Crozier back in action after paying penalty at FA

At the tender age of 38, Adam Crozier's departure from the Football Association in October after a dispute with Premier League chairmen was the first blot on what has been an illustrious career.

He graduated from Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, where he studied business organisation, and started out in media sales at the Daily Telegraph. He joined the advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, as a lowly media executive in 1988 and three years later had become its youngest ever board director at age 26. By 1995, aged 30, he had been made chief executive.

A spell as a communications adviser to England's World Cup 2006 bid threw him in to the FA's path and he is now best known as the Scot – he was born on the Isle of Bute – who hired a Swede to run England's football team. Sven Goran Eriksson is the first foreign coach in England's history. His management style was described as "autocratic" by the Chelsea chairman, Ken Bates.

During his three years in charge of the FA, where he was on a £613,000 pay package, Mr Crozier moved it from its historic base in Lancaster Gate to Soho Square in central London. It was Mr Crozier, a Celtic fan, who pushed through the £757m plan to rebuild Wembley Stadium.

He was also behind taking the commercial success of the FA to new limits – he presided over the signing of a TV contract worth £400m and sponsorship deals worth about £200m.

It was his success in transforming the FA that caught the eye of the Royal Mail chairman, Allan Leighton, who is also vice-chairman at Leeds United. Mr Crozier is understood to be well connected at senior levels in both industry and the Government, and recently held private talks with Gordon Brown at the Chancellor's invitation.