People
OUBC Men
PRESIDENT
Tom Mackintosh
MBA
Oriel College
OUBC Women
PRESIDENT
Annie Anezakis
Graduate Entry Medicine
Pembroke College
MEN’S HEAD COACH
Mark Fangen-Hall
Mark joined the OUBC in July 2024. Mark’s career includes roles at Cambridge University Boat Club from 2001-2005 and subsequently, chief coach of Queen’s University Belfast for men and women. He followed his time in Northern Ireland with a similar role for Mercantile Rowing Club in Australia. He then moved to Canberra as a senior coach for Rowing Australia where he worked across both the lightweight and women’s programmes, including as coach of the Australian Women’s Eight at the Olympic Games in Rio. Mark's most recent role is the Coach of the Eight at Eton College and one of the coaching team for the GB U23 programme.
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER - Interim
Robin Bourne-Taylor
Robin has recently joined the OUBC as an interim operational lead. Robin rowed for Oxford in four Boat Races, winning in 2002, 2003 and as President in 2005. He also competed in Team GB at the Athens and Beijing Olympics. After rowing he joined the British Army where he was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for his leadership in Afghanistan. Since the military he has led a number of dynamic global businesses, including the role of Managing Director Right to Dream, a world-leading elite football academy in Ghana. At Right to Dream Robin ran the academy as well being part of a small executive team responsible for all commercial & media partnerships, a Danish Superliga Club and charities in the US and UK. Robin currently has his own business with another former OUBC President, Ben Burch, that supports the Military and Veterans' community in the UK.
ASSISTANT COACH, FLEET & FACILITY MANAGER
Mark Chatwin
Mark joins the OUBC from Imperial College where he was Boat House Manager for over 6 years. Mark knows the Tideway inside-out as an experienced rower, coach and club manager. He brings a wealth of professional experience within rowing and industry that will strength our team and bring marginal gains across the Club. The OUBC has already had the pleasure of working with Mark at Imperial and as the UK Empacher rep - We are delighted that he has joined our coaching team full-time.
ASSISTANT COACH
Zoe Taylor
Zoe joins the OUBC team as Assistant Coach and will be working across our open, lightweight and development crews for both the men's and women's programmes. Zoe is a former high performance athlete, having rowed at Oxford Brookes University BC. Zoe was previously coaching at Reading Blue Coat School and within the GB Junior coaching system.
The OUBC are very excited that Zoe has joined our coaching team as she brings credibility, passion and an outstanding work ethic.
ASSISTANT COACH
Harry Brightmore
Harry joins the OUBC coaching team as Assistant Coach following his recent Gold Medal at the Paris Olympic Games.
Harry will be working across our open, lightweight and development crews for both the men's and women's programmes.
Harry brings a wealth of experience as an Olympic Champion, double European and World Champion cox of the British men’s eight, six-time Henley Royal Regatta winner and five-time Head of the River Race winner. Harry joins the OUBC following 11 years within high performance programmes at GB Rowing and Oxford Brookes University .
ASSISTANT COACH
Bodo Schulenburg
Bodo has been at the helm of the Hinksey Sculling School transformation in recent years, developing their programme into one of the leading youth rowing centres in the country. Bodo joins the OUBC as an Assistant Coach, working across both squads.
Bodo is an Oxford graduate and former Oxford lightweight rower. He has also coached multiple GB junior crews to medals at recent World Championships. The head coaches and athletes are really happy to have Bodo's experience and depth of knowledge in the team.
NUTRITIONIST
Renee McGregor
Renee is a leading Sports dietitian, specialising in Eating Disorders, REDs, The Female Athlete, Athlete health and performance. She stands as a preeminent Sports Dietitian and Eating Disorder Specialist, boasting an extensive career of over two decades in clinical and performance nutrition. We are delighted that Renee will be assisting the OUBC this year.
WOMEN’S HEAD COACH
Allan French
Allan joined OUBC as Women's Head Coach in December 2023 from his role as Head of Rowing at Reading Blue Coat school. Before this he was Women’s Head Coach at Oxford Brookes University from 2012 to 2018 where during this time the programme was made a GB High Performance Centre for Women’s Rowing and Allan coached crews to multiple domestic and national titles. In 2016 Allan coached the GB Women’s Four to a bronze medal at the FISU World University Championships, the U23 Lightweight Women’s Quad to fifth place at the 2017 U23 World Championships and coached the GB Women’s Eight to a fourth place finish at the 2018 U23 World Championships.
WOMEN’S ASSISTANT COACH
James Powell
James has been the Women's Assistant Coach since 2018. After rowing at Oxford Brookes University, James’ rowing and coaching careers have led him to success across a number of national and international events. Beginning his coaching career in Oxford, he moved on to work in Sydney, with eleven of the twelve crews he helped to support winning medals, including five golds, at major national events.
WOMEN'S PHYSIOTHERAPIST
Catherine Tomkies
Catherine is a Gold Accredited Sports Physiotherapist with the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Sports and Exercise Medicine, with over 20 years' experience. She was the Lead TASS Physiotherapist for Oxford, looking after a variety of younger athletes in Olympic sports including GB Under 23 and Catherine worked as a physiotherapist at the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, the 2022 Commonwealth Games and Team GB HQ at the World Winter Student Games. Since 2015, Catherine has worked for the AELTC covering the Wimbledon Championships each year. After four years with OUWBC from 2013-2016, we are delighted that Catherine has returned to OUBC in 2023 to work with the women athletes again.
SPORTS DOCTOR
Felicity Hughes
Felicity is a Sport and Exercise Medicine Registrar working in Oxford and will be joining the support team for OUBC this year. As an alumni of the university, Felicity is a Dark Blue at heart and she’s incredibly excited to work with the Boat Race crews to aid performance.
HEAD S&C COACH
Tiahan Eeles
Tiahan has been a strength and conditioning coach for over 15 years, graduating with an MSc in 2010. He has led the physical preparation of all Blues Performance teams and elite athletes at Oxford University since 2020.
Prior to his time at Oxford he led programmes within universities, for semi-professional and professional club environments, including premier league football clubs working with academy prospects to international athletes. Being a member of OUBC is a challenge like no other, he particularly enjoys building a successful environment for our high performing student-athletes to thrive both on the water and academically.
PERFORMANCE NUTRITIONIST
Gareth Nicholas
Gareth joined OUBC as the performance nutritionist working alongside the boat club and the wider Blues Performance Scheme at Oxford University. Having graduated with an MSc in Human Performance and with a post graduate IOC diploma in Sports Nutrition, Gareth has combined a 15-year career in commercial sports nutrition with being a performance nutrition practitioner.
As an SENR registered nutritionist, Gareth has worked across a number of team and individual sports but more recently leading the support for GB Rowing in both Olympic and Paralympic squads. His passion is delivering periodised and personalised nutritional strategies that focus on energy requirements and deliver performance.
Executive Committee
The Executive Committee exists to support the Presidents in the running of the Club
Chairperson – Anna Troup
Senior Member – Regius Professor Sir John Bell
Treasurer – Nick Brodieowed
BRCL Representative – Sara Kushna
BRCL Representative – Seb Pearce
Committee Member – Lynton Richmond