About Us
Experience
Current Activity
Investments
Ashley Highfield is Chairman/CEO of Oyster Yachts Limited (since May 2018), 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 John
Ashley Highfield is Chairman/CEO of Oyster Yachts Limited (since May 2018), 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 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).
Investments
Current Activity
Investments
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
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.
Current Activity
Current Activity
Current Activity
Ashley is helping entrepreneur Richard Hadida (who created Evolution Gaming from start-up with a current market cap of over €10 billion) successfully turn around Oyster Yachts Limited, bought during early 2018. 6 years in, sales have boomed, doubling new boat sales revenue in the last year, with a strong order book for 2024 and beyond.
Ash
Ashley is helping entrepreneur Richard Hadida (who created Evolution Gaming from start-up with a current market cap of over €10 billion) successfully turn around Oyster Yachts Limited, bought during early 2018. 6 years in, sales have boomed, doubling new boat sales revenue in the last year, with a strong order book for 2024 and beyond.
Ashley has become 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.
During 2021/2 he worked closely with boutique consultancy Vendigital on a range of projects.
He created a digital start-up, Project LocalEyes, an app which aims to help SMEs 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)