William Oswald

After a Short Service Commission in the British Army, William founded business development group OSG, which has management companies in Hong Kong and the UK. OSG specialises in first-mover start-ups, along with operating in emerging, frontier and post-conflict environments.

OSG’s first project was the founding of a hardcopy communications system for Hong Kong’s legal profession, financial services industry and media sector. Established in 1987, it still remains market leader. OSG went on to create other first-mover market-leading businesses, including Russia’s first self-storage operation and Latin America’s first DX provider. OSG developed modern fisheries operations in Myanmar and introduced records management services to a number of countries in the CIS, Eastern/Central Europe, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and China, creating what became the world’s seventh largest records management group. OSG has also been involved in numerous smaller projects across a broad range of sectors in many parts of the world.

Since 1987, OSG companies have provided hands-on management, non-executive and consulting services to businesses and other organisations operating in Angola, Argentina, Barbados, Botswana, Bulgaria, Cameroon, China, Colombia, Côte d′Ivoire, Egypt, eSwatini, Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kurdistan, Kuwait, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Somaliland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, St Lucia, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Türkiye, Uganda, Ukraine, UK, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Sectors have included advertising, aviation, corporate services, civil engineering & construction, courier, document exchange, education, fisheries, government advisory, information technology, insurance, logistics, manpower services, media, mobile technology, oil & gas support services, procurement & product wholesale, property, public relations, publishing, records management, self-storage, solar energy, sports event management and trade finance. OSG has also been active in the not-for-profit field, including bringing internationally accredited higher education to Somalia after its civil war and creating a charity twinning 200 schools between UK and Asia/Africa.