The Access Project announces today that, after four years as CEO, Nathan Sansom will be stepping down with effect from August 2023.
Nathan has steered the organisation through a hugely challenging period, not least through the COVID pandemic. Working with the team, he ensured that our young people continued to receive our vital support to an excellent standard. Through establishing exciting new partnerships with funders and other partners, Nathan has enabled us to reach more young people with our transformational work. We have grown into new regions and now serve 50% more students, while maintaining benchmark-beating outcomes for our students. With half the funds already raised for our new strategy, we are in a strong position going forward.
Chair of The Access Project, John Kelly Jones, said:
“The other members of The Access Project’s board and I would like to thank Nathan for his leadership of the organisation during the last four years. Like many other organisations, The Access Project was forced by the circumstances of the pandemic to adjust and adapt, not least by moving the provision of our academic assistance to an online delivery platform. Nathan and the executive team addressed each of the challenges as they arose and enabled the organisation to continue to expand the number of students that we support, while also adding students from schools in parts of the country we had not previously served.
Nathan will remain in his role until August and we have begun the effort to recruit a new CEO. We will look to recruit a CEO able to lead the organisation through the growth that we aspire to achieve in the coming years.
The Access Project benefits from the skills of a strong, experienced and committed team. We have recently agreed a four year strategy and been able to partner with numerous organisations to secure a significant portion of the funding required to meet the organisation’s objectives for the coming year and beyond.
I wish Nathan well as he takes the next steps in his career and I want to thank the board, the executive team and the staff for their consistent focus on delivering the support we have promised to the students we serve. The continuity of this service will remain our most important priority.”
CEO Nathan Sansom said:
“I have been incredibly privileged to serve as CEO for the last four years working with such a fantastic group of colleagues so utterly committed to our mission. Throughout this time, our amazing young people have been a continual source of inspiration. The students I met on my first programme visits and first A-level results day are now university graduates forging their careers and paying it forward by supporting the next generation of students from The Access Project in numerous ways.
I’m particularly proud of how the organisation responded to the COVID pandemic and that, despite the challenges in those years, we have expanded to serve more young people, and are now working in West Yorkshire and the North West. The organisation is in fantastic hands with John Kelly Jones as Chair, an excellent Executive group and a hugely talented and committed team. It has been a very hard decision to leave The Access Project, but after the demands of the last few years, this is the right time for me to find a different balance in the next phase of my career.”