This article examines illustrative cases of partnerships from a government-funded programme of experimental projects in England designed to test out the potential of senior business managers to provide leadership across a group of schools. The article places the programme within the context of international public service reforms and, more specifically, the re-culturation of schools along business lines. The study data are then presented and analysed in relation to the pro-collaboration and pro-business biases in evidence in contemporary thinking about public service delivery. This analysis raises serious questions about how competing education and business values and agendas play out in schools, and their implications for roles and practices within the schools workforce. The article concludes with calls for field members to address this important but neglected area of leadership.