Jeremy Roland Peace
Born	13 August 1956 (1956-08-13) (age 53) West Bromwich, England
Title	Chairman, West Bromwich Albion F.C.
Predecessor	Paul Thompson

Jeremy Roland Peace (born 13 August 1956 in West Bromwich) is an English company director. Since June 2002 he has been the chairman of West Bromwich Albion F.C., a professional football club in the West Midlands, England.

[edit] Biography

Jeremy Peace was born in 1956 and educated at Shrewsbury School. He worked in accountancy, stock broking and investment banking between 1974 and 1983. Until 1991, he was a major shareholder and director of Morland Securities PLC (later renamed Access Satellite International PLC) and then Sangers Photographics PLC (later renamed Quadrant Group PLC). Since that time, he has operated as a director and/or shareholder in various public limited companies, namely South Country Homes, Thomas Potts, London Town, e-primefinancial, EP&F Capital, Galahad Capital, Camelot Capital and West Bromwich Albion.

He joined the board of West Bromwich Albion as a Non-Executive Director in December 2000, becoming Chairman in June 2002 following the resignation of Paul Thompson. The Company was taken private in 2005 and the Club’s shares were consolidated three years later, with him owning a 55 per cent shareholding.

When he took the helm at The Hawthorns, the Club had just won promotion to the Premier League for the first time, thus ending a 16-year exile from the top flight. Albion were relegated at the end of their first season in the Premier League but bounced straight back by finishing runners-up in Division One in 2003/04 – just like they had two years earlier. There were similarly joyous scenes at the Black Country club 12 months later when Albion retained their top-flight status by becoming the first Premier League team to avoid relegation after being bottom at Christmas. Relegation again followed in 2005/06 and there was more agony a year later when a Play-Off final defeat to Derby County at Wembley denied them an immediate Premier League return. However, those tears again turned to cheers the following season when Albion clinched promotion by winning the Coca-Cola Championship – their first league title success for 88 years. The Club also reached the FA Cup semi-finals at the new Wembley that season. Sadly, relegation followed again during 2008/09 but Albion have started the latest campaign well as they bid to bounce back under new head coach Roberto Di Matteo.

[edit] References