Nigel Oakey

Nigel Oakey is the managing director of the Dome Cafe Group. Born and educated in South East Asia, Nigel Oakey graduated from University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Arts. Prior to his commercial career, he was employed by the Hong Kong Government (British) and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. A successful retail career with the Royal Dutch Shell Group saw him in various management roles with Shell’s retail business ranging from category/merchandise management, retail strategy and marketing planning, multi-site franchise system development, new concept development and operations management and retail leadership development. Highlights with Shell included international retail assignments in the USA and Europe. After developing with Shell a network of fast food restaurants under the Burger King brand, Mr Oakey decided to leave in 1999 for a new and more entrepreneurial project as chief executive and managing director of a multi-unit cafe-bakery operation in Sydney for which he became a shareholder and successfully executed a turnaround strategy. He has been employed at Dôme since May 2001 and undertook a turnaround of the business for its then founders and financial investors. Mr Oakey became a significant shareholder of Dome when he led a management buyout of the Dôme business with Navis Capital Partners in December 2003. At that time, he assumed the position of managing director. He is responsible for all aspects of strategic growth for the Group including its development of large community café footprints, expansion into regional areas, and the forging of new business streams in the accommodation and hospitality space.