Appointment of new CEO for Octavo Partnership

The Board of the Octavo Partnership is delighted to announce the appointment of Abigail Lammas as CEO, to succeed Sylvia McNamara who will retire at the end of this calendar year.

Abi has extensive experience of working at senior director level, developing educational programmes in a range of settings and demonstrating a strong commercial acumen. In her own teaching career, she spent three years as Head of Mathematics & Science in a Sixth Form College before moving into a Regional Manager then a Regional Director role for the Learning & Skills Improvement Service. Abi then moved to the Chartered Institute of Marketing as Director of Learning and Innovation, where she was responsible for international learning & professional education, as well as new product development. This was followed by a role as Lead Consultant at the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development, working on international and national education strategy. Currently Abi is the Director (Learning and Professional Development) at the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.

The Chair of the Board of Octavo, Gordon Smith, commented:
“We are delighted to have found a candidate with extensive commercial experience and wide ranging educational understanding, whose professional roots lie in learning and the leadership and development of teachers. Octavo Partnership has established itself as the first choice organisation to support schools and colleges locally under the expert leadership of Sylvia McNamara; Abi will be able quickly to build on this and help us to maintain quality across Croydon and beyond, for the benefit of young people”.