Founder & Chairman
Joined: 1981
and access,
Oliver Nicklin founded and is chairman of First Analysis. Prior to forming First Analysis, he worked at William Blair & Co. as chief operating officer, director of research, and an investment analyst. He also founded the First Analysis Institute of Integrative Studies, a not-for-profit educational institute that co-sponsors interdisciplinary seminars and research with universities including Loyola University Chicago, Catholic Theological Union, the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Largely as a result of the work done through First Analysis and the Institute, he accepted the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago’s Interreligious Leadership Award in 2016, the Arab-American Business & Professional Association of Illinois’ Humanitarian Award in 2019, and the Illinois Venture Capital Association’s Richard J. Daley Award in 2019. In addition to serving on many corporate boards, he has served on the boards of the Field Foundation, the Regenstein Foundation, the Finance Council of the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Midwest Palliative & Hospice CareCenter, the University of Chicago Divinity School’s Advisory Council, and the Illinois Technology Fund. He earned an MBA from Harvard University and a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Texas.