Former Deloitte Partner Matthew Robb takes on CEO role at education scale up Macat
Matthew Robb has left Deloitte (where he served as Partner), having completed his time on garden leave, and joined Macat as CEO.
In a LinkedIn post, he said: "From 2026, I will be stepping into the role of CEO at Macat, an education scale up focused on one of the most important challenges of our time: how we assess and develop the skills humans need to remain relevant and resilient in an age of AI."
"I’m deeply excited about this next chapter. Why do I believe this? There is more detail in a longer post below, but in short under the leadership of its founder, Salah Khalil, Macat has spent more than a decade and invested over $50 million working with world leading academic and policy institutions the University of Cambridge, LSE, and the OECD to build rigorous, scalable methodologies for assessing and teaching critical thinking skills."
He added: "In particular problem solving, analysis, creative thinking, interpretation, evaluation and reasoning, also known as the PACIER advanced reasoning methodology. These skills have always sat at the heart of serious education, and the emergence of AI has made them not optional, but essential."
"This work is now moving firmly into the mainstream. These PACIER skills will be a core component of the next OECD assessment that measures critical thinking and creativity in global higher education, and Macat is actively supporting the development of the assessment methodology itself. That is a rare opportunity to shape global education at scale."
Robb noted that, alongside the CEO role, he will continue to advise selectively on major education sector deals. “Staying close to the market matters to me, and Macat will undoubtedly be seeking further investment partners as it enters its next phase of growth. Grateful for the journey so far, energised by what’s ahead, and looking forward to building something genuinely impactful,” he concluded.
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