Case study: Chief Executive Officer recruitment | St Cuthbert’s Roman Catholic Multi-Academy Trust

Since 2015, St Cuthbert’s has grown from a single secondary school to a multi-academy trust comprised of 15 schools, including the largest Catholic secondary school in the country, St. Mary’s. With 6,500 students across the Trust in Hull and East Riding, including 2,600 at St. Mary’s alone, the Trust became responsible for a diverse student body, speaking over 65 languages. The Trust’s culture is deeply rooted in its Catholic faith, which guides decision-making and community engagement. The principles of partnership, inclusivity, and striving for excellence are central to its operations.

Context.

Following the retirement of St Cuthbert’s founding CEO, Ged Fitzpatrick, the Trust commissioned Peridot Partners to design and deliver a full search and selection process to find a new CEO.

During its recent expansion, the Trust maintained a strong academic performance, but faced some challenges in terms of financial health, leadership capacity, school improvement and integrating newly joined schools. The Trust acknowledged the need to shift from an insular focus to a more outward-looking approach, engaging more actively with the broader educational landscape and community stakeholders.

Brief.

The role of the CEO at St Cuthbert’s Trust was strategic and ambassadorial. The CEO was going to be responsible for leading a high performing Executive team, ensuring the performance of the executive team, and driving the Trust’s strategic vision. They needed to be a strategic thinker, capable of quickly appraising the current situation and implementing necessary improvements. The ideal candidate was also expected to be a practising Catholic with a deep understanding of the role of Catholic education in the community.

The key challenges the new CEO needed to address:

• Strategic planning: The Trust was in a phase of developing a new strategic plan that reflected its expanded size and the needs of its diverse student population. The previous strategy, built around St. Mary’s, no longer fit the larger Trust, and the new CEO was expected to develop and implement a fresh vision.
• Leadership development: With the recent growth, there was a need for this CEO to nurture and develop leaders who could drive improvement and consistency.
• Financial management: The CEO needed to be creative in financial planning, exploring opportunities for revenue growth and cost savings.
• Community engagement: The Trust values its relationship with the Diocese, local parishes, and councils. The CEO was expected to maintain and build on these relationships, ensuring that the Trust continued to serve its communities effectively.

The successful candidate needed to demonstrate a collaborative leadership style who prioritised the development of their team, embraced partnership with the Diocese, and brought a fresh perspective to the Trust’s challenges and opportunities. With a competitive salary and benefits package, the Trust was committed to finding a leader who could guide it through this transformative period and beyond.

Process.

Peridot undertook a national search. The team’s detailed research process focussed on sourcing leaders from catholic academy trusts, colleges, sixth forms, and education charities. Peridot approached over 100 leaders across the UK and Ireland and received five applications. Four candidates were taken forward for a first stage interview that Peridot designed, focussing on the candidate’s career journey to date, leadership credentials and Catholicity.

The panel shortlisted two candidates for the final stage of interview and assessment who undertook a rigorous series of tasks and stakeholder panels, meeting people from across the organisation. Following that, the final stage interview and presentation focused on the candidate’s vision for the Trust.

Outcome.

The panel was delighted to offer the new CEO role to the Director of Education of a large Catholic Trust in a neighbouring Diocese. The successful candidate was able to demonstrate excellent school improvement knowledge gained in growing trusts, both faith-based and non-faith-based. More than that, throughout the process, they articulated a clear vision for the future of St Cuthbert’s, which was rooted in delivering excellent Catholic education for learners across both phases of education.