With hundreds of centres all over the globe, it takes a whole team of brilliant people to lead a company like Busy Bees.
We have a strong central management model, with a seasoned management team who have extensive early years education experience, including founding member, Marg Randles.
The group leadership team provides clear guidance globally, promoting consistency and sharing best practise, while still allowing territories to maintain autonomy, use local expertise and deliver the right service for the families they serve.
Simon Irons
Group Chief Executive Officer
Simon has been involved with Busy Bees for more than thirty years and took over from co-founder John Woodward to become our Group CEO in 2018.
He advised on our business plans as early as 1989 and, in 1998 he joined the board. In 2000, he became a full-time member of the management team as our Chief Financial Officer. He has supported us from the very beginning too, having sent his three sons to the first ever Busy Bees childcare centre, Rocklands, in Lichfield, UK
Cheryl Creaser
Chief of Staff
Cheryl began her career with us in 1997, before becoming Chief of Staff in 2024.
As a mother of two boys, Cheryl also understands what life is like as a Busy Bees parent. Her dedication to delivering exceptional childcare balanced with her commercial acumen has helped Busy Bees to become what it is today, and she is excited about continuing to drive excellence as we keep growing.
Matt Davies
Group Chief Financial Officer
Matt joined as our Group Chief Financial Officer at the end of 2018, bringing many years of experience in financial and operational leadership roles across a number of international public and private equity owned businesses. Before joining Busy Bees, he was based out of Dubai, leading the Middle East and Asia region of a private equity owned laboratory testing business.
Matt runs our global finance function with responsibility for financial performance across the group. He also leads on banking and investor relations, with responsibility for IT, property and M&A.
Ceri Williams-Jones
Group General Counsel
Before she joined Busy Bees in 2019, Ceri was in-house legal counsel at Rolls-Royce, helping the global engineering group manage risk on projects - especially mergers and acquisitions.
As Busy Bees' Group General Counsel, Ceri is our legal lead, providing us with strategic legal advice, overseeing our relationships with external legal advisers, and managing legal risk and governance across the group.
Charlotte Hutchings
Group Chief People Officer
Charlotte joined Busy Bees in 2022, bringing a wealth of experience gained in a variety of strategic HR leadership positions within the hospitality and facilities management sectors. She leads the group's global people strategy, targeting four key areas: talent acquisition and retention, growing future talent, leadership development and employee engagement.
Charlotte is a former Busy Bees parent, so has experienced the Busy Bees difference first-hand.
James Walker
Group Chief Marketing Officer
James joined Busy Bees in 2020, bringing more than 20 years of senior international marketing experience across consumer, business, retail, digital, leisure and tourism, working with high profile global brands including Merlin Entertainments' Resort Theme Park division, the Watches of Switzerland Group, and Interflora.
As our global CMO, James is focused on delivering profitable occupancy growth for all our centres through high-profile marketing programmes, driving brand awareness and ensuring high levels of parent satisfaction and child retention.
Gill Jones MBE
Group Chief Quality Officer
Gill joined Busy Bees in November 2022 after serving as one of His Majesty's Inspectors and the Deputy Director of Schools and Early Years at Ofsted, the UK inspector of education, training and childcare services. After a highly successful career as a headteacher, at Ofsted she played a leading role creating inspection frameworks and advising the Department for Education and childcare practitioners on the Early Years Foundation Stage framework and the teaching of reading.
In January 2023, Gill was awarded an MBE for her services to education.
James Lyons
Group M&A Director
James joined Busy Bees in 2022 to lead our global M&A function, providing oversight of all M&A activity, including developing our expansion strategy into new geographies.
James brings nearly 20 years of corporate finance and M&A experience, having started his career in investment banking before moving into senior M&A positions at FTSE listed corporates. During this time, he has led new country entry projects, deal origination initiatives and post-acquisition integrations.
James has two young sons and understands what a difference high quality childcare can make to children and their parents.
Chief Executive Officers
Chris McCandless
Chief Executive Officer
Chris joined Busy Bees in 2019 and successfully led our European operations until his appointment as European Chief Executive in 2023. His strategic focus is on supporting our aspiration to become the largest childcare group in the world, ensuring more children have access to the best start in life.
Chris' started his career in the UK retail and leisure industries, where he developed key strengths including building high-performing teams, and ensuring colleagues are supported to achieve their full potential.
Andy Koh
Chief Executive Officer
Andy joined Busy Bees in 2010 as a Senior Manager and has since been profoundly inspired by the impact Busy Bees has on every child under our care. Throughout his journey in Busy Bees where Andy covers several different portfolios, he and his team have expanded Busy Bees, both increasing the number of centres and enhancing the quality and diversity of our programmes to meet the unique needs of each child and family.
With a steadfast commitment to placing children and families first, Andy continues to lead with dedication, ensuring that our team remains capable and passionate about nurturing the children of tomorrow. Under his leadership, Busy Bees remains devoted to providing the Best Start in Life.
Mary Ann Curran
Chief Executive Officer
Mary Ann has been part of what is now known as Busy Bees North America since 2012, helping the company raise the bar for early years education in Canada. Before moving into childcare, she gained over twenty years' experience in strategic roles, including holding executive positions at well-known brands.
Today Mary Ann leads our work in North America, overseeing centres across Canada and the United States. Motivated by her passion for education and childcare, she is driving our mission and business as we expand across the continent.
Phil McKenzie
Chief Executive Officer
With a background in multisite retail and allied health service offerings across Australia, Asia Pacific and the US, Phil brings a wealth of international leadership experience.
His primary reason for joining Busy Bees was the deep importance of early childhood education and the exciting challenge of developing a first-class team which will grow a market-leading organisation in Australia and New Zealand.
Phil has two teenage daughters who keep him grounded, humble and always learning something new.
Leanne Mortlock
Chief Executive Officer
With a background in Health and Education, Leanne has a proven track record of creating high-performing businesses with people at the heart of all they do.
Under Leanne's leadership, Busy Bees New Zealand has developed a culture that values its people, resulting in a strong and united network of teachers that are passionate about the children, families, and the communities they serve.
The vision of Leanne and her teams for excellence in early childhood education is supported by their focus on partnering with families to nurture children to thrive in their unique potential.