Intercity’s youngest-ever divisional MD talks career, semi-pro football and plans to be a dad
Oli Hayward turned 30 in August – five months after being appointed to the board of Intecity Technologies as one of three divisional managing directors.
That promotion made Oli the youngest person to occupy the role in Intercity’s 40-year history and came on the back of nine years of hard graft at the Birmingham-based company.
Oli, from Burntwood, in Staffordshire, joined Intercity, the managed service provider, after six months at League 2 Mansfield FC in Nottinghamshire as an assistant performance analyst and strength & conditioning assistant – putting his 2:1 degree in sports science, gained at Liverpool John Moores University, to use.
“I was at Crewe Alexander FC and then Chasetown FC’s scholarship before uni but I never even thought to ask about actually playing when I was at Mansfield,” says Oli.
‘Get back to playing football’
“I really missed playing. One day I spoke to my dad about it and he told me: ‘You should play as long as you can while you still can.’”
Oli resumed football. Today he a semi-pro turning out in the defence and/or midfield for Chasetown FC, in Burntwood near Lichfield. The club is in the Northern Premier League First Division West.
His return to the game he loves coincided with a job switch – to graduate development rep for Intercity.
“I was one of 35 people on an assessment day to get the role. I was chuffed. My job was calling people and booking appointments for the field-based sales guys,” says Oli, one of four siblings who grew up in Burntwood.
“I then rose up the ranks.”
Rise to the top
Over the course of the next nine years, he would go on to be junior account manager, senior account manager, new business development manager, new business team leader and then ran the new business function as head of new business before landing his current role.
The division at Intercity that Oli leads is communications (B2B mobile, connectivity, telephony). That equates to circa 50% of the £55m annual turnover. Not an insignificant chunk of the business, which is approaching 300 staff serving more than 1,000 customers from bases in Bolton, Bedford, Nuneaton, Northampton and the Birmingham HQ.
So far, so good?
“I’m loving it. Loving the strategic aspect of it. Grappling with questions like: How are we going to take the communications division and Intercity from where we are now, a £55m-a-year business, to £100m a year?” says Oli, who recently got engaged to his fiancée, Lydia (the pair plan to marry next October – “being a dad is the goal.”)
“I’ve got real-life, coal-face insights that I’m bringing to the table. I’m loving the people aspect of it too.”
Innovation Awards
Oli’s meteoric rise to a position which many others aspire to but few, even in a career spanning 40 years, ever achieve, has not gone unnoticed. He is currently shortlisted as a finalist for Young Innovator of the Year at this November’s 2025 Innovation Awards, an established annual competition run by the Technology Supply Chain membership organisation.
Oli explains his innovation isn’t so much a single item or invention but rather the story of his career progression, and how he is already using it to inspire others.
“Going from a graduate to sitting on the board in nine years has resulted in loads of other young grads saying: ‘This has inspired me, I want to do that, too. I now mentor lots of young people.”
The innovation story – what exactly is it?
“In order to progress in my different roles, I’ve had to innovate,” Oli says.
“I’ve had to keep learning, reinventing myself and always keep performing. I’ve done that by developing certain transferable skills, which are ultimately what’s enabled me to progress to where I am today. That’s something unique which I’m now sharing with others.”
Football or work?
As a gifted, paid athlete for Chasetown who clearly loves playing, Oli is pragmatic about his side-hustle.
“I prioritise my career always. Career first, football second,” says Oli, demonstrating the clarity and maturity that have underpinned his success to date.
“Charlie [Blakemore, the CEO] is fantastic, allowing me to get to games etc, nipping off an hour or two early if needed.
“But my customers and my people will always come first.
