if you're familiar with this this is
Dubliners the Pogues and
little bit of a verse that I think
probably embodies my life I've been
incredibly fortunate I've got a career
that has rich and I'm gonna take you
through a little bit of a whistle-stop
tour that rich experiences I've also
been very lucky you make the right
decisions at the right times in the
right situations when roles are offered
you and in particular if you're working
around the world as I've done to
relocate to a typical difficult place or
a challenging place to move into a
different industry altogether which I
was able to do but throughout all of
that I had one secret weapon one
superhero strength I was born in
Liverpool
Mack so I was actually born in a
workhouse in Toxteth which actually was
Sefton General Hospital those of you a
certain generation were also born there
I have to report now it's the Asda on
Smithtown Road but you know life goes
around circle of life this is my dad and
dad is very important in this story my
dad was a docker World War 2 Royal
Artillery on the Bofors guns in London
anti-aircraft came back to Liverpool
like so many of his generation did
started off work in a pub got his own
pub the dragonarms
that's top right there and one of the
first lessons I learned if you look at
that photograph very very carefully on
the right side is a barrel girl and the
barrel girls and you got to be as old as
me were the women who were working so
hard post-world War two in this city and
my first lesson about Liverpudlian as'f
you will was absolute sheer hard work to
get through the challenges that this
city had and still has at times with
that focus that a Liverpudlian does on
sheer hard work and what a barrel girl
do we would go to great Houma Street
Market load up in fruit and veg and push
those barrows down the streets of
Liverpool Scotland Road and great Houma
Street in particular bottom right
the interestingly laying bent gay
cavalier a gay house for gay people all
very different that at that time in the
60s is the pub we got on speak Road and
those of you that go to the airport if
you look to the left and I annoy my wife
every time we go to the airport it's
still there except it's a budget tire
depot does this is anybody you know
we're I mean right opposite the old
Brian Mays match factory but my dad
plays an important role in my life from
something that he did whilst we were
living in the gay cavalier my brother
who was here were 13 months apart my dad
had one ticket to a football match it
was November 1959 and Liverpool were
playing the mighty Leyton Orient
Liverpool was in Division two and my dad
said to my brother Andy and I I said one
ticket one of you can have a ticket can
come to the
with me the other can have half a crown
that's how old I am
that's all we are Andy being Andy I'll
take the half a crown but I went to the
game and thus started a love affair with
a football club that's given me so much
and you know what a privilege for me to
be on this stage in advance of a game
this afternoon to be able to talk to you
there's my granddad hms tarragon that's
world war one a classic
Scouse story world war one royal navy
camelids
in between the wars world war two Royal
Navy torpedo twice in the same day
there's mum and dad I think that's
oddest pool beach so we've got this
sensibility of being Liverpudlian we
have this sensibility of being
Liverpudlian that gives them them fair
advantage the sense of service where you
are sitting right now if you're not from
around here this stretch of waterfront
was the most heavily bombed one-mile
stretch in the United Kingdom during
World War two outside of London why
because this is where the ships were
built this was the starting point for
what the Battle of Atlantic would be if
you haven't been to the Western
Approaches Museum here in Liverpool go
there because this is where World War
Two on the Atlantic was won and so from
that element that classic family linkage
came through with my mom's level of
service as well a nurse at one of the
great institutions in this country Alda
hey Hospital serves 275 to this day 275
thousand children in the United Kingdom
so dad a docker became a public and mom
a nurse that served
1948 to 1952 in all the Hey naked
pictures of me so on the Left I'm naked
on the right I have moved on from just
having no pants on so I'm not this is I
think it in our home and in her saline
Road it moved around very quickly but
but again and a magnificent a head of
hair
that's me top right this is we had moved
then outside of Liverpool to get a pub
between Wrexham and Chester where my
family who are here with me today still
live a little village called mofford
and it began my my love affair with
football which which informs so much of
my life I'm top right magnificent
Barnack going on there but I wanted to
be a PE teacher because the man bottom
left there oh I made words I idolized I
wanted to be what he was he was had
integrity he had authority he had was
caring he had sensibility and I went to
be a physical education teacher went to
university and tour for five years and
clang Coughlin but during that period of
time I had experienced America I'd gone
over and and coached in Ohio and really
got that little bug of what I wanted to
do in my career packed up teaching went
move with with my girlfriend who then
became my wife and spent a tremendous
amount of time trying to figure out what
