Rob Hughes

Rob, as the CEO and Accounting Officer, is responsible for the financial and operational health of the Trust, leading all of the central services: Finance, Operations, Estates, People & Culture, Technology and Marketing.

Rob began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, training as a Chartered Accountant in the Newcastle and London practices. He then returned to the North East to work for the software business Sage, eventually focusing on the commercial development of Sage One, Sage’s then-new entry-level SaaS product.

Rob then bought into a loss-making brick business turning it around for eventual sale before leading the Accapi Group, the European distributor of Ruffwear, to exponential growth with a market size of €21m in 2022.

Rob has worked more recently as a consultant specialising in private-sector business growth before joining the trust in October 2022. Rob's experience and expertise in the consulting and commercial sector, building businesses and managing high-performing teams, will ensure that the trust grows seamlessly, adding new schools that fit with our mission and values whilst providing excellent support to our existing ones.

Rob lives in Tynemouth and is father to three football-mad boys.