Matt Collins is Partner and Head of Practice, for Global Schools, at Spencer Group, a boutique executive search firm specialising in education. Before moving into executive search, Matt spent almost 20 years in education, progressing from classroom teacher to Executive Principal, holds an MEd in international education leadership and has published academic work on social mobility. At Spencer Group he leads senior appointments for international schools, school operators and private equity backed groups and, across the last 12 months alone, has led appointments in 16 different countries across five continents, placing Principals, Directors of Education and Group Executive roles. He is passionate about finding exceptional leaders who create incredible school experiences for children.
Recently, in an exclusive interview with K12 Digest, Matt shared insights into how his journey from classroom teacher to Head of Year, Executive Principal, and now Partner and Head of Practice was shaped by the direct impact he saw on children every day. He spoke about the growing specialism in senior school leadership, where academic excellence must now sit alongside commercial acumen, enrolment growth, parental relationships, and cross-border cultural understanding. On AI, he stressed that the best leaders remain curious lifelong learners who integrate technology only when it benefits students and teachers, and who make every decision on behalf of children. Looking ahead, he plans to continue building a trusted, respected team that delivers exceptional leadership appointments and expands its impact across education globally. The following excerpts are taken from the interview.
Hi Matt. Looking back to your earliest days as a teacher, what was the moment that first made you realize education would become your life’s work?
It was the directness of the impact you make as a teacher. In my early days I held two roles. As a classroom teacher, academic progress and student engagement are right in front of you; you can see them and feel it every day. I was also a Head of Year with pastoral responsibility for 120 children. Working with them, building positive relationships and making sure they felt safe, happy, engaged and that they truly belonged at the school was incredibly exciting, and it was then that I knew education was the place for me.
Your role requires balancing commercial understanding with sector credibility. What is the most fulfilling part of leading senior appointments that reminds you why this work matters?
It is the scale of impact. At its heart, our role at Spencer Group is to discover talent, and very often that talent is not active in the market. These are leaders who have not necessarily considered the scale of impact they could have. We get hugely excited when we find an exceptional leader who is a great fit for one of the schools or school groups we work with, because we know that, once appointed, they will have a huge impact on children. Part of the reason that happens is that we found them in the first place, and that is what reminds me why this work really does matter.
The talent market for senior education leaders is becoming more competitive and more global. What trends are you seeing in what boards are now looking for that are different from five years ago?
The biggest shift is a greater degree of specialism. International education has always required leaders who can deliver significant academic impact and who are exceptional people leaders. Today the role also demands a real commercial edge: growing enrolment, building strong parental relationships and keeping a school’s EBITDA on course. At the same time, there is an increasing variety of operators, where managing upwards and working with multiple stakeholders is essential, and a growing number of new schools where founding principal experience matters, bringing with it a real degree of marketing and admissions work. All of this makes the search for exceptional leaders more niche and more difficult, which is very much part of the enjoyment we find in uncovering leaders who can meet those requirements.
Global mobility and cross-border leadership are increasing. How do you see the role of the international school leader evolving as schools become more interconnected and culturally diverse?
Schools are becoming ever more distinctive in what they offer. Many combine global and local curricula, some are bilingual, and each serves its own demographic and parent community, so bilingual and curriculum expertise is becoming increasingly important in leadership. Cross-border leadership is also growing. We often make central appointments, particularly at Director of Education and Chief Academic Officer level, and these are complex roles. Those leaders must observe and implement the parameters of the wider international group, while also respecting what has made each individual school successful historically, whether that is its relationship with its community or the distinctiveness of its own offer. Combining the group’s global requirements with the realities of localisation is one of the most important challenges in modern K-12 education.
Leaders are often shaped by the books they return to again and again. Is there a book that has profoundly influenced your approach to leadership and life, and what stayed with you from it?
From a leadership perspective, it would be Good to Great by Jim Collins. It highlights the importance of relentlessness, will and humility in becoming a Level 5 leader, and those qualities have stayed with me throughout my career. From a pedagogical perspective, I have always been influenced by the work of Sir Ken Robinson and Sugata Mitra, particularly their thinking on student agency, self-directed learning and creativity.
Beyond the boardroom and school gates, every leader needs a place to recharge. What is your favorite way to spend a quiet, unhurried day when there are no meetings or deadlines?
I like to carve out time to think. That might be about long-term strategy for the business at Spencer Group, or it might be creative problem solving and strategic work more broadly. My favourite thing is finding creative ways to solve problems, and whenever I can unlock space in my calendar to do that, whether for business growth or for how I can contribute to education more widely, it is time I really enjoy. Beyond that thinking space, I love spending time with our children and walking the dog, preferably with a pub beer garden at the end of the walk.
If you were not in education or executive search, what is another path you feel you might have loved, and what does that reveal about what drives you?
Having made a mid-career pivot after almost 20 years in schools, including serving as an Executive Principal, and now working in the corporate world while still serving education, I feel genuinely fulfilled to have made an impact in both the public and private sectors, although there is still plenty more to do! If I had to name one other role I might have loved, it would be CEO of a charity dedicated to improving children’s life chances and opportunities. That would connect directly to the academic work I have done on social mobility, which is important to me given my own background in Birmingham.
Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
At Spencer Group. Having built a successful and sector-trusted executive search team, I plan to keep extending my impact across the wider business. Above all, I want to ensure we have a team that is hugely respected in the education sector for doing what it says it will do, and doing it exceptionally well. The work we are doing right now is incredibly exciting, and I am massively looking forward to building on it.
If you could give one piece of advice to today’s education leaders on how to lead with courage and humanity in the AI era, what would it be and why does it matter now more than ever?
The best leaders I have ever worked with have been consistently curious and committed lifelong learners. In the AI era, that curiosity and appetite for learning is exactly what enables leaders to integrate AI into the school experience for the benefit of both students and teachers. Beyond AI, my advice on leading with courage and humanity is simple: consistently, every single day, make every leadership decision on behalf of the children. As technology reshapes our schools, keeping children at the centre of every decision matters now more than ever.