Announcing our new Chief Exec

It feels like a lifetime ago that I announced my decision to hand on the baton as CEO at CfEY, ready for someone to bring new ideas and energy to the writing of our next chapter.

Today marks an important milestone in that process and we are delighted to announce that we have appointed a new CEO who will be stepping into the driving seat next week.

We are thrilled to announce that our new CEO will be Joe Hallgarten. Joe has spent his career working across the sector to improve young people’s lives and we are excited to see how he draws on this deep experience to ensure we have ever more impact on society’s ability and willingness to help all children and young people make a fulfilling transition to adulthood.

Joe started his career teaching in urban primary schools and since then has amassed 20 years’ experience leading and influencing educational change as a programme leader, researcher and policy analyst.

I first met Joe when he was Director of Education (and then Global Director) at the Royal Society of Arts, an organisation that played an important part in the genesis of CfEY both as a source of ideas and as a Pied a Terre for meetings in London before we got our own office. Before that Joe was Head of Education for the Institute for Public Policy Research – the organisation that first got me interested in the work of think tanks. He has also led projects as consultant for the UK Department for Education, the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, and London 2012.

One of the things that’s really important to us at CfEY is connection to the day to day reality of working with young people. It’s therefore great for us that Joe is fresh from spending a year working part time as Head of Curriculum Development for the LETTA Multi Academy Trust in East London, a role he combined with being interim director role of the Hertscam Network (an international teacher leadership charity).

Joe’s first day will be next week and will coincide with the first day when our full team will be reunited at our HQ in the Literacy Pirate’s Ship of Adventures – so it looks set to be a memorable day in the organisation’s history!

As for me, I’ll be continuing to support the transition part time over the next couple of months and remaining on the Board as a Director until our next meeting in October. I’ll share more on my emerging future plans soon, but in the meantime I’ll leave the last word to Joe and Mary Myatt, Chair of our board.

‘I’m so proud to be taking on this role, building on the brilliant work done by Loic, the other founders, and the whole CfEY team. I hope that I can bring all my experience to bear so that, at such a fascinating and vital  moment for education, CfEY continues to thrive and make an even greater difference to children and young people’s lives. ‘

Joe

‘We are delighted to have made a terrific appointment with Joe Hallgarten as the new CEO for The Centre for Education and Youth. Joe has the experience and vision to build on Loic Menzies’ groundbreaking work for a fairer deal for all young people, especially those at the margins.  Joe and the CfEY team are poised to take this work into its next chapter.

Mary