In November 2019, UK REIT, Octopus Group, approached Compass Executives about a key requirement for their specialist education portfolio investment, Aurora Group. Initially an interim mandate owing to an organisational restructure, this then developed into a permanent appointment for the business.

As part of a senior leadership build, a Chief Executive was required who would be responsible for defining the future direction of the business, and would be paramount in executing the strategy developed to achieve this. The successful candidate would need a diverse skillset and oversee operations, people leadership and commercial drive, with the ability to lead and support an experienced and established team of education professionals.

Owing to the long-standing relationship between Compass Executives and Octopus Group we ensured our unique understanding of the business, as well as our market-leading track record of delivery came to the fore when delivering this search.

Our extensive network and track record of success in the Children’s Services and specialist education space meant we were able to facilitate the interim Chief Executive in a short space of time, before then running a concurrent full-scale executive search process to ensure full market coverage was examined, before the incumbent interim appointment was taken on full time.

Compass Holding Group’s unique business model meant that Compass Partner, Compass Associates, also made a number of placements with the group to bolster their middle management ranks.

Shay Ramalingam, Chairman of Aurora Group and Investment Director at Octopus Group, commented:

“Luke is an asset to any health education or social care business. Thoughtful, insightful, thorough, discrete and considered. He works as a genuine partner to the team and has helped build a very strong team at Aurora. He has my complete trust and would heartily recommend him. At Aurora we have transformed the group, improved the organisation and quadrupled our performance in a year. Luke’s a big part of that success.”

Director, Luke Osborne, acted as appointment lead for the process.

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