Introducing Charlie Bennett, Strategic Director for MATs
We are pleased to announce the appointment of Charlie Bennett as Strategic Director for MATs. In this new role, Charlie will work closely with Trust leadership teams to support long term strategic thinking across digital infrastructure, safeguarding, security, compliance and value for money as MATs continue to scale.
Charlie brings deep, first‑hand experience of the education sector. Over the course of his career, he has worked extensively with primary and secondary schools, Multi‑Academy Trusts and Local Authorities, and has played a senior role at Schools Broadband for more than five years. Prior to this, he founded and ran his own IT Support company, giving him a practical understanding of the operational and financial pressures that Trusts face when adopting and sustaining technology at scale.
Much of Charlie’s work has focused on supporting some of the largest MATs in the country as they navigate growth, consolidation and increasing accountability. He has significant expertise in the design and operation of modern wide area networks and centrally managed digital infrastructure, and how these can directly support efficiency, resilience and cost control across growing Trust estates.
Alongside his technical knowledge, Charlie is widely trusted as an advisor on online safeguarding, cyber security and regulatory alignment. He has spent many years working with our community of over 300 MAT customers to ensure that technology decisions are grounded not only in performance, but in statutory requirements, inspection readiness and risk management. As a parent himself, he is particularly passionate about ensuring that safeguarding approaches are robust, practical and embedded across whole Trust communities.
Charlie is acutely aware of the changes currently shaping the MAT landscape, from financial constraint and flat funding to new operational models and increasing scrutiny on assurance, compliance and procurement decisions. Fully aligned with this context, he will be leading a forthcoming series of strategic briefing notes that reflect thinking across key areas affecting Trust leadership today. The briefings will provide informed, constructive perspectives, offering Trust executives practical food for thought as they plan for the years ahead.
For MAT CEOs, COOs and CTOs, Charlie is a trusted sounding board: someone to engage with on strategic direction, operating models and procurement choices, and to sense check how technology can genuinely support better outcomes, efficiencies and resilience at Trust level.