Carol Shanahan's involvement in Port Vale may be a lot more recent than the Coates' with Stoke, but her commitment to the club's improvement on and off the pitch can certainly not be questioned, as they look to climb the leagues to meet the Potters once again.

Shanahan, born in Skegness and raised in West Bromwich, initially left school without any formal qualifications, but at age 17, she became the first female main-frame computer operator at Hoskins Systems in Birmingham.

It was there that she met Kevin Shanahan in 1979, and the pair founded fintech company Synectics Solutions in February 1992, which provides predictive analytics and data services to finance, insurance and government departments in the UK, Canada and the USA. The company moved their headquarters to Stoke-on-Trent town, Burslem, in 2015, to a large building next to Vale Park, and it was then that the Shanahans first tried to buy the Valiants from then-owner Smurthwaite, after becoming fans of the club and following them up and down the country for years. The pair also set up hospitality firm Summit Hospitality after finding they had extra rooms in Synectics' new building, and Carol and Kevin were confirmed as Vale's new owners in 2019, buying the club from Smurthwaite for a reported fee of more than £5m. Carol became sole owner in January 2020 as Kevin stepped down, and Vale have had contrasting fortunes since their takeover, with promotion from League Two in 2022, but then relegation from League One in 2024.