Chief Operating Officer
IllustrationJo Dawson started her career training as a chartered accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Birmingham, after being educated at the University of Birmingham. She joined the trust in 2019 from the private sector where she had held a number of senior global leadership roles. Jo’s previous role was at Jaguar Land Rover Overseas where she was responsible for an annual turnover of £6bn. Having been a chair of governors at an academy in Birmingham for 10 years, Jo is now a co-opted member of the audit and risk committee at the University of Liverpool.
In her role as Chief Operating Officer (COO) at OAT she performs all aspects of the role of Chief Financial Officer in addition to having responsibility for all areas of operational activity outside of educational delivery. This includes leading the following professional services: estates management, governance, IT, administration, communications, HR, and finance.