Oxford United chairman Nick Merry was a talented footballer as a schoolboy. He spent the 1978/79 season with Oxford United and then had a trial with Norwich the following season before joining Witney Town near his hometownof Woodstock. He quit football in 1982 to concentrate on his antiques business. Aged 27, he left Woodstock and moved to America where he signed for the Kansas City Comets in the Indoor Soccer League. Returning to business, He invested in MicroDentex, a dental biotech firm in Florida, of which he later became president and a major shareholder. He has a home in Florida, as well as a nine-year-old daughter called Maddison, so his time will now be shared between there and Oxford where he bought the struggling club in the early part of 2006

He left his role as chairman of Oxford in October 2008 but initially remained as a non-executive director. .