Oxfordshire’s Football Triumvirate connect at Blenheim Palace

Hosted by Blenheim’s Chief Executive, Dominic Hare, this will be the fifth quarterly B4 PLATINUM Breakfast to be held at the palace, which recently hosted the fourth European Political Community summit. Dominic commented, “We are looking forward to hosting what will be an intriguing coming together of Oxfordshire’s footballing influencers. Like me I know there are plenty of passionate football fans in the B4 community and I am sure for those that aren’t as ‘involved’, this will be an opportunity for them to get a flavour of how these organisations are impacting our community.”

The panel will include Jonathan Duckworth, CEO of The Oxfordshire FA, Justin Merritt, owner of Oxford City and Tim Williams, CEO of Oxford United. They will be joined by our host for the morning, Della Wolfe an established leadership coach who was previously Operations Director at Leicester City FC and a Director of Logistics and Production at Sodexo.

Della will be talking to our panelists about how they work together and the opportunities they are creating. She will also explore the positive impact that football is having and can continue to have within our community.

Although the three organisations operate in the same space, are they collaborating or competing?  It’s fair to assume that they are working in the spirit of collaboration, so what other opportunities exist in the wider business community that can create new pathways?

The quarterly breakfasts, organised by B4 and hosted by Blenheim Palace, are a great opportunity to connect with local business leaders and hear from a wide range of interesting guest speakers. If you would like to attend a future event as a guest or find out more about B4, please contact Richard Rosser at richard@b4-business.com or find out more about B4 and are guests below.

About B4

B4 is a local business community which includes over two hundred like-minded, collaborative businesses from across Oxfordshire as its members. B4 is sector agnostic and provides its members with over 70 social and learning & development events, creating the perfect environment for its members to connect and collaborate. Established in 2006, B4 is regarded as the leading business community in Oxfordshire and includes Blenheim Palace, Unipart, Oxfordshire LEP, Le Manoir, Owen Mumford, Boostworks, Rhodes House, Plunkett UK, Oxford Brookes, Sobell House, Oxfordshire Youth and many more highly respected local organisations.

See more at www.b4-business.com

About Jonathan Duckworth

A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development with a Masters’ Degree in Human Resources Management, Jonathan was Head of HR at Twickenham Stadium for the Rugby Football Union and England Rugby teams from 1997 to 2001 when he was then headhunted by Harley-Davidson to be their first European HR Director.

In 2005 he became Group HR Director for the Jockey Club’s 15 racecourse venues before moving to a similar role with an international Ferrari-backed motor racing series based at Silverstone. In 2015 he was recruited by Swim England as their People and Development Director and in 2020 joined the Leicestershire County Cricket Club Board of Directors becoming Chairman in 2021.

He has been a special advisor to Sporting Equals since 2008 and a member of the Leicester City Football Club Equality Working Group. He became closely involved in local grassroots football in Oxfordshire in 2010 when helping to coach youth teams at Wychwood FC and joined the Oxfordshire Football Association Board of Directors in 2018 before taking on the role of current Chief Executive.

See more at: www.oxfordshirefa.com

About Justin Merritt

Justin Merritt is a business founder and owner, former footballer and present owner of Oxford City FC.  He is a UEFA ‘A’ licensed football coach, graduated from the University of North London with a degree in sports science and sports therapy and a qualified vocational education tutor, specialising in management, leadership and coaching. 

Justin founded the Ignite Group – encompassing Ignite Training, Ignite Sport and Velocity Football – in 1999 and remains CEO of all three operations. 

He is also majority shareholder and owner of Oxford City FC. It was at Oxford City FC where Justin represented the club as a player, manager and general manager across 20 seasons before becoming majority shareholder in 2023. 

The club played in the National League – the highest tier of non-league football – for the first time during the 2023-24 season and has qualified for the FA Cup first round proper in three of the last six years.  

After launching the Ignite Group as Premier Sports Group 25 years ago, Justin has since grown the business from three full-time employees to over 40 staff today. 

Ignite Training operates nationally and helps businesses to upskill, train and develop new and existing staff through tailored vocational qualifications in coaching, marketing, content production, teaching, wellbeing and management. Clients include British Cycling, the Lawn Tennis Association, Queens Park Rangers, Bristol Bears and Oxfordshire Youth. 

Outside the above, Justin is a sports enthusiast which underscores his belief that everyone can aspire to become the best version of themselves through the power of sport and education. 

See more at: www.oxfordcityfc.co.uk

About Tim Williams

Tim Williams is the CEO of Oxford United Football Club.  He joined Oxford United in September 2022 and has overseen a restructuring of the club’s senior management team and was part of the leadership group that saw the club promoted to the second tier of English football for the first time in 25 years.

A Chartered Accountant by profession, Tim qualified with KPMG in 1996 and after a series of senior finance roles in leading UK and global companies joined Manchester United FC as Group Financial Controller in 2009.  Tim left Manchester United in 2014 to take up the role of Chief Financial Officer of Italian Serie A Club, Inter Milan where he led the raising of in excess of $500M of funding and navigated the club through a Financial Fair Play settlement agreement.  From Inter Milan, Tim joined London based sports capital and advisory firm Tifosy in February 2021 concentrating on sustainable and structured funding for clubs outside of the English Premier League.

Tim has a passion for live sport, mainly football, and has a significant focus on the stability of the English game overall. 

He is a member of the advisory board of the Manchester Metropolitan University Business School and also its Institute of Sport.

See more at: www.oufc.co.uk

About Della Wolfe

Della’s career can be summarised in three parts the first spent in scale leadership roles, firstly for a large corporate (Sodexo Live) initially within HR and then latterly Operations, finishing off her career at Silverstone Racing Circuit. She then joined Leicester City Football Club, in an Executive Board Level role as part of the team that delivered the new stadium in 2002.

The second part of her career was co-founding The Curve Group in 2004, an HR and Recruitment Business, which has grown to be one of the leading privately owned HR businesses in the UK.

Della remains a silent investor at The Curve Group and started her own Leadership coaching business last year (her third and final career!). She is passionate about the power of coaching and empowering leaders to reach their full potential. She works with C Suite executives, Company founders and high potential individuals. She holds her clients to account, supporting them in setting goals that are realistic, achievable, and tangible. She also delivers transformational leadership programmes and works with executive teams to create cohesive growth strategies.

She is a big sports fan, and loves nothing more than watching live sport, she also is a young person mentor and respite foster carer in Oxfordshire.

See more at: www.thecurvegroup.co.uk