Meet the Team

John Whittaker

Business Advisor

Access to Finance (FRP)

For 30 years, John worked in the financial services sector running his own brokerage in Leeds. John can effectively converse with business owners and has a good understanding of the risks and challenges they face. A Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute and was a qualified Independent Financial Adviser. He owns a small property portfolio and has knowledge of property finance and matters relating to property ownership. In 2006, he moved to Cornwall purchasing a rundown Roseland farm, putting this back into a full working mixed farm with three holiday cottages. John gained considerable knowledge of agriculture and sits on a regional NFU forum. Following the sale of John’s farm, he joined Oxford Innovation on the Access to Finance programme in 2017 as a Finance Specialist. He is always willing to share his own business experiences with those wishing to start up, or who are running existing businesses.

Tap into our insights

Oxford Innovation Advice offers Insights into SME needs and policy effectiveness for policy makers, funders and business support commissioners. It draws on our 30 years’ experience of delivering positive economic growth by enabling scale-ups to achieve their full potential. Each edition concludes with an ‘Implications for funders and Policy makers’ section.

Oxford Innovation Logo

Covid-19 Statement

Update – Wednesday 15th December 2021

Our Innovation Centres remain operational and accessible, and provide a safe environment for our staff and customers. We continue to assess the risk of COVID-19 alongside the latest guidance from government. In the meantime our Innovation Centre remains COVID-19 Secure and fully open for business. Our detailed risk assessment can be found here.