About me

Russell Hobby

I am chief executive of Teach First and a board member or adviser to several charities and think tanks. I am a non-exec at Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Trust in East Grinstead. Previously, I was General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers for seven years and, before that, a management consultant. I have worked as a cleaner, a checkout assistant, a solderer in a solar panel factory, a box packer and a salesperson.

This site holds my personal thoughts and does not represent the views or positions of any organisation I work for or with, past or present.

A great deal of my work is in education and particularly trying to build a fair education for all – reducing the gap in outcomes between rich and poor. This is Teach First’s basic mission; see also the Fair Education Alliance for more on this topic (I am a trustee). I am a particular fan of school leaders. The best of what I have learnt came from the best of them.

I am also interested in charities and trade unions, as well as management in all its forms.

I live in London. My family are important to me and I ‘enjoy’ running and cycling. I hold the record for what I think may be the slowest ever time to complete a triathlon. I read a lot of science fiction.

I went to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where I studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics. I was raised near Oxford in Abingdon by my mum, who was a primary teacher her entire career and later, when she retired, mayor of the town. My brother is president of Cure SMA in the USA and my wife, Victoria Barlow, runs Agenda, a communications consultancy.