Sir Alex Ferguson And Sequoia’s Mike Moritz To Speak At Disrupt London

The speakers for our TechCrunch Disrupt London conference on December 7-8, 2015 are many and varied. However, perhaps only two can boast living legend status at this point.

This will be the first time Sir Mike Moritz, the renowned tech investor, has interviewed Sir Alex Ferguson, the legendary coach of Manchester United, in the UK.

As Harvard Business Review put it, if “Steve Jobs was Apple” then “Sir Alex Ferguson is Manchester United.”

An internationally acclaimed manager, and bestselling author, Sir Alex Ferguson enjoyed an incredible career in the British, European and global football world. Firstly, in Scotland as a player and manager, and then with Manchester United Football Club, which he helped build into one of the most successful and valuable franchises in the world of sports.

In his twenty-seven years with Manchester United, the club won thirty-eight trophies—and the forty-nine trophies he accumulated over the course of his career were almost double that of the next-most successful English club manager.

Now, in his new, best-selling, book “LEADING: Learning from Life and My Years at Manchester United” (published by Hodder and Stoughton, at Amazon UK & Amazon US), Sir Alex reveals the tools, tactics, and pivotal decisions he applied throughout his record-breaking career to deliver sustained success on and off the field.

Sir Alex co-wrote the book with author and globally known venture capitalist Sir Michael Moritz (chairman of Sequoia Capital, which has been the original investor in companies now worth more than £1 trillion.) The book is wry, and full of wisdom, completely applicable to the tech startup world, such as Sir Alex’s advice on identifying, developing, and managing talent, and measuring people.

It’s also about analyzing the principal leadership approaches he applied and implemented over the duration of his career.

Drawing from his experiences in Silicon Valley and from Sequoia’s extensive investments in China and India, Moritz has drawn out the wider lessons of how such examples of great leadership can generate long-term, success in a business.

Held on December 7 and 8, (and preceded by a weekend Hackathon), TechCrunch Disrupt London is one of the most anticipated technology conferences of the year.

We’ll start each day with panels and one-on-one discussions featuring TechCrunch writers and editors, special guest speakers, leading venture capitalists and entrepreneurs addressing the issues of the day. In the afternoon, we host the Startup Battlefield competition among 20-plus startups which culminates in six finalists taking the stage at the end of the event for a shot at winning the Disrupt Cup, and taking away a £30,000 check.

You can still get tickets to Disrupt London here (get them soon – there are just two days left to save £400), as well as tickets to the Startup Alley where you can showcase your startup.

Our sponsors help make Disrupt happen. If you are interested in learning more about sponsorship opportunities, please contact our sponsorship team at sponsors@beta.techcrunch.com.