The Founders

Mark S. Steed, MA (Cambridge), MA, MSc.

Mark has 23 years’ experience of leading top UK and International not-for-profit schools as Principal and CEO.

Mark supports schools groups, schools and school leaders in a number of areas, particularly relating to Cost Control Audits (of the Educational budget), Mergers & Acquisitions, New School Ventures, Whole School Strategy, Digital Strategy and Transformation and Cyber-Security.

Career

Mark worked in top boarding schools (The Leys Cambridge, Radley and Oundle) as a Teacher, Head of Department, and Boarding Housemaster prior to his two senior leaderships roles in the UK as Headmaster of Kelly College in Devon; and then as Principal of Berkhamsted Schools Group. Two international Executive Headships followed, first as the Director of JESS, Dubai, the leading IB School in the Middle East; and then as Principal and CEO of Kellett School, Hong Kong, one of the leading A-level schools in the world. He was the Interim Principal and CEO of Stamford School from May 2024-July 2025.

He has a particular interest in how new technologies can be used in education and chaired the UK Independent Schools Council IT Strategy Group from 2007 to 2015.

He has also served as the Chair of the British Schools in Dubai, and of both the London Division and the International Division of The Heads Conference.

Education

Mark has Masters degrees from Cambridge and Nottingham Universities and from Ashridge-Hult Business School where he researched ‘Alternative Business models for Secondary Schooling’.

Media and Social Media

 
 

Samantha Steed, MEd.

Samantha has spent her 25-year career working in education in the UK, Dubai and Hong Kong. She has extensive experience of Primary education, with a particular expertise in the Early Years. She is a qualified Transformational Coach.

Career:

Samantha began her school leadership journey at Prospect House School in Putney as Deputy Headteacher (Early Years and KS1), before becoming Headteacher of Haresfoot School in Hertfordshire. She then joined the Senior Leadership Team of the Berkhamsted Schools Group as Headteacher of Berkhamsted Pre-Prep. Her move into International education took her to Dubai where she was the Founding Principal of Ranches Primary School growing the roll from 40 to over 600 children in four years. She was one of the UAE’s Educational Influencers in 2017.

Samantha worked for Harrow International Schools Limited based in Hong Kong as the Director of Lower School Education. In this role, in addition to supporting the existing Harrow Schools across South East Asia she was involved in setting up five new Harrow Schools and five new Little Lions (early years) units. Her responsibilities included appointing, supporting and mentoring senior leaders, recruiting teachers, and writing the Chinese-English Bilingual Primary Curriculum for all of the Harrow schools in China.

Samantha returned to Headship in 2021 taking up the reins of Kellett Prep School (Kowloon Bay Campus) in Hong Kong. Most recently she served as the Interim Head of Repton Prep in Dubai seeing the school through a period of transition, staying on as an onsite consultant for Cognita with a remit for quality assurance.

Samantha is a qualified BSO Inspector.

Education:

She trained as a Primary School Teacher at the well renowned Froebel College, which is now part of the University of Surrey. She subsequently completed a Masters-in-Education (with Distinction) with the University of Winchester in the U.K. researching ‘Wellbeing Initiatives in Schools in Dubai’.

Samantha is a qualified Transformational Coach supporting clients through periods of change in their professional and personal lives.