Andrew Croker

Advisory Board Chairman

Andrew chairs Oakwell’s Advisory Board. His experience as a serial entrepreneur and working for some of the biggest names in the sports industry provides the team with invaluable guidance and support.

His career in the sports industry spans nearly five decades. In 1986, he became the first head of sport at BSB, the forerunner to Sky Sports, creating and running the UK’s first dedicated sports channel, and later went on to work for IMG and Sportfive.

He is perhaps best known for co-founding digital sports rights agency Perform in 2007. He went on to chair Play Sports Group, and consult for Hawk-Eye, the world leader in ball-tracking technology.

He is an active investor in sports and technology businesses, including F1 Arcade, Grabyo, Poolhouse, Clearstake, Pure Electric, Manors and Stepathlon.

David Armstrong

Senior Advisor

David sits on Oakwell’s advisory board,  providing the team with strategic guidance, supported by his wealth of experience in the sports industry.

David has served as Chief Executive of the Racecourse Association (RCA) since March 2019 after working with Wasps Holdings as Group Chief Executive. Prior to his time with Wasps, David undertook senior positions with PepsiCo, Compass Group, Diageo, and Lonrho. He is also the Chair of the England Netball Board, Director of the Horseracing Betting Levy Board, and a nominated Director at the British Horseracing Authority, as well as the former Chairman of GB Modern Pentathlon.

David is a keen golfer and tennis player but his greatest passion is participation in road rallies. He competes every year in the famous Mille Miglia in the Ferrari Tributo class.

Mark Oliver

Senior Advisor

Mark started out as an antitrust and regulatory economist working on some of the large privatisations in the 1980s before becoming the BBC’s first ever Head of Strategy where he set up the strategy unit and helped drive through a series of reforms in the early 1990s.

He is currently Executive Chairman of Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates which he co-founded in 1995 and which advises media companies, sports organisations, investors and regulators on strategy, commercial exploitation, regulation and investment decisions. Sports clients have included the EPL, the EFL, the FA. Serie A, ECB, UEFA, Manchester United, Liverpool FC, FIS, the IOC, Bundesliga, Six Nations. Media clients have included the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Paramount, NBCUniversal, Warner Brothers Discovery, Liberty Global, RTL, ProsiebenSat.1, BT, Sky, CAA. Commercial due diligence investor clients have included KKR, CVC, Arctos, Redbird, Advent, General Atlantic, Bridgepoint.

Mark’s proudest work achievements so far have been helping UK independent TV producers become  leading global companies by obtaining the rights to their own IP, helping sports bodies understand the value of their rights to pay TV and then triple play platforms, and creating UKTV – the BBC’s most successful commercial JV.

Mark’s main current sporting activities are limited to swimming, yoga and the occasional very bad round of golf somewhere in remote parts of Scotland having given up Rugby playing in his 20s,  and dabbled with Fencing and cricket again in his 40s.

His favourite sporting memories are seeing the first ever Cricket World Cup at Lords and Vic Richards score 291 and Michael Holding take 14 wickets at the Oval.

Mark Dodson

Senior Advisor

Mark Dodson has enjoyed a 25 year career in media before pivoting to sport. He previously served on the Board of the Guardian Media Group and was CEO of the Regional Media Division. His career also saw him involved with national, regional and local newspapers, radio and television. In 2011, Mark moved into sport taking up the position of CEO of the Scottish Rugby Union.

During his 13 year tenure at Scottish Rugby he was responsible for a transformation of the organisation’s commercial and on field performance, with Scotland Men’s and Women’s national teams reaching a world ranking of 5th in the world.

Mark has also served on the Boards of the 6 Nations, the British and Irish Lions , Scottish Rugby and held positions on World Rugby’s Finance, Audit &Risk and Professional Game committees.

He is interested in all sectors of sport and will be active in developing new opportunities with Oakwell.

Doug Harmer

Senior Consultant

Doug leads corporate finance and strategic consulting projects across Oakwell’s business. Over the last 22 years, he has worked on corporate finance mandates, financial restructurings, and fundraisings across football, rugby, esports, and sports marketing as well as general industry sectors.

Doug qualified as a Chartered Accountant at KPMG and is an experienced corporate finance expert to the High Court of London.

When he’s not supporting his daughters’ latest sporting pursuits, Doug enjoys a round of golf or game of tennis at his local club.

