Paul James is a qualified teacher with over 25 years of experience in schools, including in senior leadership roles in a range of secondary education settings, and as a primary school governor and IEB member. Until 2016 he was Headteacher of a comprehensive school of over 1900 students, which is a National Teaching School. He is currently a National Leader of Education alongside being Chief Executive of the River Learning Trust. He is the founding Chief Executive of RLT with the MAT grown from 2 to over 20 schools.