managed by Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and deepens Khan's roots in Canada, where Flex-N-Gate operates 11 plants in Ontario.
In 2019, Khan and his son Tony launched All Elite Wrestling, a new wrestling league featuring world-class talent that is giving fans a new wrestling experience for the first time in 20 years. AEW Dynamite premiered last fall on TNT as Wednesday's No. 1 wrestling show and became TNT's biggest premiere in five years, reaching in six months more than 44 million people across all platforms with more than 100,000 live event tickets sold. It was also announced last fall that Khan would be the lead investor in the Black News Channel, which made its debut earlier this year and is available in more than 50 million households nationwide.
Khan and his wife, Ann, are philanthropic leaders both in Jacksonville as well as in Illinois, where they met as students while attending the University of Illinois. Since 2012, the Khans have focused their charitable giving in the Jacksonville community through the Jaguars Foundation. Through the Foundation, they provided more than $1.4 million in grants in 2012, $1.6 million in 2013, $1.7 million in 2014, $2.1 million in 2015, $2.5 million in 2016, $3.1 million in 2017 and $1.7 million in 2018. These grants support children's and family programs, the NFL/Jaguars Play 60 youth fitness and youth football programs, military and veterans, women's health issues, neighborhood revitalization and other NFL and team-related initiatives.
Significant grant support has been provided for key initiatives. The Khan family's strong commitment to our military and veterans includes a $1.5 million partnership with the City of Jacksonville's Veterans Resource and Reintegration Center at City Hall, now in its sixth year of operation. A major contribution was made to the Baptist Health Foundation resulting in a $2.3 million endowment to help bring the nationally-renowned MD Anderson Cancer Center to the Baptist Health downtown campus in Jacksonville. Khan and the Jaguars Foundation also responded to the devastation wrought in northeast Florida by Hurricane Irma in 2017 with a gift of $1 million to the United Way of Northeast Florida's First Coast Relief Fund and donated 5,000 tickets to the Jaguars' home opener to first responders and local residents impacted by the hurricane. And, most recently, Khan personally donated $1 million to Jacksonville-area efforts dedicated to COVID-19 relief and response.
In 2018, Khan, an immigrant himself, joined 65 North Florida residents originally from 38 different countries to take their final step in saying the "Oath of Allegiance" in front of 65,000 fans to officially become Naturalized U.S. Citizens at halftime of the Jaguars' home game against Washington on December 16. It marked the first-ever U.S. citizenship ceremony held during an NFL game, a tradition Khan now continues each year. The previous year, in celebration of the Jaguars' AFC Wild Card matchup against the Buffalo Bills on Jan. 7, 2018, Khan and the Jaguars Foundation donated 500 tickets to refugees and immigrants from around the world who have settled in the Jacksonville area, while an additional 500 tickets were given to families from Puerto Rico in Florida who had been displaced by the destruction from Hurricane Maria.
Khan shares his passion for the American dream with his family, and he and his wife Ann have passed on their commitment to work and service to their two grown children, Tony and Shanna. Tony is the Jaguars' senior vice president for football administration and technology.