Oliver Riley, Educational Fellow

Oliver Riley is an education entrepreneur working across education policy, international school leadership and institutional design. His career has taken him from policy research in Westminster to starting, building and leading an international school in the Swiss Alps — which was acquired by Dukes Education during his tenure — and then to senior academic leadership in Cambridge, where he became a deputy headteacher at 25. He now advises schools and education businesses internationally.

Oliver first joined the Adam Smith Institute before university, spending a year as a Research Associate. He returns as a Fellow with a particular expertise in education, institutional design, competition and the conditions that allow new institutions to emerge and succeed.

Oliver read Politics and International Relations at the University of Cambridge, where he chaired the Cambridge University Conservative Association and was once voted the university’s fourth biggest name on campus, a distinction that does not appear on his degree certificate.