Alexander Waddington Oakes (born November 1968) is a British businessman, and the co-founder and an executive of Behavioural Dynamics Institute and

SCL Group SCL Group (formerly Strategic Communication Laboratories) was a private British behavioural research and strategic communication company that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal involving its subsidiaries ...

(formerly Strategic Communication Laboratories), the parent company of

Cambridge Analytica Cambridge Analytica Ltd. (CA), previously known as SCL USA, was a British political consulting firm that came to prominence through the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal. It was started in 2013, as a subsidiary of the private intell ...

and her sister

AggregateIQ AggregateIQ (AIQ) previously known as SCL Canada is a Canadian political consultancy and technology company, based in Victoria, British Columbia. History AIQ was founded in 2013 by Zack Massingham, a former university administrator and Jeff Si ...

; the companies became known to a wider audience as a result of the

Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal In the 2010s, personal data belonging to millions of Facebook users was collected by British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica for Campaign advertising, political advertising without informed consent. The data was collected through an app call ...

involving the misuse of data. From the early 1990s, Oakes' companies, operating under succession of names, were contracted to assist political campaigns and governments in a variety of countries.

Early life

Alexander Oakes' brother Nigel John Oakes was also an executive (CEO) with SCL Group/Cambridge Analytica.

Career

In 2005, Oakes co-founded the London-based

(formerly Strategic Communication Laboratories), along with his older brother

Nigel Oakes Nigel John Oakes (born July 1962) is a British businessman, and the founder and CEO of Behavioural Dynamics Institute and SCL Group (formerly Strategic Communication Laboratories), the parent company of Cambridge Analytica and her sister Aggreg ...

and Alexander Nix, described as a

polo Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...

playboy whose father Paul David Ashburner Nix also became an investor in the company. In 2013, SCL established

, a subsidiary aiming to target the American elections market and led by fellow Old Etonian Alexander Nix, a director of SCL for 14 years. The company was engaged by the

Ted Cruz Rafael Edward Cruz (; born December 22, 1970) is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States senator from Texas since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, Cruz was the solicitor general of Texas from 2003 ...

and

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

campaigns during the

2016 US presidential election Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and ...

, and reportedly also worked on dozens of other elections in the U.S. during its existence. The company went bankrupt in 2018 following the

. Cambridge Analytica claimed to use honey traps, bribery stings, and prostitutes, among other tactics, to influence more than 200 elections globally for its clients.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oakes, Nigel Living people 1962 births People educated at Eton College British company founders British chief executives Cambridge Analytica