John Murphy stands as one of the most influential figures in British education, having dedicated over three decades to transforming schools and nurturing educational excellence. His impact on the UK education sector is both profound and far-reaching, marked by consistent success in turning around struggling schools and developing innovative educational initiatives.

John is a highly experienced CEO who has grown and developed one of England’s leading academy trusts and is now dedicating the next stage of his career as an Education Leadership Mentor, Advisor and Public speaker. As CEO he proudly led 52 primary and secondary academies serving some of the most disadvantaged communities, and a workforce of 5,000. During his tenure, he onboarded 41 schools, opened several free schools, and 45 schools within the trust moved from special measures/failing status to good and outstanding.

As CEO, John’s leadership was underpinned by a 36-year career in which he served as a headteacher across seven schools including primary, secondary, all through, and special, including residential SEMH. His passion for developing and enabling others has been the golden thread running through his work. He was also a leadership advisor in the Future Leaders programme and has expertise in behaviour management, having co-authored a best-selling self help guide for teachers "Why are you shouting at me?”.

As one of the founding CEOs of the National Institute of Teaching, John has contributed to the architecture of the school trust sector. The institute's mission is to nurture the talents of teachers and leaders by providing development and research to give children the world-class education that they deserve. John has become the Programme Architect for the BeReady ‘Becoming the CEO programme’ and is currently enabling, equipping and sustaining 120 aspiring and current CEOs. John has also been recently appointed to the BETT UK Advisory Board.

Now John continues to use his skills and experience to support other leaders to succeed as a CEO mentor, leadership trainer and chair of national conferences that nurture the next generation of school trust CEOs. As a mentor, over the last two years John has worked with over 40 MATs

across the UK covering all phases of education from Primary, Secondary, SEND and Alternative provision supporting Trusts of two schools through to over 50 schools as they consider their context, vision, strategy and outcomes.

John has worked with leaders to develop their developing authentic leadership, vision and mission. He has worked with leaders developing their personal style of leadership, with a detailed focus on how they lead for the very best impact He has supported Trusts ensuring there is School improvement strategies at scale. He has assisted executive teams at all levels in developing their strategy, growth, and organisational design. At the heart of John’s focus in people and culture and ensuing that all aspects of the DfE Trust Pillars are driven from relation trust first.