Deane Baker has more than 20 years of senior school leadership experience, both in the UK and Middle East. In 2010 he was appointed Principal of Thorns Community College in England, a school where his leadership was described as “outstanding,” by Ofsted as he led it out of special measures in just 18 months. A former member of Ofsted’s Advisory Headteacher Panel in the UK, Deane has worked closely with both Ofsted, the UK Government and HMI to improve and support education in challenging circumstances.  In 2013, Deane took over as Principal of Qatar International School in Doha. QIS has now grown to some 2000 students from the ages of 3-18 and is widely regarded as one of the premier British International Schools in the world. In 2020 Deane led QIS to be not only the first school in the world to achieve CIS accreditation on their fast- track scheme but also to become only the 3^rd school in the world to be judged a “BSO Gold School,” outstanding’ in every category of its BSO inspection.

In his work as a member of the BSME Executive Committee (British School’s in the Middle East) and also Country Representative for Qatar, Deane has supported many colleagues and presented at a number of international conferences. He has spoken about his work with Olevi over the last 10 years, the importance of professional development and the role it has played in school improvement. After becoming the first Designated Olevi Centre in the region QIS is now working on further partnerships with Real Training (UK) and other organisations to further education in Qatar.