Speaker Profile

Jonny Uttley

Jonny Uttley has spent nearly 30 years working in education, including 20 years in senior leadership roles. He has been a Headteacher, Director of Sixth Form and, most recently, spent eight successful years as CEO of a multi-academy trust in Yorkshire.

Throughout his career, Jonny has been driven by a clear and consistent purpose: to make the lives of young people, staff and communities better. As CEO, he built a thriving trust around a simple but powerful philosophy – a great teacher in every classroom, and adults who are supported to be brilliant at their jobs without having to sacrifice their family lives.

Jonny is a prominent national voice on inclusive education and leadership culture. He is regularly sought out by policymakers, charities and think tanks, and previously sat on the DfE’s National CEO Advisory Group. He is a trustee of SHINE, the educational charity committed to reducing disadvantage in northern schools, and a Visiting Fellow at The Centre for Young Lives, founded by former Children’s Commissioner Baroness Anne Longfield, where he leads work on how schools and trusts can sit at the heart of truly inclusive communities.

In 2020, Jonny co-authored Putting Staff First: A Blueprint for Revitalising Our Schools with John Tomsett, and he continues to write and comment widely for TES and Schools Week.

Jonny recently founded Jonny Uttley Education, a consultancy with a difference. He does not do mocksteds or context-free “best practice”. Instead, Jonny offers a thought‑partnership and narrative‑based approach, working alongside schools, trusts and organisations to strengthen leadership, culture and inclusion. His work is deliberately humane and capacity‑building, aiming to leave organisations more coherent, confident and self‑sustaining – places where both adults and young people truly thrive.