About

Decades in school leadership. Careers built in strategy.

A partnership combining hands-on experience leading and growing school networks with strategy careers at BCG and McKinsey.

The practice

Who we are

School Excellence Group is led by Jesse Whelan and James Centenera. Between them, decades in school leadership and building and growing school networks, in Australia and around the world, combined with deep business and strategy expertise. We founded the practice on a single premise: non-government schools deserve the same quality of financial and strategic analysis that major organisations receive, applied by people who understand how a school actually operates.

Jesse Whelan

Managing Director

LinkedIn Teacher Passport

I've spent over a decade working inside schools and the education sector, including building Teacher Passport, a national cross-sector teacher employment platform, and a funding-and-surplus benchmarking model covering more than 2,500 Australian non-government schools. I hold a Master of Teaching from UNE, a deliberate choice to understand the profession from the inside. Before that, I trained at BCG, and I've spent the years since applying that analytical rigour to a sector I've worked in and built businesses within.

James Centenera

Managing Director

I've spent over fifteen years building and scaling organisations inside the education sector, in Australia and internationally, including senior roles at the NSW Department of Education, Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn, APEC Schools in the Philippines, Education Horizons, and TULA, plus running School Transformation Group, focused on international schools outside Australia. I served as a Senior Advisor to Acasus, supporting donors and governments on education reform, and I sit on the boards of TULA and the School for Life Foundation. I trained with McKinsey's Social Sector practice, and have deep relationships across Australian Catholic education, including within the Canberra-Goulburn and Parramatta dioceses.

What sets us apart

Benchmarking built for this sector

your position measured against schools matched on enrolment, ICSEA, location, level, and sector, rather than generic business averages.

Data others don't hold

More than 2,500 schools' worth of financial benchmarking, and live national teacher vacancy data from Teacher Passport.

Senior throughout

the people who scope the work do the work. No junior teams, no inflated headcounts.

Deliberately bounded

deep on the operating side, and out of curriculum, pedagogy, leadership, and culture.

Selected experience

Experience across the education landscape.

School Networks

CECG (Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn)
NSW Department of Education
APEC Schools
University of Sydney

Education Services

Teacher Passport
Pearson (Affordable Learning Fund)
TES
Education Horizons
School Transformation Group (STG)
Acasus

Strategy and Business

BCG
McKinsey

Logos are placeholders pending final assets. We add anonymised school and system case studies here as foundation engagements complete.

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