He is UNESCO Chair in Inclusive, Good Quality Education for All and Global Chair in Education at the University of Bristol. Leon currently directs a Network Plus which is focusing on education as a driver for sustainable development and includes partners in the UK, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa and India. He has previously directed a large cross national programme on Implementing Education Quality in Low Income Countries (EdQual) funded by the UK Department for International development. Leon started his career as a science teacher in London comprehensives and then at a school for South African refugees in Tanzania. On completing his doctorate, he worked as a policy researcher at the Education Policy Unit, University of the Witwatersrand during the transition form apartheid to democracy. On returning to the UK he was appointed as a lecturer in International and Comparative Education at the University of Birmingham before moving to the University of Bristol where he received his Chair in 2006.