Event Speaker

John Somerset brings 40 years of chartered accounting experience, with 30 years specialising in the financial management and governance of non-government schools across Australia and New Zealand. Driven by a passion for turning data into insight, John's mission is to equip school leaders and governors with the knowledge and confidence to make informed financial decisions that enable the long-term sustainability of their schools and the broader sector. He is the founder of Somerset Education which operates the Financial Survey for Schools (FSS), Australasia's largest school financial benchmarking survey, with over 500 schools participating annually, providing KPIs, trend analysis, and peer comparisons that translate complex financial data into clear, actionable strategic insight. John's Master's research at QUT identified the key attributes of a financially sustainable independent school, informing the continual development of his firm's financial analysis and scenario-planning tools. A Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, he is a past Chair of Independent Schools Queensland and past Director of Independent Schools Australia.