Appointing a Principal/CEO for an Independent Catholic Girls’ School in Melbourne to guide the school’s next chapter of growth and innovation.
The Brief
Future Leadership™ was engaged by an independent Catholic secondary school for girls in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs to appoint a Principal and CEO who would lead the next period of organisational renewal and strategic growth. The appointment followed the departure of a long‑serving and highly respected Principal and occurred at a time of changing enrolment patterns, increased competition, and shifting funding environments.
The school required a leader with the capability to strengthen academic excellence, stabilise enrolments, elevate external reputation and community confidence, and continue embedding a contemporary wellbeing and learning culture. The incoming Principal needed to bring strategic clarity, resilience, strong Catholic identity, and the ability to inspire staff, students, and families.
The Process
Future Leadership™ undertook a national executive search process tailored to the school’s strategic challenges and future direction. Additionally, it was agreed the search would seek to engage with potential candidates who may to be seeking to return to Australia from international school.
Key steps included:
- Briefing and strategy development: The Future Leadership team, led by Liz Jones, engaged with Board Directors and senior leaders through a series of meetings to clarify role expectations, cultural context, strategic priorities, and leadership capability requirements.
- Search strategy: A national search process was implemented across independent school networks, Catholic education leaders, returning expatriate candidates, and senior educators with demonstrated capability in girls’ education.
- Targeted candidate outreach: The search focussed on Future Leadership’s extensive proprietary databases along with reaching out to known referral partners for their professional recommendations. The search was supported by a coordinated advertising campaign via SEEK, LinkedIn, and Future Leadership digital channels.
- Candidate assessment: Candidates were evaluated against Future Leadership’s Capability Framework, with focus on strategic leadership, change capability, community engagement, and Catholic identity. Shortlisted candidates were assessed for cultural alignment, experience leading complex learning environments, and their ability to communicate an organisational vision. All shortlisted candidates underwent psychometric assessment prior to presentation to the school, with a Future Leadership psychologist providing insights from the assessment at the shortlist discussion.
- Client presentation and evaluation: Two rounds of panel interviews were conducted, with Future Leadership preparing interview guides and managing all logistics. In the final round of interviews, three candidates presented their leadership philosophy, strategic priorities, and approach to enrolment growth and wellbeing integration to the Selection Committee.
Future Leadership Capability Framework
Strategy and Purpose
Develops and leads strategy for the function/organisation, taking a broad and long-term perspective. Understands and considers context.
Communicates and gains buy-in to the function/organisation goals, direction and vision, promoting change initiative
Culture and Engagement
Fosters a positive culture, creating a sense of belonging and inclusiveness. Creates an environment that encourages diverse perspectives and facilitates a psychologically safe environment.
Communication and Influence
Articulates messages with clarity and impact to build understanding, inspire action, persuade others and enable information exchange. Considers the audience and draws on different styles to create impact.
Organisational Capability
Understands the organisation's future requirements and identifies opportunities to build potential across the organisation. Seeks opportunities to develop other people and takes appropriate action to address skill gaps in others.
Adaptability and Resilience
Demonstrates positivity, curiosity, and the ability to pivot when confronted with change, pressure, adversity and disruption. Responsive to strategic environmental, social and corporate challenges and opportunities.
Innovation and Creativity
Demonstrates curiosity through challenging the status quo, expected norms, and workplace paradigms. Contributes new ideas, solutions, and perspectives to current challenges and thinking practices. Creates new products, solutions and opportunities and identifies opportunities for improvements.
The Outcome
The process resulted in the appointment of an experienced Catholic education leader with a strong background in senior executive roles across independent girls’ schools. The successful candidate brought more than twenty years of experience in the sector, including service as Deputy Principal – Learning and Teaching and as Acting Principal at a large metropolitan Catholic girls’ school. Their background demonstrated depth in curriculum leadership, organisational management, governance, and faith‑based formation.
The appointee had led significant educational initiatives including contemporary curriculum reform, evidence‑based learning improvement cycles, AI and digital transformation planning, and whole‑school wellbeing frameworks. Their professional formation included the Australian Institute of Company Directors Course, advanced leadership studies, religious education accreditation and extensive engagement in national and international professional learning. Additionally, the appointee demonstrated their experience in community leadership to the Board, providing evidence of having built strong relationships with staff, students, families, Boards and Catholic education partners. With a leadership style that was described as relational, visible and collaborative, the Selection Committee were impressed with the appointee’s commitment to empowering young women, strengthening school culture and advancing academic excellence through innovation and strategic clarity.
This appointment positioned the school to continue its trajectory towards growth, innovation and community confidence, supported by a leader whose skills, values and experience aligned strongly with the school’s mission and its vision for the future.
