The Portage la Prairie School Division's newest CEO is settling in and says he's happy to be back in Manitoba. Todd Cuddington's officially taking over from outgoing CEO Hazen Barrett on October 17th, but it currently working with the division to get comfortable with the position and learn more about the division's operations and future plans.

Cuddington enters the position with no shortage of experience in education, including spending some time overseas. He graduated from Brandon University with a Political Science Degree, before gaining his Teaching Degree. Cuddington spent several years working in Manitoba both at Brandon, as well as other areas of the province, before pursuing experience in other countries. He worked in Taiwan for a period, before deciding to take on a teaching position in Kuwait. He notes recruiting teachers in the region was difficult due to the ongoing issues in the country, which allowed him to move up in his career.

After taking on a principal's role in Kuwait, he starting looking back on his Manitoba roots. Citing the ongoing challenges with teacher recruitment in the country, Cuddington created a program to work with Manitoba's education system to help fill those gaps.

"We established a program where we'd recruit practicum teachers from BU to come over. It was a brainchild that I had because I thought once we got them there for the practicum we could have an extended interview period for these teachers, and I knew the quality of BU's programs. So, we'd bring people over and ultimately if we had a position we'd hire them."

He eventually left Kuwait with the intention of moving to Manitoba, but his time overseas didn't come to an end just then. An opportunity to establish a Manitoba Curriculum in Turkey came up, and he worked as a headmaster for a Turkish school in Izmir.

Upon discovering the opportunity in Portage, Cuddington felt it was time to move back to his home province. He returned to Manitoba earlier this summer and says he's excited to begin a new life here in Portage la Prairie.

"It's great to be back in Manitoba. I'm excited to be in Portage and I'm really discovering the community has a lot to offer that I didn't realize even though I grew up close. I think there's been a real transformation in the city, in terms of the facilities and other things they offer."

He describes his decision to take on the CEO's role as a good decision, noting he has two daughters that are now in school in the division. Cuddington says he's also excited to be back teaching in Canada, describing our education system as a blessing. He says in Kuwait and Turkey, private education tends to lead the way, while there isn't much funding allocated toward the public system. Cuddington admits the calibre of education through the other countries private schools is quite high, but notes Canada's easily accessible education is a much more equal system.

"I was fortunate to work with some fantastic organizations and great people who had a similar philosophy, it's just it didn't reach everybody. Turkey was struggling greatly to fund their public school, and even wealthy countries like Kuwait, they were letting private education drive their system."

While Cuddington officially takes over as CEO on October 17th, Barrett will remain with the division until November to act as a mentor for Cuddington.