About Nordic Education Academy
About
We've sat in your chair.
Nordic Education Academy was founded by two school leaders who got tired of the gap between what consultants promise and what schools actually need. We work the way we wish someone had worked with us.
Our philosophy
School leadership is the loneliest job in education. We don't make it less lonely with a deck. We make it less lonely by being there.
The founders
Two operators, twenty-five years of school leadership between them.
Nedzat Asanovski
Founder · School Builder & Strategy
I'm Nedzat Asanovski. As founding head, I built a school from 8 students to 750 across multiple campuses in ten years — including launching a Danish programme and growing a team of 140+ teachers, most developed from within. Along the way, we lifted IB results from an average of 28 to a peak of 37 — among the highest in Denmark — and have sustained outperformance of the global IB average every year since, despite being the newest international school in the country.
After a decade in education, I deliberately stepped into the business world — joining the leadership team at Novo Nordisk, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, where I led IT projects and learned the operational discipline most schools never develop. I did it because I believed education and business each hold something the other needs, and the best school leaders would be the ones fluent in both.
That's the perspective I now bring to Nordic Education Academy.
Most new schools fail the transition from ambitious start-up to serious institution, because the founder's instincts that got them to 100 students are the same instincts that break them at 500. My work helps leaders make that shift before it costs them.
I'm a teacher by background, with a Master's in Effective Leadership from UCL. I've worked with schools across Denmark and the wider region, and today I advise several education start-ups alongside my work at Nordic Education Academy.
If you're founding, leading, or scaling a school — let's talk.
Evis Qeska
Co-founder · Strategy & Leadership Development
I'm Evis. Alongside Nedzat at the same school, I took a high school programme from 8 students to 150 and helped lift IB results from an average of 28 to a peak of 37 — among the highest in Denmark. The school has consistently outperformed the global IB average every year since, despite being the newest international school in the country.
I now help other international schools do the same — through board strategy, leadership development, and the operational decisions that actually move results.
I serve on the board of Fredensborg Skole, one of Denmark's largest and top-ranked schools, and on the board of Nordic International Schools, where I helped scale the network from 13 to over 40 schools and built the board and leadership training behind that growth. As an IB workshop leader, I work with educators across Europe, the Middle East and Africa — which keeps me close to the real questions boards and principals are wrestling with.
My background blends the commercial and the human: an MSc in Finance and Effective Leadership from UCL. The schools I work with don't get to choose between financial sustainability and educational excellence. They need both, at once.
If you're a board or school leader thinking about growth, results, or reputation — let's talk.
Research credentials
Grounded in research, not opinion.
Nordic Education Academy's analytical work is built on original research into IB school leadership. Evis's Master's dissertation at UCL Institute of Education studied the leadership characteristics and styles of two differently-performing IB Diploma schools, using structured interviews, teacher surveys, and observation. The research applied Marzano and colleagues' 21 leadership responsibilities framework alongside Robinson's five dimensions of student-centred leadership.
That research is the lens we bring to every school we work with — and to every case study we publish analysing other IB schools.
The research framework
Four bodies of peer-reviewed educational leadership research inform our work.
- Marzano and colleagues (2005)
- 21 leadership responsibilities from a meta-analysis of 69 studies covering more than 2,800 schools. Identifies which specific leader behaviours correlate with student achievement, and at what effect size.
- Robinson (2008)
- Five dimensions of student-centred leadership, including "leading teacher learning and development" with the largest recorded effect size on student outcomes (0.84).
- Leithwood and colleagues (2004)
- Four core functions of successful school leadership: setting direction, developing people, redesigning the organisation, managing the instructional programme.
- Fullan (2014)
- The leader as change agent and builder of collective capacity, with emphasis on professional capital and sustainable system-level change.
Where the research shows up
Our Research & Analysis case studies apply this framework to publicly documented IB schools — Cheltenham Ladies' College, Sevenoaks School, and others — to identify what leading schools are doing that explains their outcomes. Our engagement work with schools applies the same framework diagnostically to understand where a school is and what it needs to move forward.
Education is full of consultants with strong opinions. We work from what the evidence shows — and translate that evidence into decisions schools can actually make.
How we work
Four rules we don't break.
01
Embedded, not abstract
We do the work with you. We sit in the meetings, on the calls, in the classrooms.
02
Senior, always
You get the founders. We don't ship juniors with frameworks.
03
Outcomes in writing
What we'll deliver, by when, against what measure. Signed before we start.
04
One school at a time
Each advisor takes one engagement at a time. We can't be everywhere — and we don't pretend to be.
Track record
The numbers behind the work.
28 → 37
IB peak score, sustained outperformance since
700+
Students enrolled by partners
3 continents
Partner schools across Europe, Asia & Africa
92%
Family retention in growth engagements