About Us

Ashley Highfield is founder of Henley Partners Limited, focussed on investing in innovative technology, and building applications, primarily in the environmental and sustainability arenas.

With a deep background in tech & and big data (having studied Computing and Systems Analysis at The City University London and then worked for many years as an IT Management Consultant for PwC), Ashley has worked primarily in the media sectors (Board of BBC, Board of BFI, CEO of newspaper group, UK MD Microsoft), before working in Marine and Sustainability (Oyster Yachts, British Marine, Eden Project).

 He was Chairman/CEO of Oyster Yachts Limited (from May 2018 to October 2025), makers of luxury British sailing boats. He is also founder of Henley Partners limited, his vehicle for investing in and advising businesses across a range of sectors. He was an Associate Director of Vendigital consultancy. 

Between 2011 and 2018 he was CEO of Johnston Press plc. He was Chairman of the newspaper industry body the News Media Alliance, with the heads of all the major nationals and regional newspaper groups as board members. During this time he helped drive and cement new agreement and working relatioships both with Google and with the BBC.

He has also worked for Microsoft as UK MD and the BBC as main board director for New Media and Technology, where he was responsible for the development and launch of the iPlayer. 

He has held a number of non-executive roles, including Chairman of the News Media Association, William Hill plc (for 9 years) and the British Film Institute (for 7 years).

Throughout his career, Ashley has been involved in a number of investments. Whilst at Flextech plc/Telewest plc (now Virgin Media) he led the acquisition of WayAhead Group (now See Tickets) and became executive Chairman. He led the investment in MultiMap (subsequently successfully exited to Microsoft) and became a NED. He made a further  three investments where he joined the board of each company.

Whilst at the BBC, Ashley led the acquisition of Douglas Adams' business H2G2 (The online HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy) and incorporated it into BBC Online. 

Following the successful launch of the BBC iPlayer, he was instrumental in the creation of Project Kangaroo, the three way video-on-demand joint venture between BBC, ITV, and C4, and was subsequently appointed CEO. 

In 2016 he led the acquisition of the i newspaper for £24m (out of the Independent/Evening Standard Group) and within 2 years had doubled profits from £5.5m to over £12m. 

Ashley became very involved at the Eden Project, helping with their digital strategy, also joining their EdenProject International Ltd board in 2021, and the Board of Trustees' Finance Committee.

He is currently building an environmental data startup focussing on pollution.

He is also director/lead equity investor in a couple of well established property development and management businesses, Europa House Investments Ltd, and Frost Partnership Trust.

He created a two digital start-ups, LocalEyes and OneXL, which allow SMEs and big businesses create and place adverts onto local publishers' websites. It was announced in March 2019 that Project LocalEyes had received Google funding as part of the Google Digital News Initiative (DNI).

He has investments in a number of British tech start-ups including: Istesso Limited, Medaphor Group plc, Bloom and Wild Limited, Senseye, Brightpearl Ltd, SLAMcore Limited, Senseon and Peak Business Insight Limited. Most recently an investment in Ilika (pioneering makers of solid state batteries) crystallised (at x7 return in less than 3 years)