Peter John Winkelman is the former

chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

and owner of English

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club Milton Keynes Dons and former

managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

Inter MK Ltd, which was involved in the development of the Denbigh North district of Milton Keynes. He is most widely known as having facilitated the controversial relocation of Wimbledon F.C. to Milton Keynes and being responsible for their subsequent rebranding as 'Milton Keynes Dons F.C.'

Early career

His earlier career was in

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...

production, as a

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

executive.From Wimbledon to Winkelman, a crazy new journey - ''The Observer'' Sunday 30 March 2008
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Involvement in football

Winkelman grew up as a supporter of his home town club,

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

before his eventual involvement with

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

and ultimately Milton Keynes Dons. In 2001, in a deal facilitated by Winkelman, the Wimbledon FC

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

decided to relocate the club to

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of Milton Keynes urban area, its urban area was 264,349. The River Great Ouse forms t ...

, around 60 miles from its

south London South London is the southern part of Greater London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, Lon ...

home base. The club, which went into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

in 2003, played their first match in Milton Keynes in September, controlled by an

administrator Administrator or admin may refer to: Job roles Computing and internet * Database administrator, a person who is responsible for the environmental aspects of a database * Forum administrator, one who oversees discussions on an Internet forum * N ...

. At the end of the season, the club was bought out by a consortium led by Winkelman, who became the club's chairman. The new board relaunched the club as "Milton Keynes Dons FC", also giving the side a new all-white strip and a new club crest. In August 2024, Winkelman sold the club to a Kuwait-based consortium, with Fahad Al Ghamin replacing him as chairman. This ended his 21 year association with the club as owner.

Personal life

He is married to wife Berni. Winkelman moved to Milton Keynes in 1993, establishing

Great Linford Manor Linford Manor, also known as Great Linford Manor, is a seventeenth-century mansion or manor house converted into a recording studio complex in Great Linford, a district in Milton Keynes, England. It is now owned by Pete Winkelman who is chairm ...

(a 17th-century

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...

) as a

recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for Sound recording and reproduction, recording and Audio mixing, mixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home proje ...

complex. The house was originally the

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

Great Linford Great Linford is a historic village, district and wider civil parish in the north of Milton Keynes, England, between Wolverton and Newport Pagnell, and roughly north of Central Milton Keynes. Great Linford village Great Linford was one of the ...

, a village and district of Milton Keynes.

Honours

In June 2013, Winkelman was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Milton Keynes-based

Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

"to mark his contribution to education through the world of professional football".MK Dons chairman receives Honorary Doctorate from The Open University ''The Open University'' June 6th, 2013
On 12 November 2015,

Milton Keynes Council Milton Keynes City Council is the local authority for the City of Milton Keynes, a local government district in Buckinghamshire, England. The council was established in 1974 as Milton Keynes Borough Council. Since 1997 it has been a unitary au ...

awarded him the council's highest ceremonial honour, the

Freedom Freedom is the power or right to speak, act, and change as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving oneself one's own laws". In one definition, something is "free" i ...

of the Borough of Milton Keynes.VIDEO: Pete Winkelman - ‘the man who made MK a world-renowned name’ - given Freedom of the Borough

Milton Keynes Citizen The ''Milton Keynes Citizen'' is the only freely distributed local newspaper in Milton Keynes. The newspaper is owned by National World. The ''MK Citizen'' was founded by Bill Alder and 1981 and they sold to EMAP in 1987 and the purchase was c ...

, 12 November 2015

References

Milton Keynes Dons F.C. English football chairmen and investors Living people 1957 births {{UK-music-bio-stub