John May is the Chief Executive of Young Enterprise UK, the country's leading enterprise education charity.   Young Enterprise is building a connected world of young people, business volunteers and educators, inspiring each other to succeed through enterprise.

Each year, the charity's business volunteers inspire over 300,000 young people aged 4 to 25 years. Its programmes empower the next generation with the confidence, ability and ambition to succeed in a rapidly changing global economy.

Trained as a primary school teacher, John has worked with children and young people in a variety of situations, ranging from schools in suburban England to refugee camps in Uganda.   He became a Headteacher at 28, briefly holding the dubious honour of being the youngest head in the country, going on to develop a reputation for regenerating underperforming schools.   John has since worked for Business in the Community and for Career Academies UK; the latter as its founding Chief Executive.

John is a former non-executive director of UNICEF; is a judge of the TES Schools awards, helped to found ‘Teach First’ and is currently Chairman of World Scouting's Educational Methods Committee.   He writes, speaks and broadcasts on a number of education related matters.   In 2008, John received The Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion in recognition of his long-standing dedication to enterprise education.

John's spare time interests include Scouting, long-distance running, hill-walking, theatre, good food, and attempting, usually unsuccessfully, to visit the gym regularly