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Leigh Whitehouse
Chief Executive at West Sussex County Council
Leigh Whitehouse is a distinguished public sector leader renowned for his extensive local government experience. He was honored with the prestigious Public Finance Awards as the 'Public Finance Leader of the Year' in 2020. Leigh pursued his education by studying LLB Law at the University of Hull.
Highlights
What a week! It started last weekend with Coventry City Football Club reaching the FA Cup Semi Finals for only the second time in my lifetime, and concluded with confirmation of my appointment as the new Chief Executive at West Sussex County Council on Friday. Only the eight interview panels for two different roles to navigate on the days in between stopped it being a perfect week!
I'm hugely excited to be joining such a fantastic organisation as West Sussex County Council in the role of Chief Executive. I really enjoyed meeting some of the officers and Councillors that I will be working with, including my future Executive Leadership Team colleagues, and the chairs of some of our staff networks. I can't wait to get started.
Lots to look forward to, and important work to do in the meantime as I continue in my interim role at Surrey County Council.
Four years ago, Surrey County Council's financial situation was extremely challenging. In a way that other council's faced with similar issues have been unable to do, Surrey took control of its own destiny and acted to ensure that the right decisions would be taken to strengthen the council's finances and to stabilise our position. Despite tough external conditions, the Council is now financially stable and well placed to face what will undoubtedly be challenging times to come. That financial strength has enabled us to protect services and to invest in ambitious new initiatives.
There were many factors behind the turnaround, including first class leadership from Chief Executive Joanna Killian and Council Leader Tim Oliver, who helped make this a whole organisation responsibility. However credit also rightly goes to the strong Finance function that has helped drive that work across the council. Directors Anna D'Alessandro and Rachel Wigley have assembled an enormously talented team over the past few years, but we are now at the stage where some of those who joined us three or four years ago are moving on to bigger things, having made valuable contributions to our achievements during that time. One of those is Daniel Peattie who is leaving us to join the City of London Corporation. As well as being good news for Daniel and the City of London, this creates an exciting vacancy in our finance team for a Strategic Finance Business Partner supporting our Children, Families and Lifelong Learning Directorate.
Surrey County Council is a large and ambitious organisation where great things are possible. If you are interested in joining us then please check out the details on the link below.
