Meet Our Board
Our Alumni Advisory Board (AAB) is made up of accomplished OUAFC Alumni drawn from the club four historical periods of pre-1980, 1980-2000, 2000-2020, and 2020-present. This board is a key part of our clubs long term strategy in maintaining connections with our alumni, provide expertise guidance, and serving as a soucre of organisational consistency.
Leo Ackerman
Leo read History at Somerville College, where he also played for and captained OUAFC, leading the Blues on a memorable tour of California, playing matches against Stanford, Berkeley, USC and even Google. His time with the club remains one of the most formative parts of his Oxford experience – not just for the football, but for the friendships, discipline, and sense of shared purpose it instilled.
Since graduating, Leo has stayed connected to the OUAFC community, playing for the Iffley Roaders in London and writing Mad Dog: The Mickey Lewis Story, a biography of the inspirational OUAFC coach and Oxford legend, who sadly passed away in 2021 aged 56. The book, published in 2025, reflects Leo’s commitment to preserving and celebrating the stories that make OUAFC so special
Professionally, Leo has worked in education leadership, and storytelling. He was part of the founding team at Copperfield, an international school in the Swiss Alps, and recently gained admission to Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, where he will study leadership, organizations, and entrepreneurship. He also writes, with several screen, stage, and print projects in development, and is deeply passionate about building community through art.
Leo is honoured to serve on the OUAFC Alumni Advisory Board and hopes to support the club in strengthening alumni ties, celebrating its rich history, and expanding opportunities for current and future generations of Oxford footballers.
Roza Bailey
Rosa was part of OUAFC Women’s Blues in each of the four years of her degree. In her third year she served as Club Secretary and then Blues Co-captain in her fourth. Joining Oxford during the Covid -19 pandemic, she was made acutely aware of the importance of community, belonging, friendship and sport, having started University when this was lacking.
Since graduating in 2024, she has been working for Bristol City Football Club and their official charity, the Robins Foundation. Working across both organisations, the aim of my role is to engage with and provision for individuals and groups, in particular, those underrepresented in football and the fan base. This is to enable them to meaningfully engage with the club and football and ultimately call themselves fans. Working closely with departments and individuals across the charity and the club, she has gained invaluable insight into how a good football club should operate within its local community and beyond.
OUAFC, especially in her last two years at Oxford, was something special: a community. She has lifelong friends and memories from her time at the club and is excited to help provision for this community and sense of belonging for current members and alumni. Thereby helping to enable OUAFC to grow and develop positively and sustainably.
David Smith
For David it is a bit daunting but a real honour to represent the ‘pre 1980s’! His three football ‘Blues’ were earned in 1974, 1975 and 1976 when the Varsity matches were played in December and at Wembley, in its ‘old’ guise. He shares that it is good to report that they won the first two, 3-1 and 2-0 and where he scored in both games! While he describes the third match as a drab 0-0 draw - his time at OUAFC is marked by an undefeated Wembley record! After Oxford he spent his professional life in education,in both teaching and leadership at schools and further education levels, working in regional and national education in skills, funding, and policy roles. He also worked briefly as a Pro-Vice Chancellor in Higher Education and in an exciting role with the Association of Colleges (AoC), as their Director of WorldSkills competition activity.
Across the years, since Oxford, David has played football at decent levels and cricket and tennis similarly. He has also done work with various professional sports ‘community trust’ organisations to engage the power of sport for social and community benefit. He was closely involved in the planning of sports and cultural legacies in the South East in the lead up to and aftermath of the 2012 London Olympics.
With his friend and ex-Blues captain from the 70s, Ian Barr, he has worked hard to build a network of 1970’s Oxford footballers and stay in close contact. He and this community are all looking forward to working with other eras to provide advice, networking and practical support to an ambitious OUAFC leadership group.
Alex Urwin
Alex Urwin was the Men's Blues Captain in the 2017-18 season, during which the team recorded Varsity and Brookes Varsity wins, and enjoyed tours to the East Coast of America and Wuhan. His first Blue came in the previous season's Varsity win.
Since graduating, Alex has stayed in close touch with the Club, most notably working with the 2018-19 Men's Blues Captain Leo Ackerman to co-author the bestselling biography MAD DOG: THE MICKEY LEWIS STORY - a celebration of the late, legendary OUAFC coach Mickey Lewis, in aid of the Oxford-based charity Seesaw, which helps young people processing grief. He also still plays regularly with his old OUAFC teammates, for the London-based "Iffley Roaders".
Beyond OUAFC, Alex is currently special advisor to the CEO at the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, one of the world’s largest climate and development philanthropies. He has previously worked as an advisor to the CEO of the inaugural Africa Climate Summit, a speechwriter and advisor to the President of the UN Climate Change Conference, and a researcher to the UK prime minister.
Alex is also a writer. He's contributed policy commentary and analysis to the likes of Foreign Policy, Atlantic Council, Climate Home, and Aspen UK. And he’s a non-fiction author and playwright, for which he's been recognised by the Ilfeld Prize.
He has degrees from Oxford and Columbia, and holds fellowships with Aspen UK and the Carnegie Council in New York.
