My Story
I started my career in public relations in London in the mid-90s, and fairly quickly found myself on a plane to California. What was supposed to be a six-month assignment - open a US office, get it running, come home - turned into ten years. I built the business from a standing start into an operation with six offices from San Diego to New York, over $11M in revenues and 45 people.
In 2009 I moved to Singapore and then Hong Kong to lead the APAC business. It was in poor shape - high staff turnover, high client churn, underperforming offices. We fixed it. Over six years we turned the business around, doubled revenues organically, then doubled them again through acquisition. It's where I developed a real instinct for what makes agencies thrive or struggle.
Throughout my agency years I worked with some of the world's leading B2B technology and consumer brands - including Airbnb, Akamai, Digital Realty, Dyson, Equinix, ServiceNow, Splunk and Spotify - which gave me an early appreciation of what clients actually need from their agency partners.
I returned to the UK in 2015, completed 20 years at the firm, then moved to WPP to run their marketing effectiveness and data analytics consultancy as Managing Partner. We grew the business 20-25% year on year for four years.
In 2020 I established Andy Oliver Consulting, working independently with agency founders and MDs on growth strategy, commercials and international expansion. Alongside that I took on a senior advisory role at Selbey Anderson, a fast-growing acquisitive communications group, where I built and ran their global partner network, supported M&A origination and the integration of acquired agencies into the group.
Most recently, I served as SVP Corporate Communications at IFS, a €15 billion PE-backed Industrial AI software company. Leading communications for a global business of 7,000 people gave me a deep understanding of what clients and corporates actually need from their agency partners - a perspective I bring directly to my consulting work.
Outside of work, I'm based in London with my wife and three children, though my outlook has been shaped by living and working across three continents. I'm a passionate football and rugby fan, and a Board Trustee of my local Scout group - a role that keeps me grounded in something bigger than business. I work best with founders who want a straight-talking advisor they can trust, where the relationship is genuinely enjoyable and the value runs both ways.