CEO of England’s largest academy trust to step down
Ian Comfort, the group CEO of the Academies Enterprise Trust, the country’s largest academy chain, has announced he is stepping down from his role.
Comfort indicated earlier this year that he wished to move on 'to other challenges' and has now informed the Trustees that he plans to leave in the spring term, giving them time to find a suitable successor.
He has held the position of group CEO for the past three three years and has overseen the percentage of good or outstanding academies in the Trust increase from less than 26 per cent to 68 per cent.
However, his resignation comes at a turbulent time for the Trust, which has faced criticised from Oftsed and saw six of its Trustees quit in June.
Ofsted raised concerns about the Trust’s rate of expansion back in 2014, preventing it from taking over anymore schools. This was followed by a letter sent to the Trust in February 2016 which criticised its ‘mediocre’ secondary schools and cautioned it was failing too many pupils.
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