Oli

What was your background prior to joining OC&C?

I grew up in Sheffield where I went to a large state comprehensive.  I love the city and was lucky enough to leave it with an incredibly close group of friends (who are still my best friends 25 years on) and an abiding love of hills, the outdoors and a perpetually failing football team.

After university, I spent some time trying to find out what career options were out there, before getting lucky and picking strategy consulting.  Since then, I’ve worked for 3 different strategy consultancies, run my own business, and worked for a large retailer before joining OC&C as an Associate Partner in 2014.

What’s your favourite OC&C experience?

The things I love most about OC&C are the people, the camaraderie, the privilege of being asked to advise on crucial topics for our clients, the challenge inherent in the problem-solving and the variety in the consulting lifestyle – no two days are vaguely the same.

I’m not sure I can think of a single experience that captures all of that.  But I do have lots of fond memories of having fun with my colleagues in various places around the world.

What do you like to get up to in your free time outside the office?

Life is pretty busy beyond OC&C.  Sara (my wife) and I have two young boys which involves quite a lot of ferrying them to / supporting them at various sporting  activities and help with homework etc.

Beyond that we try and get out into the green quite a bit (we live in Winchester now so the New Forest / local beaches / South Downs are regular haunts), we have season tickets to watch Southampton and we try and take a lots of holidays, especially with my Sheffield friends and their families.

As for hobbies I play 7-a-side football and tennis each week, try to run regularly, ski and am trying to teach myself to surf with limited success.  Finally, I spend quite a bit of time in the garden (which I love but also has its fair share of setbacks).

 

‘They may sound more confident, but that doesn’t mean that they are any more sure / right’.