Nassef Sawiris, Wes Edens and Atairos – Aston Villa’s board explained
Aston Villa’s fortunes as a club have radically transformed over recent years.
Having been in the Championship as recently as 2019, Unai Emery’s side are now in the Europa League, having played the previous two seasons in each of the UEFA Champions League and Conference League.
While Villa’s start to the current campaign has been nothing short of a disaster, members of the Villa Park faithful will be delighted to see the progress their club has made in recent years.
Whilst a lot of that can be attributed to those doing the work on the pitch, Villa’s hierarchy will also be due some praise for the job they have done in recent seasons.
With that being said, Villa News takes a closer look at some of those influential figures behind the scenes.
Nassef Sawiris – Aston Villa co-owner and chairman
Sawiris, 64, is an Egyptian businessman worth around £6.6 billion.
Alongside business partner Wes Edens, the pair acquired a controlling stake in Villa back in 2018 for a paltry £30million where they were known as NSWE Group.
- As of May 2025, Villa were ranked as the 22nd most expensive club in the world by Forbes
- The club’s value sits at just over £667million today
- This is over a 2000 per cent increase on Sawiris’ initial investment
After taking over the club, Sawiris and Co. invested significant funds into addressing things such as an unpaid tax bill of £4million left by the previous owner, Tony Xia.
Sawiris and Edens bought out the rest of Xia’s shares back in August 2019 to become Villa’s sole owners.
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Wes Edens – Aston Villa co-owner
Edens, 63, is Sawiris’ American business partner, who is also a billionaire.
Edens and Sawiris, otherwise known as NSWE Group, when they took over at Villa, ultimately rebranded to V Sports in 2021.
Under Edens and Sawiris’ ownership, the pair have planned to expand Villa Park’s capacity to 50,000, which is set to cost V Sports £100million.
In April 2024, American investment firm Atairos acquired a minority position in V Sports to provide more financial muscle to the company that owns Villa, headed by Edens and Sawiris.
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Michael Angelakis and other board members
As part of Atairos’ acquisition of a minority stake in V Sports, Atairos chairman and chief executive, Angelakis, as well as their managing director, Chester Hall, were added to the board.
Atairos is said to be worth around £4.8million
After announcing this new partnership with V Sports, Angelakis said this in a statement posted on Villa’s website.
“We have deep respect for Aston Villa, its rich history and loyal fan base, world-class management team and employees, and the V Sports ownership group.
“We are confident this partnership will provide further long-term support for the growth of the Premier League and Aston Villa’s men’s and women’s teams.
“We look forward to working with Nassef, Wes and the Aston Villa team to strengthen the Club’s ability to compete and achieve even greater success.”
Further additions of Bashir Lebada and Sarah Louise Waterson were also made to the board.
These latest additions to the board have non-executive and mainly investor roles, whilst Sawiris and Edens manage the day-to-day operations at Villa Park.
In October 2024, Atairos purchased more shares in Villa in an investment worth around £50million, taking their equity in the club to around 31%.
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