E-ACT appoints new chief executive

Tom Campbell has been appointed as the permanent chief executive of E-ACT, after leading the 28-school trust last year in an interim role.

Campbell took over after the suspension of the former chief executive, Jane Millward.

A trust spokesperson said this week Millward had decided to “move on”. It had previously said she was “away from work”, and did not confirm her suspension when it was first revealed by Schools Week in November 2021.

Millward, a former Ofsted inspector, was appointed chief executive in 2019 after joining the trust in 2017.

“During her time at the trust our academies have been transformed, and almost all are now judged to be good or outstanding. E-ACT is in excellent financial health,” the spokesperson said. Trustees “wish Jane well for the future”.

Campbell started as substantive chief executive this month after joining in December 2021 on secondment from Greenwood Academies Trust, where he was chief education officer.

He is a member of the Department for Education’s secondary headteacher reference group, which advises on policy.

He was principal of Fullhurst Community College in Leicester, where he said on LinkedIn that he had “turned around one of the country’s most challenging schools into one of the highest-performing” in the region.

E-ACT is also recruiting for two new members. Michael Wilshaw, the former chief inspector,  left last March after only seven months, while businessman David Roper left in 2021.

Last year E-ACT also revealed it had commissioned advisers to see if certain payments had breached funding rules.