Nord Anglia Education

CEO Andrew Fitzmaurice, appointed in 2003, leads the group's capital deployment strategy, which focuses on acquiring existing schools and opening new greenfield campuses globally. The firm's private-equity backers — reported to include CPPIB and Baring Private Equity Asia — influence major capital allocation and exit planning, but day-to-day expansion decisions sit with Fitzmaurice and the regional managing directors.

It operates neither as a family office nor a traditional asset manager — it is an institutional-backed operating company. A consortium of investors including Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Baring Private Equity Asia took the company private in 2017 in a deal reported by Reuters. The entity generates revenue by operating schools, not by managing third-party capital.

Nord Anglia uses both strategies. It acquires established premium schools in target cities and layers on its proprietary curricula and partnerships with MIT, Juilliard, and IMG Academy. Simultaneously, the group develops greenfield campuses, particularly in Asia and the Middle East, where demand from expatriate and high-net-worth families is growing.

The firm holds exclusive collaborations with MIT for STEAM education, The Juilliard School for performing arts, and IMG Academy for sports and wellbeing curricula. These partnerships provide teacher training, curriculum design, and student experiences that function as a competitive differentiator from other premium school groups and cannot be replicated by single-site schools.

The company maintains a Social Impact Programme, chaired by Dr Leslie Williams, which operates in partnership with UNICEF and focuses on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Students participate in global and local outreach, but this is integrated into the curricular offering rather than separated into an independent foundation — it is a marketing and student-development tool, not a grantmaking entity separate from the core business.