He is the man who receives more Christmas requests than that bearded bloke from Lapland. Brian McBride is the managing director of Amazon UK, the electronic superstore that has become a retail phenomenon.
He is the man who receives more Christmas requests than that bearded bloke from Lapland. Brian McBride is the managing director of Amazon UK, the electronic superstore that has become a retail phenomenon. He is one of the most influential business people in Britain. He is also Glaswegian and a non-executive director of Celtic. The last two facts, you suspect, are his greatest source of pride.
McBride was born in Ruchazie and raised in Mosspark. His allegiance to Celtic began aged nine when his father took him to the 1965 Scottish Cup final where the Parkhead side overcame Dunfermline courtesy of a Billy McNeill winner. Four years ago, he was offered a seat on the Celtic board. He did not hesitate in accepting the offer.
Despite his extensive business commitments, the 52-year-old attends every home game and the occasional away fixture. He is a part of the furniture at Celtic Park. We meet on the evening of the Champions League game against Villarreal and our interview flits between the football quarters, the UEFA delegates' room and the boardroom - he is as comfortable shooting the breeze with Gordon Strachan as he is number-crunching with Peter Lawwell.
He describes the role of Celtic in his life. "I got connected with the club through the board four years ago. Although you maybe don't need to be a fan to be on the board of a club, it really does help. It's not just about being dispassionate and looking at the numbers and the figures.
"I think it's a composed emotionalism. We the directors feel as gutted as the fans do when the team loses at Aalborg. When the team does well, the success is attributed to the manager and players, correctly so. When the team doesn't do well the pundits are always going to question the board. I've been in some terrible places, like the day we lost the league at Motherwell, sitting there getting abuse as the fans filed past. I understand how they feel. I've had the luxury of travelling with the club and you see fans who have spent their holiday money to go to these places only to see us losing. You might get a bit of abuse but it goes with the territory."
McBride grew up in Mosspark as one of eight children. His formative years imbued him with a vigorous work ethic and a strong appreciation of the value of education. "When you are part of a big family, you don't take anything for granted. My dad was a teacher and he worked all the hours he could. My mum marked the pools coupons at the weekend at Hillington estate.
"They worked hard to put bread on the table and we didn't think it was a hard life, though we did know that we weren't going to get a new pair of trainers or the latest video game. To get money you needed to work, so even at the age of 12 I was doing paper rounds and milk rounds.
"You get used to becoming self-sufficient quite early. What I learned through growing up in Scotland, and also through my dad, was the importance of education. It's a right, not a privilege in Scotland. We were all encouraged to do as much as we could. When you do that, you appreciate education and what it can do for you, and that then makes you appreciate your roots."
McBride is unmistakeably Glaswegian. His jet-setting business career may have sanded the rough edges off his native burr, but his down-to-earth manner still marks him out as a product of his environment.
When he tells me that he is to be included in next year's Who's Who, I burst out laughing. "I love that," he smiles. "Every time I tell anybody in Glasgow about being in Who's Who they laugh at me. It's such a Glaswegian reaction. In terms of how Glasgow informed my business career, I never had any airs and graces about me because I wasn't from a swanky school or university. It was just a good grounding and it has helped me in every job that I've done. You don't start off thinking you are going to be the guy who runs Amazon or T-Mobile where he was also managing director. You've got to be quite good, you need a bit of luck and you also need to take lessons from each job."
McBride started his career at Rank Xerox flogging photocopiers. "I had a photocopier in the back of the car and I'd be driving around industrial estates. What you didn't want was to have a photocopier in the back of your car for the weekend if you were taking a girl out, so you were really motivated to make sure someone took that photocopier off you for a demonstration. Wee things like that drive you."
He then progressed to IBM, Dell Computers, T-Mobile and now Amazon. His business commitments take him around the world on a regular basis and he is particularly passionate about establishing the club as a global brand.
He believes it is an area in which Celtic have much room for improvement.
"This year I have been in China, South Africa, Seattle and each time I've found a bar showing a live Celtic game, but it's because I've worked hard to get there. There are local, knowledgeable people who know how to get in touch with Celtic, but lots of people don't. There are lots of people outside the diaspora who would like to buy the merchandise. How do we get a product in the face of Americans?
"When I go to Seattle, which is where Amazon is based, I go to the big Nike store and always check to see how much Celtic merchandise is there. If I don't see the latest top I get annoyed and ask Nike what is going on. When I go to places like South Africa I'm always looking around and there is almost none out of there. We're not meeting the needs of the locals who know us, never mind those who don't know us.
"Peter Lawwell has hired Jason Hughes to give us a hand to create this international brand. Part of Jason's job is to broaden the merchandising base and the fanbase. If we do that, we can sell them physical products and, at some point through the internet or other media, sell them access to other elements of the club."
McBride plays down the old chestnut about Celtic escaping the limitations of the Scottish Premier League, but does believe that the current economic climate could lead to a greater appetite for change. "Changes in the Scottish and English Premier Leagues will not come about by democracy. There would need to be a revolution. What causes revolution in society is unrest.
"And so the financial instability that is going on just now may well work its way through to the English Premier League. You may well find that a lot of companies burdened with debt struggle to find a way through and may start to challenge the TV contract. Some of the big guys may end up saying, Do we want to share the money with Wigan and Bolton and Fulham and the clubs who have 18,000 coming along every week to a small stadium?' "We are not into pipedreaming here. The business is about assuming we are in Scotland. We've got to succeed here."
