After leaving the senior service, he then undertook various roles in business in Asia, eventually becoming chief executive of Pace Systems.

[2] On 15 October 2010, NESV completed its £300m takeover of Liverpool,[3] at which time the club's existing Managing Director Christian Purslow stepped down.

The club's owners, Fenway Sports Group, led by John W. Henry and the chairman Tom Werner, announced Ayre as the new Managing Director on 22 March 2011.

[4][5][6] With the sacking of sporting director Damien Comolli in April 2012, Ayre was given more responsibility and in May 2014 was officially promoted to chief executive officer.

He left this position in May 2017 shortly before 1860 Munich was relegated to the 3 Liga[16] and later went down to the fourth division due to financial issues.