GH: I’ve been here for eighteen months and about nine months before that the schools were bought. They were loosely held together for that first year so our current board chairman stepped in as an interim chief executive. We hadn’t named it as Astrum at that point or made any major announcements to the world but they were under new ownership. It really came together with the strategic vision and all the product changes from one year ago.

The PIE: And how have you done in the first intake?

All three of our colleges now have full boarding school status – this makes us the only organisation with three central London boarding schools

GH: We have made a significant early impact by engaging the premium international markets. We’ve gone from no real international strategy to having 12 full time sales people– some who are based full time overseas, some who are travelling from the UK or with significant experience in international recruitment.

We’ve opened a second campus with Chelsea Independent College, and we’ve opened two student accommodation blocks. All three of our colleges now have full boarding school status – this makes us the only organisation with three central London boarding schools.

The PIE: What’s the relationship between Astrum and private equity fund Sovereign Capital?

GH: Sovereign Capital are our investment partner. They’re a private equity company with significant experience in education which forms a very important part of their portfolio and is where they’ve won their awards and made some of their best returns.

I first worked with Sovereign Capital more than ten years ago at the Alpha Plus Group as sales and marketing director. After then working at Cambridge Education Group, I returned to Sovereign Capital. For Astrum they have provided the finance to acquire the three schools or colleges that we’ve started with and assembled the core of the management team–myself, the finance director and the chairman. They helped us define the strategy of what this group hopes to achieve over the next five years along with how it’ll be financed and supported.

They have very active representation on the board because they have so much experience in education. They understand the relationship between commercial success and quality of delivery. Sovereign’s approach resonates with that at Astrum – we compete on quality not price.

“There is no conflict at all between commercial and education objectives – they support each other”

The PIE: We are seeing more activity from private investors in the sector. In your view, where do educational and commercial objectives merge?

GH: Because of my background I have no other choice than to merge these two. I very much enjoy the challenge of commercialisation of education, but I simply can’t allow myself to make any academic compromises along that route at all because I am an educator at heart. So any business I’m ever involved with will take that approach- high value provision that delivers at the cutting edge of what’s possible in education.

Generating profit supports investment that drives up quality resulting in customer expectations being exceeded, leading to more students, greater profits, further investments and on it goes.

As long as your backers are sympathetic to the requirement to invest in quality and customer satisfaction and your mangers can deliver then this virtuous circle is achievable within education. There is no conflict at all – they support each other.

The PIE: There’s a pattern with private equity of buying, building up and selling. Is that going to happen with Astrum as well?