When finance expertise meets education leadership: Lessons from Liberia to the classroom

Edward Vitalis didn't hesitate when asked to audit charitable funds in war-torn Liberia over 20 years ago. Most people would have walked away from a country constantly in the news for conflict and danger, but he chose to go. 

He remembers sitting down to dinner with colleagues, hearing weapons fire in the distance, knowing rebels were just miles up the road - yet people carried on. 

That experience taught him about resilience, about doing more with less, and about what's possible when you're truly resourceful. Flying home to the UK, he reflected on how well-resourced we are compared to communities building schools and futures with almost nothing. It's a perspective that shapes how he leads Invictus Education Trust today. 

The accountant who became a CEO

In conversation with Nick MacKenzie on the latest episode of the #EdInfluence podcast, Edward explains how he trained as an accountant knowing that 40% of FTSE 100 CEOs are former accountants.  

His view was simple: accountancy would give him the skills to lead any type of organisation, whether commercial, charity, or education. When you look at a CEO job description and carve it into a pie chart, education is just a sliver - the rest is governance, finance, growth, estates, risk management. 

Imposter syndrome

He admits to moments of imposter syndrome early on, wondering if he needed more classroom experience. But parachuting into different trusts through governance work gave him confidence - he could spot high performers and struggling organisations and knew what he'd do differently.  

Turning around a trust posting two-million-pound deficits for successive years and carrying six million in debt to the DfE proved his approach worked. 

Innovation as a mindset, not a project

Edward challenges the sector's habit of waiting for policy and then criticising it. He points to Tesla, Toyota, and Apple - it's industry that leads innovation, not government. He believes schools should do the same with curriculum reform rather than sitting back and waiting. 

At Invictus, innovation isn't just about shiny projects - it creates an infectious environment where staff feel inspired to try things differently. He's constantly got people asking "what do you think about this?" and "how can we do things differently?" 

The AI hackathon captures this perfectly. Rather than repeating the same tired use cases about lesson planning, teams of staff and pupils tackled real problems and came up with three apps worth funding: one addressing wellbeing and workload, another linking analytics to personalised study plans, and a third helping learners map gaps to revision timelines.  

The ideas came from the people who'll actually use them, which makes adoption far more likely than top-down instruction. 

Courage over competition

Edward describes his approach to collaboration as "a bit courageous" because our natural reaction is to keep things to ourselves, to see everything as competitive, and to hide our vulnerabilities. But he believes we come up with better solutions collectively than individually. 

When things get tough, he picks up the phone to other CEOs and asks:

What feels daunting at the start of the day feels manageable by the end. 

His hope is that this collaborative approach spreads like an infection across Dudley, raising outcomes not just at Invictus but across all trusts and schools in the borough. 

The through-line

When asked what drives him, Edward's answer is simple: life chances. Every role on his CV - whether health and social care, education, or charities - points back to widening opportunities for others. From Liberia to leading a trust, he's still doing the same thing in a different guise. 

Listen to the full conversation on the #EdInfluence podcast to hear more about Edward's journey from finance to education leadership, and why he thinks Gen 3 and Gen 4 trust CEOs need to speak the language of business to protect what matters most: outcomes for children. 

Listen now and subscribe via your preferred podcast channel to hear Edward’s full conversation on the #EdInfluence podcast. 

Listen now