Abid Patel

IT Director, Leading Learning Trust, London, UK

Abid has been working in schools & EdTech for over 16 years. As the IT Director for the Leading Learning Trust, he leads on the digital transformation, digital strategy, and delivery of all technology-related learning experiences for the Trust.

His Google for Education journey started in 2017 after a flood in the server room at one of his schools destroyed the on-premise server. Abid used this opportunity to introduce the Trust to G Suite for Education and migrated all of the data at all of the Trust’s schools on to Google Drive.

This success led to Abid achieving his Google Certified Educator level 1 & 2 certifications in March 2019. He then went on to become a Google Certified Innovator as part of the #LON19 cohort in July 2019 and then followed this by becoming a Google Certified Trainer in October 2019. In January 2020, Abid went on to become the leader of the Google Educator Group GEG UK and in May 2020, collaborated with other Innovators and leaders from around to world to help found the Global GEG. Abid was most recently a coach for the first-ever virtual innovator academy, #VIA20.

Abid was awarded the title of EduFuturists Network Manager of the Year 2020 and also named in the 2020 EdTech50 “Ones to Note”. Abid is a passionate advocate for sustainable digital transformation in schools. He was described by one of his fellow innovators as "a natural positive force and dreamer with 10X ideas".