Oliver Jones

Oliver Jones is the co-founder and Chief Executive of Chayora, an international infrastructure investor, developer and operator of major data centre campuses in China. Chayora is developing large, fully licensed data centre sites in key cities across China – initially in Tianjin, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanjing.

Chayora enables international online companies with the fastest, most reliable and assured route to engagement in the vast Chinese market – without business impacting compromise. Chayora has a Hong Kong HQ and is backed by international capital from Standard Chartered Bank.

Oliver originally qualified as a chartered surveyor and after completing his MBA at London Business School in the late 1980s, specialised in corporate finance and the fast growing management areas of property and business services outsourcing.

Oliver specifically focuses on complex outsourcing transactions and property operating related investment deals. His experience in public partnerships has its roots in the UK in the 1990s when market testing and PFI models were developed. During this time, Oliver advised the UK Government’s Cabinet Office through his role on the UK PFI Panel Property Group and various industry professional bodies.

He has worked extensively in real estate and service operator businesses internationally and has a particular insight into the Middle East and Asia through past business interests specifically the UAE, where he was a founder director of Emrill when with Carillion; Hong Kong and China with Citex and EC Harris; and Australia with Symonds.

As an active investor and entrepreneur, immediately prior to Chayora, he was a partner and group board director of EC Harris LLP up to its sale to Arcadis in October 2011. His previous business ventures in the sector were each grown rapidly and also sold to acquisitive competitors: Symonds sold to Vivendi in 1993; Citex sold to Carillion in 2002 at the same time as Citex Asia was acquired by EC Harris; and NB Entrust sold to NB Real Estate and then Capita in 2009.

In the not-for-profit sectors, Oliver complements his commercial interests through his chairmanship of The Autism Trust charity in the UK and his past roles as on the advisory board of London Business School, as Chairman of the British Ski Federation and as a member of the UK’s National Olympic Committee.