SNE Event

Les Walton CBE

Founder & Chair, Association of Education Advisers

Les Walton has a unique record of being a successful leader and innovator within most education sectors. 

As Headteacher, his school was identified by HMI as ‘one of the most successful urban schools in the country’. In his time as Director of Education the Council achieved Beacon Status for ‘tackling school failure’. All its schools were deemed successful by Ofsted. He was subsequently asked by the DfE to lead interventions into failing Local Education Authorities. Les led the merger of a Sixth Form College and an  FE College to create Tyne Metropolitan College,  the process of which was described as ‘exemplary’ by the DfE. The success rates moved from bottom to top quartile during the merger period.

Les was first invited to No. 10 to advise Prime Minister, John Major on the establishment of Ofsted. During Tony Blair’s time in office, he was involved in numerous New Labour Government education initiatives. Later, Les was appointed by Secretary of State, Ed Balls, to lead and establish the Young People’s Learning Agency. Secretary of State, Michael Gove, then asked Les to support the establishment of the Education Funding Agency and chair the Advisory Group. Both Boards have been widely recognised as setting high standards for governance and effectiveness.

Les has a track record of education innovation. He has instigated and founded a number of influential and successful education organisations, including Northern Education Associates, Schools North East, the Northern Education Trust (NET) and the Association of Education Advisers (AoEA). AoEA has established a presence across the UK and globally including the USA and the UAE.

He is Visiting Professor at Sunderland University where he received an Honorary Doctorate.  He has been recognised for his work through being awarded the Order of British Empire in 1996 and Commander of the British Empire in 2013.

Chris Zarraga

Director, Schools North East

Chris is the Director of School North East.  He has been part of the Schools North East team since its operational inception in 2008 and in 2019 he was appointed Director.  Chris works with senior leaders across the North East and nationally in the education and charity sectors, to represent the voice of North East schools.  A central part of his work is to lobby politicians,  policy makers, and the media to put a strong ‘regional accent’ on the education debate, so that North East schools are not left behind when it comes to education policy.

Under Chris, Schools North East launched the ‘Manifesto for North East Education’.  The manifesto sets out the perennial challenges that impact educational opportunities in the North East and the principles needed to inform any educational policy wanting to address them.

Chris works with hundreds of schools across the North East and various organisations including Ofsted, the DfE, the North East’s universities, Local Authorities and various regional/ national businesses. Prior to joining Schools North East, he led a £1.4 million culture change project in education across the North East for the Treasury and DfE and was responsible for setting up a multi-million pound Enterprise Education Network. 

Chris sits on various advisory boards including the NHS Integrated Care Boards, various Combined Authority advisory boards, and was a member of the DfE’s Opportunity North East strategic board. He has also sat on various boards for North East Universities. As well as being a Director of two North East multi academy trusts, Chris has been Chair of a 3 school Trust, Vice Chair of a large maintained secondary school and Vice Chair of a primary foundation school. 

In a variety of roles from Regional Manager to Chief Executive to Board member, Chris has led large scale change management projects in education and has over 20 years’ experience of strategic management, consultancy, and client development experience at a ‘Big Four’ firm and various financial institutions.

Chris holds an MBA with distinction from Durham University Business School.