Paolo Acquista is the Chief Operating Officer at Great Oaks Legacy Charter School in Newark, New Jersey, a network of seven schools serving more than 2,100 scholars. Before education, Paolo built a career across sports marketing and entrepreneurship, working with Umbro USA and the United Soccer Leagues before founding and scaling a school food service business to five locations across New York City.

Paolo transitioned into education leadership, joining Success Academy where he quickly found that the operational rigor he had built across his businesses translated directly into high-stakes school environments. He rose through operations leadership and now serves as COO of Great Oaks Legacy Charter School, responsible for building the systems, teams, and infrastructure that allow its schools to run at the highest level.

Paolo joins the Fox Fellowship as a leader committed to growing as deliberately as he builds, knowing that the standard he holds his team to has to start with himself.