Founding Chief Executive Officer

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Our client, The Opportunity Trust, has a mission to accelerate improvement and increase access to quality public schools for all children. By 2027, The Opportunity Trust will ensure that at least 30% of St. Louis’ children attend a quality public school, up from 12% when the organization launched. Through its Innovative Schools Fellowship (ISF), The Opportunity Trust has incubated and launched 9 schools, creating over 2800 new quality public school seats in St.

Louis. As part of its growth strategy, TOT seeks to create a new Charter Management Organization (CMO) to support a network of semi‑autonomous schools launched by future ISF fellows, by providing strong academic, operations, finance and human assets systems and support. To learn more about The Opportunity Trust, visit their website here.

This role represents a game-changing opportunity for a bold, visionary and entrepreneurial leader. The Founding Chief Executive Officer (CEO) will have the chance to design a new CMO model from scratch, blending forward‑thinking ideas with strategies that deliver lasting impact. As innovation and evidence‑based practices are not mutually exclusive, this is an opportunity to develop new solutions informed by both.

During the planning year (2026‑2027), the new CEO will be expected to create the operations, finance, human assets and baseline academic infrastructure, agnostic of a school’s curriculum choices or model, to support the development and launch of one to two new schools in 2027.

• Build a high‑performing founding network team;
• Recruit and collaborate with a founding Board of Directors, ensuring strong governance and aligned oversight;
• Cultivate positive relationships with community members, families, educators, and key stakeholders;
• Work closely with the ISF Fellows on the operational, financial, talent, and academic systems needed to launch their schools successfully;
• Create a plan to raise early‑stage funding and to support the CMO in becoming sustainable over time.

The founding CEO will work closely with The Opportunity Trust team, the founding Board of Directors and key community stakeholders to create a network that embodies excellence, innovation and equity. The CEO will serve as the visionary architect, chief strategist and culture builder for this new CMO and create an innovative model that can be replicated in other cities across the nation.

Executive

Full‑time

• Education
• Industries:
  Education and Primary and Secondary Education