Sir Peter Ogden is a businessman and entrepreneur who was born in Rochdale and has experience investing in his hometown. However, he has consistently contributed thousands of pounds in funding and gifts to the subject of education, not football.
Simon Gauge, the chairman of Rochdale AFC, issued a warning, stating that if no buyer could be found by the end of this month, the football team will go out of business. The Ogden family was declared the club’s “preferred investor” for the takeover today.
The family said it would provide ‘sufficient’ funding so the club could continue to function for the next 30 days. “By the expiry of that period, we plan to have completed our diligence and formulated and presented our offer such that, assuming it is acceptable to the club, we can conclude an investment before the end of the season,” read a statement released by the club from them.
Importantly, the family’s statement said the offer was not financially motivated – shares they would acquire would be held in trust for the benefit of the Rochdale AFC Community Trust.
Sir Peter, brought up in Percy Street, Kingsway, was educated at Lowerplace Primary School and Rochdale Grammar School for Boys, which is now Balderstone Technology College.
From there he won a scholarship to Durham University and went on to complete an MBA at Harvard Business School before embarking on a career in investment banking in the UK and the US, principally with Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.
He co-founded the computer services company Computacenter in 1981 and in 1982, the financial software company Computasoft, which was subsequently renamed Dealogic PLC. He was Executive Chairman of Computacenter from 1981–1997 and Chairman of Dealogic until 2014.
After that, in 1998, Sir Peter poured £22.5m into The Ogden Charitable Trust, with the intention of helping bright children from low income backgrounds.
At the time, the Manchester Evening News reported he said: “Entrepreneurs need to think responsibly about the distribution of their wealth.
“There is not much point in dying wealthy, so leaving the problem to another generation. I chose education because it is so fundamental to the development of an individual.”
Balderstone was awarded technology college status in 2001 after being sponsored by Sir Peter. The trust has given many millions to dozens of schools over the years, including to Balderstone Technology College.
According to its website, the trust exists to promote the teaching and learning of physics. It adds: “We provide a portfolio of free physics professional development programmes to support teachers from early years through to key stage five, and we support schools to work in partnerships so they can enhance their physics provision and opportunities for students.
“We work with universities, employers and other organisations to take physics beyond the classroom.”
In the year 2022-23, the trust said it had formal partnerships with some 1,146 schools, 846 primary and 300 secondary. Its total charitable expenditure in 2022–23 was £3.3m.
Sir Peter received a knighthood for services to education from Her Majesty the Queen, at Buckingham Palace on 9 February 2005. He and his wife, Lady Catherine Ogden, also from Rochdale, remain as trustees of the trust and Sir Peter is also a Governor of Westminster School and a Patron of SHINE (Support and Help In Education).
In a statement, club chairman Mr Gauge said it was a ‘different type of football investment’. “That it is primarily driven by the recognition of, and motivation to preserve, the significant community value that clubs like ours provide.,” he said.
“The Ogden Family recognise the history that our Football Club has and are motivated to help us achieve sustainability so that we will be at the heart of our community for another 100 years and beyond.”
The Ogden family also released a statement, saying: “We are a family with strong Rochdale roots. Sir Peter Ogden and Lady Ogden were born in Rochdale. Our charitable trust, the Ogden Trust, which primarily supports the teaching and learning of physics in under-represented groups, has various ongoing initiatives in Rochdale schools.
In our view, the club (and the Rochdale AFC Community Trust which is so closely associated with it) are community assets of immense value which need to survive. We intend to make an offer to the club, but we need some time to ensure that our diligence is completed, and our offer can be properly formulated.
“Perhaps most importantly, we would like to ensure that all stakeholders have sufficient chance to review and consider our proposal. However, given the club’s severe financial difficulties, time is not on our side.
“To allow us the necessary time, we are making sufficient funds available to the club to enable it to operate for the next 30 days. By the expiry of that period, we plan to have completed our diligence and formulated and presented our offer such that, assuming it is acceptable to the club, we can conclude an investment before the end of the season.
