Kevin McNeany was born circa 1943[4] in Keady, Northern Ireland.[1] He is originally from County Armagh.[5]
He started his career as a teacher in 1964,[1] teaching English in Northern Ireland, and then moved to Leeds. He began working in further education, and in 1972 moved to Southport. There, he started a business providing English-language courses for foreign students, expanding also into Blackpool, Chester, and Manchester.[5] He was running the Nord Anglia business full-time by 1976, when it had 11 centers. By the early 1980s, he was serving as chairman, and purchased a prep school in Manchester. He then bought Hull Grammar School and Gramercy in Torbay.[5]
He led the IPO of Nord Anglia Education PLC in 1997[6][1] as the first and still the only education company to gain a full listing in the London Stock Exchange.[1] He retired as chairman of Nord Anglia Education in December 2004, after being part of the company for 32 years.[7]
In 2005,[8] founded Acorn Care and Education,[9] serving as chairman of Acorn Education in 2010.[4] He sold Acorn to a Canadian pension fund in early 2013[9] for £150 million.[8]
He founded Orbital Education in 2008,[1] and by 2013 was chairman. Orbital focuses on running international schools and colleges, mainly in the British tradition, to expatriate students and host families.[10]
In April 2012, he sold all but a 2.5% stake of his share in Nord Anglia, shortly after retiring from the company. The year prior, it had become Britain's largest nursery group.[11]
At the start of 2013, McNeany owned the Manchester Academy of English, after first investing in 2008. He sold the stake in 2013 for £3 million, retiring as chairman.[9] In 2014, he owned 14 nurseries linked to existing independent schools.[5] Kevin received the "Outstanding individual contribution" accolade at the Education Investor awards on November 13, 2014, for contributions to the education sector.[12]
In 2019, he remained chairman of Orbital Education.[6] In 2023, he was present at the opening of United School International on The Pearl Island. At the time, he remained Orbital chair and vice chairman of United Schools International, a school opened in 2022 as a partnership between Orbital and United Development Company (UDC).[13]
