Mark Byrne has mastered flying a plane and spearheading an international reinsurance company — and now he's turning his attention to overhauling Bermuda's beleaguered education system.

The new chairman of the Board of Education told The Royal Gazette he considered himself a "surprise candidate" for the post and wasn't sure why Education Minister El James appointed him earlier this month.

"I said I was a very busy man," said the 47-year-old Flagstone Re chairman. "The Minister made clear it was an executive body. That's part of what makes this worth doing. We are expecting to impact the outcome."

Already the newly appointed permanent board — which replaces the interim executive board set up to implement the Hopkins report recommendations on public schools — has had a five-hour meeting in which, according to Mr. Byrne, "the group came together very well".

"I think it's off to a very positive start in terms of being a collaborative board and not a combative environment," said the Irishman, who is originally from County Wexford and has been in Bermuda for 17 years. "I'm really quite optimistic about our being able to accomplish our mission."

That mission, he explained, is to ultimately get all of Bermuda's students leaving school with an improved qualification after 13 years in the public school system.

"I think it's fair to say that our immediate focus is reading, writing and arithmetic and seeing graduation go up," said Mr. Byrne. "And seeing the qualification be an internationally recognised qualification. That's really important to us."

Father-of-four Mr. Byrne said his own personal lack of involvement in public schools would not hamper his ability to implement much-needed reform. "I'd like to see greater collaboration between the public and private schools. I don't think the public schools should view the private schools as the competition."

The board — made up of representatives from education, business and the wider community — has already identified its first task: to find a successful curriculum from overseas that can be brought here to replace the curriculum currently being used, which was last rewritten more than a decade ago.

Once a suitable curriculum has been identified, elements of it are likely to be introduced into middle schools this September, with the rest of the system on board a year later.

School governance will be the next priority, according to Mr. Byrne. The businessman said it would be looked at in the summer with a "cluster" system of sorts likely to be introduced, but not necessarily as initially envisioned.

The cluster plan caused controversy when first announced, as aided schools feared losing their governing bodies and being led by a board in charge of several schools.

"I do have a preference with regard to what model of cluster we should go with but don't want to share it," said Mr. Byrne. "There are multiple models that could work."

What he does reveal he wants to see is assistant directors appointed to manage school principals in the various clusters that are already operating informally around the Island.

The idea is that some current principals will apply for the $110,000+-a-year posts — but Mr. Byrne said the job description needed to be rewritten in order to attract them, giving them more responsibility and money.

Playing the blame game — be it pointing the finger at principals, teachers or parents — when it comes to problems with the education system is futile, according to Mr. Byrne.

"It can be easy for parents to blame teachers. I certainly don't blame teachers for outcomes, which I agree with the Bermuda public are not acceptable outcomes. I think it's hard work. Teaching is a job that doesn't get as much respect in society as it should."

He added: "There are a lot of parents in Bermuda who face challenges I don't face. I have my wife stay at home full-time. It isn't easy to be a parent, particularly in a two-income household."

Of his new role, he said: "My job is to try to keep everybody working collaboratively and focusing this excellent group of minds on producing some better outcomes. I'm the mouthpiece for this board. I'm not the whole entity."

Mr. Byrne's initial appointment is for a year. He hopes to serve for longer as he says having two education boards disbanded in the space of two years — the original Board of Education and now the interim executive board — highlights the need for continuity.

"I'll do this thing as long as I feel like I'm helping Bermuda," he said. "If I'm the wrong guy, they should get rid of me but whoever they put in place should hold the position for a number of years.

"What I hope is that in five years from now, El James is still our Minister and I'm still doing this."