John Murphy is a highly experienced CEO who has grown and developed one of England’s leading academy trusts. He has dedicated the next stage of his career to supporting executive leaders in the trust sector as an education leadership mentor, advisor and public speaker. As CEO of Oasis Community Learning (OCL), John proudly led 52 primary and secondary academies serving some of the most disadvantaged communities, and a workforce of 5,000.

During his tenure, he onboarded 41 schools, opened several free schools, and 45 schools within the trust moved from special measures/failing status to good and outstanding. John’s leadership of OCL was underpinned by a 36-year career in which he served as a headteacher across seven schools including primary, secondary, all through, and special, including residential SEMH. His passion for developing and enabling others has been the golden thread running through his work. He was also a leadership advisor in the Future Leaders programme and has expertise in behaviour management, having co-authored a best-selling self help guide for teachers "Why are you shouting at me?”.

As one of the founding CEOs of the National Institute of Teaching (NIOT), John has contributed to the architecture of the school trust sector. NIOT's mission is to nurture the talents of teachers and leaders by providing development and research to give children the world-class education that they deserve. John is also a trustee of the Place2BE, the country’s leading children’s mental health charity, is the independent chair of the Blackpool Investment Area Board and is a member of the BETT UK advisory board.

John currently uses his skills and experience to support other leaders to succeed as a mentor, leadership trainer and chair of national conferences that nurture the next generation of school trust CEOs. Over the last year, John has mentored leaders of over 20 trusts across England, helping them to consider their context, vision, strategy and outcomes. Their trusts include all phases of education from primary, secondary, SEND to alternative provision, and vary in size from two schools through to 50+.

As a mentor, John’s approach helps people to develop their authentic leadership style, vision and mission, with a detailed focus on how they lead for the very best impact. He helps leaders to ensure that their trusts’ school improvement strategies have impact at scale and has assisted executive teams at all levels in developing their strategy, growth, and organisational design. At the heart of John’s leadership development values is his focus on people and culture, where he ensures that all aspects of the DfE Trust Pillars are driven from a position of relational trust.