The Board of Cognita has announced that, after six years of outstanding service to Cognita, Chris Jansen will be standing down as Chief Executive Officer.

Chris’s decision comes after much consideration and thought upon being offered the opportunity to lead a new and very big challenge, as CEO of the global market data consultancy Kantar.  He will remain in place as Cognita CEO until October 2021 and the process of recruiting his replacement is already underway.

Patrick De Maeseneire, Chairman of Cognita, said:

“On behalf of the Board, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to Chris for his leadership and all that he has achieved over the last six years. Cognita today is a very different organisation to the one Chris joined in 2015.  On every key measure, Cognita is stronger and more successful as a global schools group, from the academic attainment of our students to the satisfaction of our parents and our employees. With 85 schools across 12 countries, we are also a much larger, more vibrant group, thanks to Chris’s energy and drive in leading growth in all regions where we operate and expanding into the Middle East.

Underpinning this all has been Chris’s passion for education and his warmth for people, both of which feature heavily in ‘the Cognita Way’, our unifying vision for what makes a successful school.  Based on the simple premise of taking the best practice from our diverse group and sharing it so that all schools can keep improving, ‘the Cognita Way’ embodies a mindset for positive change that Chris has fostered.  I thank him for this legacy and for building Cognita into one of the leading schools groups globally – not just in size, but most importantly in quality.

Of course, Chris would not have been able to build Cognita to what it is today without the excellent support and contribution of our people over the past years.  Thanks to all our teams at all levels, Cognita is stronger than ever before and we are well placed to continue this successful journey in the years to come.”