Those who closely followed the life of Thomas Zilliacus were not surprised that he set out to pursue the ownership of a football club.
– An enthusiastic person and a person rich in ideas, describes Laila Snellman, of Thomas Zilliacus ex-girlfriend.
Zilliacus surprised on Thursday by saying that he has submitted a purchase offer from the football club Manchester United. However, Snellman was not surprised by the plan.
– Not at all, because futs has always been really important to Thomas and sports anyway. He has even coached his daughters’ soccer team in Signapore, Snellman tells Urheilu.
In 1983, Snellman founded a model agency called Paparazzi with Zilliacus. Zilliacus was the chairman of the board, and Snellman ran the company as CEO.
– He was Nokia’s director of communications Kari Kairamon under him, when he went with me to found Finland’s first model agency. It was quite a shock in Finland that a professional in a heavy industry goes to a modeling agency to represent the entertainment industry, a lighter industry, Snellman recalls.
Also in the 1980s, Zilliacus was pulling Tertta Saarikon with Kuusinen’s well-dressed club, or Q-Klub.
– He is a very bright, energetic and inspiring person, says Saarikko.
– I didn’t know about this news, but it’s surprising anyway. He has a background from Singapore and was a representative of Nokia during the big phone days, so he has a lot of contacts and connections. What I do know is that he’s crazy about football. In that sense, I am not surprised that exactly such a purchase intention.
Zilliacus worked for a long time as Nokia’s director of communications and later as director of Asia in the 1980s and 90s. He told Helsingin Sanomat a year ago (you switch to another service) having become wealthy through real estate transactions, shares and founding companies.
For example, Suomen Kuvalehti wrote in 2005 (you switch to another service)that before the turn of the millennium, Zilliacus acquired a solid reputation as a super-successful and international juggernaut.
– Nokia, women as well as business and politics were associated with him. The doors opened in front of him. The successful person was touched everywhere, from cocktail parties to top positions in international companies. At least that’s how it was whispered, SK started his story almost 18 years ago.
Zilliacus has lived in the big picture under the radar this millennium. He himself admitted to SK that he noticed that “in Finland it is not always remembered that such a man exists”.
At that time, Zilliacus spoke enthusiastically about the development of the investment company Mobile Future Works. He is still the chairman of the company’s board. The company operates, for example, in the fields of digital media, real estate and e-commerce.
The company says on its website that it owns a majority stake in more than 150 companies. Aggregate companies managed by Mobile Future Works (you will switch to another service) the market value is 3 billion US dollars according to the site.
The company director was on Finns’ lips for a while in 2014, when he considered challenging (you move to another service) Harry “Hjallis” Harkimon to court over arena deals. Zilliacus has told Ilta-Sanom (you will switch to another service) that he already proposed to Harkimo in 2012 the sale of the arena and the Jokers to the Russians.
In 2014, Zilliacus got his social media company Yuuzoo listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. The company ran into trouble in 2018 when a former employee alleged that it violated the local securities market law. The company’s operations were suspended in 2019 because the money ran out.