I wanted to do the bonnet has started to
fade there I'm in the middle with the
red track suit on but this is me in Long
Beach and that classic immigrant story
of getting there working incredibly hard
but again that one element of what I
wanted to do was create a career create
a life create a family out there that
could take best opportunity and my
Liverpool nurse my scouts nurse was kind
of that superweapon that I had that
Americans didn't have and I moved on
into a proper career selling shoes work
for a company called Patrick French
soccer shoe company for 11 years and I
remember during this period 1983
difficult time and I thought what do I
have one of my attributes is a human
being because otherwise I'm gonna have
to end up going back to the UK well I
was a PE teacher so eight times a day I
convinced 35 boys to do something they
didn't want to do get out in those North
Wales hills in the snow and play rugby
secondarily my dad had me worked behind
the bar at 11 years of age completely
illegal but 11 years of age I got
confident enough to deal with adults and
and to make change and to pull a pint
they're all the regulars so it really
wasn't a challenging bird I got that
confidence and then thirdly Amis causa
I could talk I could convince people I
could sell I had that sense of self
confidence that self belief that we all
have as Liverpudlian some of it a little
stretch versus what we should be but we
have that element of we believe who we
are and when you're selling something
you better believe who you are
and in your product so I'm going to
share what I thought was my proudest
moment I came back to Liverpool in
August of 1996 and this happened I'm
going to apologize in advance for my
hair from my beard for my tie and for my
suit it's a very proud moment for all of
us back in the u.s. to be able to
publicly announce our partnership with
what has been and continues to be
without doubt one of the finest clubs in
wil football today on a personal note as
a born-and-bred Liverpudlian this is a
particularly proud moment but more
importantly i know this is the biggest
most prestigious coup for Reeboks global
football division to date as a company
Reebok is strongly committed to
revolutionising sports so explosive
creativity and innovation I think both
of these qualities are more than
evidence with the Liverpool football
team four years ago it was our intention
babe this is me coming back to Liverpool
as head of global sports marketing for
Reebok and doing the deal that allowed
us to be able s at Reebok to be able to
associate ourselves with the greatest
football club in the world as far as
Iowans said what a proud moment for me
coming back as a Liverpudlian as well
and I thought this would be the proudest
moment of my life until what's happened
more recently and then at 45 years of
age as you do decided I wanted a
completely different career move back to
the west coast
take my Liverpool nurse take my you know
probably self-confident more than I
should be but my gift of the gap and get
into video games I became president of
Sega Sonic the Hedgehog you familiar
with but started to adopt that frontman
for hardware in a very different and
unique way yes it took its toll on me as
you can see that
the movie houses dead in which I
appeared as a zombie but one of the fun
things that you're able to do in video
games and my job was to be the frontman
was to bring things to life and whether
I'm arguing with the special one or I'm
bantering with Becks
or I'm working with huge men in the
National Football League with our Madden
NFL license when I was Electronic Arts
it was all a very important part of how
we in video games how we in hardware
technology software and services brought
it all to life I was able to hang out
with Drake and and do snapchat with DJ
Khaled and these are the moments that
allowed me as this lad from Liverpool to
give back to to you know the the
community that was video games and
through my unique personality and doing
things in a very different way I work
for Bill Gates around the Xbox business
and my job was to be not a Microsoft
employee even though I was a Microsoft
employee why because Bill believed it
needed somebody that explained the
technology and my job was to launch the
Xbox 360 and again pulling from my
Liverpool nough Sprouse ness pulling
from the self belief in Who I am and
what my product is pulling in the
lessons that my granddad and my
grandfather and my grandma dad and my
mom taught me about hard work ethics
morals integrity self belief all of that
which is intrinsic in all of us as
Liverpudlians I met some interesting
people at FIFA who are no longer at FIFA
but I did get to hold the World Cup and
one of the best times I had was being at
the helm of the world's biggest annual
video game licence mostly referred of
FIFA and in my role as president of EA
Sports and more recently as chief
operating officer of EA
it was phenomenal watching that digital
transformation of how games were turning
from games on disks to absolute services
I was on South Park now this
if you haven't seen it it's it's the
interestingly named crack baby
basketball Association and the basic
theory is if you've watched South Park
you realized that this is the way things
go in these episodes babies born cocaine
I've got a lot of energy therefore they
can play basketball quickly so they
needed a video game license I'm mr.
