With a mixture of pride and sadness, Tutor Trust has announced that Co-Founder and CEO Nick Bent will be leaving the charity at Christmas.  After over 11 years with Tutor Trust and nearly six years as full-time CEO, Nick is moving on to lead another fantastic social mobility charity, upReach. He will start work as their CEO in January 2023. 

Co-founded by Nick along with Abigail Shapiro (pictured above) in 2011, Tutor Trust has become one of the most effective and respected education charities in the UK, winning multiple awards and securing proven evidence of impact from two randomised control trials funded by the Education Endowment Foundation.  Abigail remains fully committed to her role as Executive Director, balancing her professional work here with her other responsibilities and commitments.  She and the SMT will be closely involved in the Trustee-led recruitment process, the transition to the new CEO and, of course, the ongoing work with the new CEO once he or she is in post.    

The start of September also marks the launch of Tutor Trust’s ambitious new Three Year Plan, which was developed with our strategic partner Impetus.  Our headline target is to double the number of pupils we serve to 13,000 by 2024/25.  In parallel, we aim to further improve the quality and impact of each school partnership; to expand our specialist support for vulnerable learners, building on the success of The Right Angle; to harness the power of digital technology to an even greater extent; and to expand Tutor Trust into at least one more city in the North of England.       

The Chair of Trustees at Tutor Trust, Pete McIntyre, commented:

Tutor Trust has evolved from a start-up to become the most credible not-for-profit tuition provider in the country under the leadership of two incredibly dynamic and inspiring co-founders.  Nick moves on to pursue other challenges and I’m sure he will be extremely successful in his new role at upReach.  We are extremely proud of Nick and of all the things he has done to build Tutor Trust.  We are very pleased that he is staying in the same sector and will continue to make a difference to disadvantaged students as they progress to their next stage in life.  Tutor Trust remains in safe hands with Abigail, who is looking forward to helping us find the right successor to Nick and then working with that person to take Tutor Trust into a bright future.”

Nick Bent commented:

While leaving Tutor Trust will be a wrench personally and I will miss friends and colleagues here terribly, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to make a big difference in a new way at upReach.  Just as I would only ever leave Tutor Trust for another role I really believe in, equally I would never dream of moving on unless I were confident that the charity is in a strong position to carry on thriving and growing, and it is: Tutor Trust has an incredible team of staff and tutors, we are serving a record number of pupils across the North, our finances are healthy, our reputation is better than ever – including a second successful EEF randomised control trial – and our exciting new Three Year Plan will galvanise further support for Tutor Trust across the education, philanthropic and policy arenas.  Leaving will be bittersweet and I will never stop cheering on my successor and the whole Tutor Trust family.”   

Everyone on the team is confident that Tutor Trust will attract a stellar set of candidates for the CEO role and the appointment of Nick’s successor is expected in November.  To ensure a fair and effective selection process, the Trustees have appointed Peridot Partners as their recruitment partner. Peridot Partners were instrumental in helping Tutor Trust to appoint six superb new Trustees to their Board in 2021.    

While the CEO recruitment process is running, it will be business as usual at Tutor Trust as we focus on our mission of ‘transforming lives through tutoring’.  We are likely to have our busiest and most successful autumn term ever as a team, not least with the welcome reboot of the National Tutoring Programme that we successfully lobbied for alongside Impetus, The Sutton Trust and the Fair Education Alliance.  

As stated above, Tutor Trust is working with Peridot Partners to appoint our next Chief Executive.  Full details about the position are available via this link:

www.peridotpartners.co.uk/jobs/chief-executive-officer-the-tutor-trust/

If you would like to get in touch to discuss the role please contact one of our advising consultants at Peridot Partners:

Jennifer Allen     [email protected]

Philippa Fabry    [email protected]

The closing date for applications is at 9am on Monday 3^rd October 2022.