Ken Hodcroft (born 1953) is a British businessman, and the managing director of Increased Oil Recovery (IOR).

After university, Hodcroft moved to the US for two years and worked for the oil company Phillips Petroleum in Louisiana, Texas, and Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

During Hodcroft's early reign as chairman he appointed four managers: Chris Turner in 1999, Mike Newell in 2002, Neale Cooper in 2003 and Martin Scott in 2005.

Chris Turner, then Hartlepool's Director of Sport, was appointed temporary manager before accepting the job again on a permanent basis.

[4] Neale Cooper then returned for a season, before being replaced by John Hughes (with coach Micky Barron taking caretaker charge again for a while in between).

Hodcroft appointed escapist manager Ronnie Moore in December 2014 [6] with the club adrift, rock bottom of League 2 following his previous job at Tranmere ending in controversy due to a gambling situation.

Ronnie managed to serve a miraculous tenure and ensured their impressive continued existence in the Football League did not end.

Money made from the sales of Jack Baldwin and Luke James to Peterborough United was not re-invested in players' transfer fees.

Following the TMH deal falling through, Hodcroft eventually sold the club to a little known recruitment firm JPNG handing over his position as chairman to former bankruptee, Gary Coxall.

JPNG owned the club until 2018 until a consortium of Sky Sports presenter and fan Jeff Stelling and local businessman Raj Singh took over.

Hodcroft rarely courted the limelight whilst with Pools, save for a few outspoken programme columns and interviews with the local newspaper.