Training provider Educ8 Group has appointed Steven Lewis as its chief financial officer and as a member of its board.

Mr Lewis has more than 30 years’ experience of senior business management having held CEO-level positions at Bergstrom (Europe) Ltd and the WRU. He is an expert in high-level, strategic financial planning and business growth.

The appointment complements some other changes within the senior structure of the organisation including managing director Grant Santos being promoted to chief executive officer and current CEO Colin Tucker becoming chairman of the board.

The new structure is aimed at helping Ystrad Mynach-based Educ8 Group’s plans to evolve and expand from being one of Wales’ leading providers of apprenticeships, vocational training programmes and Jobs Growth Wales placements to a newly-registered provider for Levy-paying organisations in England. It has also recently established a commercial department offering bespoke training and recruitment solutions to organisations nationally.

Mr Lewis said: “The education sector is highly complex but despite all the challenges, the team at Educ8 has managed to double rates of revenue in the last three years and diversify its portfolio of training in-line with the evolving needs of the local labour market.

"Furthermore, they’ve achieved this whilst maintaining their strong ethos and values-base which provides them with a very unique selling point.

I’m looking forward to being a part of a very bright future with the group and helping it achieve its exciting vision for 2020."’

Colin Tucker, Educ8 Group’s new chairman and previous CEO, said: “We are very pleased to welcome Steven Lewis to the Educ8 team; his core values dovetail perfectly with the culture that we’ve created across the group. We’ve got exciting and ambitious plans for the future and I’m confident thathis skills will add a lot of value to our successful senior team.

"I’d also like to congratulate Grant Santos on his promotion to CEO, a well-deserved appointment following 10 years of dedication to the Group’s success. As the sixth Best Small Company to Work For (according to the 2017 Sunday Times Top 100 list) our people mean absolutely everything to us and I’m proud of the team we’ve built around us."

Mr Lewis will commence his role with immediate effect.