Chelsea chief financial officer Adriel Lares thought two decades in Silicon Valley had prepared him for corporate scrutiny.
Then he arrived at Stamford Bridge.
Lares joined Chelsea in late 2023 after a career spanning investment banking, technology start-ups, acquisitions and IPOs. Yet the American executive has admitted that the attention surrounding a Premier League club operates on an entirely different scale.
Speaking in a new interview with The Independent, Lares explained that “every single move” Chelsea make is examined not only locally but around the world.
It offers an intriguing insight into the financial operation behind a club where sporting ambition, commercial growth and supporter expectation continually collide.
Adriel Lares has been appointed #Chelsea’s new chief financial officer. Casper Stylsvig will join from AC Milan as chief revenue officer next month. Jason Gannon has been named chief operating officer.
[via @MikeKeegan_DM]
— Absolute Chelsea (@AbsoluteChelsea) October 4, 2023
From Silicon Valley to Chelsea
Lares did not arrive at Stamford Bridge with a traditional football background.
A Stanford economics graduate, he started in technology investment banking at Morgan Stanley before holding senior finance roles at 3PAR, Lookout, Fastly and Stash.
He helped take both 3PAR and Fastly through IPOs, while his career has also involved acquisitions, investor relations and scaling fast-growing technology companies.
When announcing his Chelsea move, Lares said his role would include working with the executive leadership team with a particular focus on long-term financial planning.
Those skills are clearly transferable.
Chelsea must make decisions on player investment, commercial growth, infrastructure and long-term planning while operating within football’s financial regulations.
But Lares has discovered that the environment surrounding those decisions is unlike the technology industry.
Public companies face shareholders, analysts and financial markets. Chelsea face all of those business pressures alongside millions of supporters emotionally invested in virtually every decision.
Why football changes the CFO role
That distinction has also featured in Lares’ appearance on The Football Economy.
The Chelsea CFO discussed capital allocation, innovation and the need to understand football’s emotional dimension rather than viewing a club purely through a conventional corporate lens.
It matters at Chelsea because the business cannot be separated neatly from results.
Transfer spending can strengthen the squad but immediately creates questions over value.
Commercial decisions can increase revenues but are judged through the experience of supporters.
Stadium planning affects the club’s long-term earning potential while also involving one of the most emotionally significant issues facing the fanbase.
Even ownership developments can alter the wider corporate picture, with ReadChelsea recently covering the latest talks surrounding Todd Boehly’s Chelsea stake.
The CFO therefore operates somewhere between traditional financial discipline and the demands of an organisation whose success is ultimately judged every weekend.
Chelsea success leaves little margin for error
Lares appears acutely aware of that reality.
He told The Independent that once a club reaches Chelsea’s level of history and status, “nothing but success will do”, adding that there is very little room for mistakes.
That may explain why his Silicon Valley background is relevant beyond simply balancing Chelsea’s accounts.
Technology businesses are accustomed to investing ahead of growth, assessing risk and allocating capital with long-term objectives in mind.
Football demands many of the same disciplines, but results can radically alter the atmosphere surrounding a strategy in the space of 90 minutes.
Lares has gone from helping companies navigate IPOs to helping Chelsea navigate one of football’s most demanding environments.
The numbers may still sit at the centre of his job.
The difference at Stamford Bridge is that everyone is watching them.
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