Jonathan Timmis, the new chief operating officer at Astrea Academy Trust, has worked from bombed-out buildings to the White House. Jess Staufenberg met the former military adviser to NATO to find out why he has switched to helping run an academy trust
People switching careers to teach offer lots of reasons for doing so ̶ but this could be the first time someone has joined the profession in part because the Taliban undid everything they had worked for.
Brigadier Jonathan Timmis, a former senior Army officer, had been in Afghanistan for 13 months when he left last June as part of the evacuation of Western troops. By August, achievements of the previous 20 years had collapsed and now, Afghan girls are largely barred from going to school.
