FT meets 'pushy banker' behind Eton sponsored state boarding school

From the Financial Times: Simon Dudley, Conservative councillor and former private equity financier at Arcapita and Citigroup, told the FT: 'It’s a big and daunting project... but I’m a pushy banker who gets things done.'



The paper said: 'Mr Dudley was one of the founders who submitted a free school proposal to the Department for Education in early 2012, and has overseen every stage from securing the site, getting planning permission, acquiring the financing, drawing up an admissions strategy and hiring staff.'

(His Arcapita profile says at Citigroup he was a Managing Director in Fixed Income and advised on several of the United Kingdom's most high profile public-to-private transactions)

Walter Boyle is Holyport’s headmaster. The £16m school is sponsored by Eton. Boarders will pay £11,500, day pupils will be state funded.

Tony Little, Eton’s headmaster, told the FT: 'This is not, to coin a phrase, Eton-lite... it genuinely is intended that [Holyport] will develop its own purpose.'

The piece also discusses how skillsets and experience built up around the private school sector don't always translate into the public sector.