Introduce yourself in three words or phrases
- Education entrepreneur.
- Disruptor.
- Dad.
What do you like most about your job?
When families tell us how we’ve changed their lives. The most common feedback we receive is “thank you for giving me my child back”. This never gets old.
Best work trip/worst work trip?
We’ve been on some incredible adventures from ski slopes to Spanish race tracks to support our elite athlete students.
Sometimes these tours do also take us to (slightly) less exciting places like Grantham, however. Grantham is still lovely, I need to add, but I’d be lying if I said it was a top-10 destination.
If you could learn a language instantly, which would you pick and why?
Arabic. While 80% of our 1,000+ students are in the UK, the Middle East is our next biggest market, and fastest growing.
What makes you get up in the morning?
Minerva’s Virtual Academy (MVA) has been a massive success, but alternative schooling is still seen as something wrong or lesser than mainstream schooling.
Until that changes, we still have work to do.
Champion/cheerleader which we should all follow and why?
Dan Fitzpatrick – The AI Educator.
Very few people have managed to explain AI and set out exactly how it can be useful in an education context like he has.
It’s a massively powerful tech, and could be life changing for schools and teachers. Dan is showing us how.
Best international ed conference and why
This answer probably changes every time I go to a new one, but I went to BETT this year and the sheer scale was incredible.
Everyone was there showing off incredible innovations, and there are small companies rubbing shoulders with giants like Meta.
If you want to meet people and make connections, it’s the place to be.
Worst conference food/beverage experience
No comment!
Book or podcast recommendation for others in the sector?
I’m not a big fan of the entrepreneur/lifestyle books, but the one that breaks that rule is Will It Make The Boat Go Faster?
It’s written by an ex-Olympic rower and his coach, and it’s a fantastically focused look at the really stripped down approach you need to take when building or growing a business (or anything really), in the context of a team striving for and eventually winning Olympic Gold.
Will it make the boat go faster? Yes? Do it. No? Scrap it and move on.
Describe a project or initiative you’re currently working on that excites you
Our hybrid offer (MVA Hyrbid) has officially gone to market, helping international schools add additional subjects to their curriculum without having to hire new teachers. Instead they use our platform and online teachers. All the pupils need is a computer and they can study Psychology A level, for example, which the school couldn’t previously offer, alongside their other subjects.
