60 seconds with… Dr Nikos Savvas

With a wealth of experience in education and skills, Dr Nikos Savvas is passionate about helping people and businesses reach their potential. We asked him a few quick-fire questions about his career journey, Suffolk’s future, and the skills that will matter most in the years ahead.

How would you sum up your role and experience in a couple of sentences?
I’m Chief Executive of Eastern Education Group, bringing together schools, colleges, sixth forms, and skills provision across Suffolk and the wider region. At its core, my job is simple: use education to change lives, support employers, and help our communities prosper.

What motivated you to join the Suffolk Business Board?
Education and the economy have to work hand in hand, and Suffolk has real potential to get this right. But that only happens if businesses, colleges, schools, and civic leaders actually work together, rather than in parallel. That’s what drew me in.

From particle physics to leading one of the region’s largest education groups, how did that journey happen?
I started in high energy particle physics, which taught me to be curious, analytical, and comfortable sitting with a hard problem before solving it. My entire family are teachers though and somewhere along the way I got more interested in people than particles, and in what education could unlock in them. That took me into teaching, then leadership, and eventually into a role where I get to help thousands of people find their next step.

What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in education over the last decade?
Education can no longer sit apart from the world of work. Good teaching still matters enormously, but students also need real insight into careers, employers, and how the economy is actually changing. The best education now gives people knowledge and a genuine sense of where they can go next.

What skills do you think will matter most in Suffolk’s future workforce?
Technical skills will matter, particularly in digital, engineering, construction, energy, health, and the green economy. But adaptability, communication, and the ability to keep learning will matter just as much. The people who thrive will be the ones who never stop treating learning as part of the job.

What more can we do to inspire the next generation of Suffolk talent?
Show young people what’s possible, earlier and more vividly than we currently do. That means real contact with employers, real encounters with people doing interesting work, and more chances to try things hands on. Our job is to open doors and help young people see they belong in the future Suffolk is building.

What’s a lesson you’ve learned from your students that has stayed with you?
Potential isn’t always loud or obvious. Some of the most remarkable growth I’ve seen has come from someone who simply needed belief, encouragement, and the right opportunity at the right time. I’ve never forgotten that, and it still shapes how I lead.

Find out more about all our board members here.