Ian Comfort is a British educator and lawyer. He began his career as a maths teacher and youth worker. He progressed to become Director of Community Education for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and then Chief Education Officer for the City of London, where he became actively involved in the Government's Academy programme. He moved from the City in 2006 to become the

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

for Ark Schools a newly created academy trust. In 2008, he was appointed as the first chief executive of the newly formed Edutrust, a Multi-academy Trust chaired by Lord Amir Bhatia, which was renamed as

E-ACT E-ACT is a multi-academy trust responsible for 38 Academy (English school), academies in England. Over 93% are now rated as “Good” or better by Ofsted. As an academy trust, it is an exempt charity regulated by the Department for Education. ...

in 2010. In 2012, Ian Comfort became the Group Secretary and General Counsel of

Academies Enterprise Trust Lift Schools, formerly Academies Enterprise Trust, is a multi-academy trust with 57 primary, secondary and special schools in England. One of the largest networks of schools in the country, it is a non-profit, educational trust, which sponsors s ...

, which at that time was the largest

Multi-Academy Trust Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) or academy chain is an academy trust that operates more than one academy school. Academy schools are state-funded schools in England which are directly funded by the Department for Education and independent of local aut ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

with over 36,000 pupils. He took over as CEO in Sept 2013. In announcing his intention to step down as CEO in 2017, Schools Week reported that during his tenure as group chief executive, the percentage of good or outstanding academies in the trust has increased from less than 26 per cent to 68 per cent, In primary schools, the number of good or outstanding academies has increased from 22 per cent to 84 per cent, with over 8,000 more children now receiving a good education. Research published by the Education Policy Institute in July 2016, confirmed that the trust was in the top 10 per cent of academy trusts nationally for primary education and performing significantly above average in all areas. In 2017, Ian Comfort was appointed as chair of Sutton Education Services, a company set up by the

London Borough of Sutton The London Borough of Sutton () is an Outer London London boroughs, borough in south London, England. It covers an area of and is the 80th largest local authority in England by population. It borders the London Borough of Croydon to the east, ...

to manage its education service. The company changed its name to Cognus later in 2017. In 2017, Ian Comfort was appointed to the board of th
Middlesex Learning Partnership
a multi- academy trust, and took up the role of chair in 2018. In February 2019, Ian Comfort was appointed to chair the Corporation of Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College.

Legal practice

Ian Comfort was appointed as a justice of the peace in 1984 and is a presiding justice in West London. He qualified as Barrister in 2005 and is called to the bar of the Inner Temple. He chairs a number of tribunals for professional regulation including the Investigating Committee of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the Health and Care Professions Tribunal, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal and the Taxation Disciplinary Board. In 2019, he was appointed by Her Majesty the Queen as a Commissioner for th
Criminal Cases Review Commission.

Charity, Arts and Community

Ian Comfort has been a trustee and chair of the award-winnin
Ebony Steelband Trust
since 2004. In 2005, Ebony Steelband was awarded the Queens Award for Voluntary Service. Ebony Steelband holds the record of being 22 times winner of the UK National Steelband Panorama competition at

Notting Hill Carnival The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual Caribbean Carnival event that has taken place in London since 1966

. In 2017, Ebony Steelband played at the Grenfell memorial service at St Paul's Cathederal. Ian Comfort has been a trustee and chair of th
Carnival Village Trust
since 2008. The Trust is a National Portfolio Organisation for Arts Council England and London's development agency for Carnival Arts. Alongside its regional and national remit to develop Carnival Arts, it is responsible for two venues
the Tabernacle
in North Kensington an
the Yaa Centre
in North Westminster. In 2018, Carnival Village Trust set up a subsidiary company
Notting Hill Carnival Ltd
(NHC), to take over responsibility for managing the world renowned Notting Hill Carnival, and appointed Ian Comfort as chair. In 2019, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner praised the new Carnival organisers for providing a safe and successful event. The Carnival is the largest street festival in Europe and attracts over 2 million people. In May 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and in order to protect the public, NHC took the decision to take Carnival off the streets. With the support of a range of sponsors includin
LetsgodoSamsung
an
Spotify
venues including
he Royal Albert Hall
an
Abbey Road Studios
and funding from the

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (often known by its initialism as RBKC) is an Inner London, Inner London borough with Royal borough, royal status. It is the List of English districts by area, smallest borough in London and the secon ...

, th
City of Westminster
an
the Mayor of London
all aspects of the Carnival were streamed over the August bank holiday Carnival weekend generating over 7 million views.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Comfort, Ian Living people English chief executives Schoolteachers from London English educational theorists English barristers 1953 births Alumni of City, University of London Alumni of the Open University Alumni of the University of Plymouth