Peters apparently I assume their lawyers
decided that that was probably the
safest way to do it it was fun for me it
was one of those moments and
unfortunately in all of the things I've
done through industry in 40 odd years
people will come up to me and says
you're the guy from South Park right and
that's really fun but it's not what I
want to be remembered by I want to
remember by the great times I had just
wonderful times of bringing an industry
from physical media into digital and
being able to bring joy to what is now
billions of people who play video games
and being that guy that could be the
frontman for it I've been so lucky to
certainly a TA where I learned so much
as a Silicon Valley executive about how
we could enhance people's lives take
games from boys in their bedrooms to
make them full services and it's been an
awesome awesome awesome experience for
me but when I think about it and was
able to be in a position to put Jordan
Henderson on the cover of FIFA four
years ago which is one of those things I
look back at smiling at the time got all
kinds of abuse at the time that is until
Jordan lifted the European Cup in Madrid
and June the first having beaten Messi
along the way and vindication for me
like any good scouser I'm a hype man my
job was to build games you can see me
there with tattoos that will launch
dates of games that again bill whose
bill and I onstage they encouraged us to
bring the humanity bring my personality
to life to be the personality if you
will of the hardware rock band on the
bottom there which I infamously somehow
managed to pause on life television
because I wasn't very good at playing
that guitar is these moments that show
the humanity of what you're able to
bring to a piece of hardware software
and services in the days of interactive
entertainment but I came back to this
magnificent jewel on the Mersey and this
is a photograph I took on my phone just
three weeks ago I live on the world and
going over and just caught my breath
it's one of those beautiful afternoons
where the Sun was just coming down and
the Three Graces and this building and
the M&S Bank Arena next to it and man
Island all were glistening and just
pulled over took the picture you can see
the cathedrals and this is the circle of
life that I wish so many people were
able to experience like I have done
which is the ability to give back and
come back after 55 years away and after
40 years away from the United Kingdom
and to have experiences like this which
if you just said to me I'd be holding
the Champions League trophy with Virgil
van Dyck or more recently the Super Cup
in Istanbul with adrionna standing
goalkeeper who would the week before it
didn't even have a football team these
are all incredible moments I went on the
parade 750,000 people I might took my
dad with me so he could be there as we
were coming through some of the more
challenging neighborhoods in Liverpool
but my dad was with me because he had
started all of this he'd started this
love of the Football Club that brought
me back to this cities the only reason I
would have come back and my children one
of the things when my dad and I in his
later years and I was working in Silicon
Valley and he didn't understand what we
was doing there was one threat there was
one common denominator there was a one
subject we could talk about football
Liverpool Football Club and I had these
kids when I'm dribbling and I'm wearing
adult nappies in about 25 years from now
we'll talk football they're all
Americans they'll all be watching this
afternoon my gift of the gab convinced
I've remarried and convinced this
beautiful woman to marry me I don't know
this married that and convinced her to
be part of my life and I'm so grateful
and she's here today
mom and dad aren't but you'll never walk
alone' is on their headstone and I know
they'll be watching up there the game
this afternoon and everything that
they've given me to be here to at least
allow me to talk to you and spend a
little bit of time talking about my life
has been down to them and I guess this
is my my message
that's my gap II tooth spring wood
school in Allerton I don't know
1959-1960 photo embrace your roots I've
embraced mine I've carried them wherever
I haven't lived here in decades but I've
always lived here
it's always been a part of me I've
leveraged it to my maximum ability to
take the best out of my career to give
it to my people that I worked with
alongside those I competed with my
family and I come back to this
magnificent city this is a picture I
took last week just on my phone from my
desk
it is obviously a city a jewel on the
Mersey and this is an incredible unique
city that we should all be proudly
living thank you
you