Jo Saxton joined the Department for Education as a schools adviser in March 2020, having established the Kent-based multi-academy trust (MAT) Turner Schools in 2016. Saxton also worked as chief executive of Future Academies, the MAT set up by Lord Nash. She was director of exams at Ofqual from 2018 to 2020, departing to join Gavin Williamson’s Whitehall department. A skilled analyst of the schools system with degrees from NYU and Cambridge, Saxton is a dynamic and innovative voice at a department which can always use them. Her experience across numerous organisations and regulators will do her good at one of the government’s most powerful bodies.
