4 facts you may not know about Ipswich Town chairman Mike O'Leary | OneFootball

Highlights

Mike O’Leary became the chairman of Ipswich Town in April 2021 when Marcus Evans Group sold the club to Gamechanger 20 Ltd.

The new ownership group, which comprises Mike O’Leary, Ed Schwartz, Brett Johnson, Berke Bakay, and Mark Detmer, have promised the fans that they will be looking to return the club to the Premier League for the first time since 2002, but in a sustainable manner to ensure the safety and longevity of the club while also delivering success.

They've certainly made an impressive impact so far - with the Tractor Boys promoted from League One under Kieran McKenna and eyeing the top flight this term.

Our focus today is on O'Leary, the Town chairman, as we highlight four facts you may not know.

1 He studied at the University of Birmingham

O’Leary graduated from the University of Birmingham in 1974 with a bachelor's in chemistry.

He mentioned previously that the reason that he attended the University of Birmingham was due to his father only being able to afford to send him to his local university. The ambition had been to attend either Oxford or Cambridge, but that would have required his father to remortgage the house while his grammar school had not been prepared to send its students off to the most prestigious universities in England.

2 He is an avid fan of cricket and played it regularly when he was younger

While at the University of Birmingham, O’Leary became a member of the Mermaid Cricket Club. He has said that of all the sports he was involved with at university, this was the most magical. O’Leary believed that the most enjoyable moments while involved with the mermaids were the regular beatings, they handed out to the first team of the university.

While playing with the club, he witnessed many greats in the world of cricket, with his most memorable being Zafar Altaf, who managed several Pakistan international cricket tours and played first-class cricket in Pakistan.

3 He was on the board of West Bromwich Albion and Oxford United

O’Leary became involved with West Bromwich Albion in July 2002 and was part of the board while also having much involvement with a lot of the club's behind-the-scenes activity. This was until he resigned in December 2003. This was the first season that West Brom had spent in the top flight of English football since the 1985–86 season.

He also spent just over a year on the board of Oxford United, joining in July 2014, he resigned due to the workload of his other commitments in October 2015.

4 He is also the chairman of a tech company

Alongside his responsibilities at Ipswich, O'Leary is also the chairman of an AIM-listed tech company called DotDigital.

DotDigital is "a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) marketing platform that enables companies to create, test and send data-driven automated campaigns".