Colin Grassie

Senior Advisor

Colin’s professional career includes 32 years in Capital Markets at JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank followed by an 8 year Term on the Scottish Rugby Union Board, latterly as Chairman.

He served on the Deutsche Bank Group’s Global Executive Committee, sat on the FCAs Practitioner Panel and Deputy Chaired the Association of Financial Markets in Europe. In Academia and Culture he Chaired the Boards of the Fettes College Trust and the Development Board of the Glasgow School of Art and Design.

A Sports enthusiast, he has completed multiple Ironman Triathlon Races including the World Championship in Hawaii. He has also played Club Rugby in the UK and Japan. Closer to home he is a keen Shinty enthusiast, sponsoring the Glengarry Shinty Club and claiming the only hat trick in history score by a Laird.

Alex Coral

Vice President

Alex works across corporate finance advisory and sportstech fundraising, advising both private equity and corporate clients on M&A transactions and fundraising.

Prior to working at Oakwell, Alex spent four years as part of the technology, consumer, and leisure M&A teams at Houlihan Lokey. Alex advised both public and private companies on a number of M&A transactions. He started his career at LSEG where he spent three years.

Alex graduated from the University of Birmingham with BSc in Economics and has completed Level II of the CFA.

Alex spends the weekends hacking around Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club or in a West London pub watching Spurs. Tiger’s Masters win in 2019 goes down as his all-time favourite sporting moment.

Robert Radcliffe

Associate

Robert works across each of Oakwells three pillars with a particular focus on our rugby, cricket, football and sports-tech clients.

Robert is a chartered accountant and prior to joining Oakwell spent six years in the corporate finance team at Moore Kingston Smith. Here he advised on transactions across a range of sectors including TMT, manufacturing, e-learning, marketing services and more.

Robert graduated from the University of Newcastle with an MSc in International Financial Analysis and BSc in Economics & Politics. He spends his weekends on the golf course and watching Leeds United. His favourite sporting moment is England winning the T20 world cup final at Lords in 2019.

Nic Hamer

Associate

Nic works across corporate finance advisory, strategic consulting, and sportstech fundraising, supporting the team with financial analysis and sector research. He is also responsible for writing and distributing our investment in sport newsletter.

Prior to working at Oakwell, Nic spent time as Consulting Intern at The Sports Consultancy. He graduated from the University of Amsterdam with a Master’s degree in Economics, following a Bachelor’s degree at the University of Bristol. He holds the CISI Corporate Finance Diploma.

Football is Nic’s passion. He supports Liverpool and you can find him playing in the Regents Park Premier League on Sundays. Liverpool’s comeback in Istanbul in 2005 goes down as his favourite sporting moment (as well as one of his first).

Charlie Umbers

Associate

Charlie works across corporate finance advisory, strategic consulting, and sportstech fundraising, supporting the team with financial analysis and sector research.

Prior to working at Oakwell, Charlie studied at the University of Edinburgh where he graduated with a First-Class Master’s degree in Business with Strategic Economics. Charlie was also placed on the President’s and Dean’s Honours lists for academic achievement during his year abroad at the University of South Carolina. He holds the CISI Corporate Finance Diploma.

 Charlie enjoys variety of sports such as tennis, golf and skiing but his passion is cricket. Unsurprisingly, one of his favourite sporting moments was Ben Stokes’ heroic century at Headingly against Australia in 2019.

Lynn Vanderstichele

Analyst

Lynn works across corporate finance advisory, strategic consulting, and sportstech fundraising, supporting the team with financial analysis and sector research.

Prior to working at Oakwell, Lynn interned in Warner Brothers Discovery’s Business Strategy division. She graduated from Stanford University having studied Management Science and Engineering, whilst playing Division I Field Hockey for Stanford.

Having previously played at junior international level hockey over several years, Lynn’s passion is hockey. She also enjoys playing padel and tennis on weekends. Her favourite sporting moment is when the GB Women’s Hockey Team won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Aryan Baliyan

Analyst

Aryan Baliyan is a BSc Economic History student at the London School of Economics, joining Oakwell Sports Advisory for his placement year.

He represented the LSE First XV rugby team and has played football since a young age. Outside of work, he tries to get out to the London Scottish Golf Club as much as possible. His favourite sporting memory is watching Argentina and Lionel Messi win the 2022 World Cup.