Neil Gibson joined Buckinghamshire County Council in December 2004 as the Strategic Director for Transportation & Planning, being appointed the Strategic Director for Transportation, Economy & Environment in April 2007, and then in June 2009 becoming the Council’s Strategic Director for Communities & Built Environment. Neil started life in local government in 1982 as a Town Planner with King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council, after which his planning career took him to Peterborough City Council, Wrekin Council and Chester City Council. The focus of his work at this stage in his career was on planning policy, development and regeneration. It was in Chester that Neil’s career took a turn. As Head of Strategic Projects he led on a wide range of corporate, partnership and regeneration initiatives and was seconded for 18 months to help establish the Northwest Development Agency and to help prepare the first economic development strategy for the Northwest. His final position at Chester was as Head of Community Services, having project managed the transfer of the Housing Stock to a Trust. This positioned Neil to become a Strategic Director at Oxford City Council where he had strategic responsibility for 5 business units spanning housing, homelessness, building repairs, environmental health, customer services, and neighbourhood renewal. He also championed a number of corporate initiatives including customer contact strategy and the constitutional review, as well as acting as interim Chief Executive for 4 months in 2004, coinciding with the release of Oxford’s CPA result and local elections. At Buckinghamshire County Council Neil is a Member of the Corporate Management Team and currently has strategic responsibility for the Council’s Communities & Built Environment Services, but is also expected to lead on an ever changing range of cross-cutting corporate and partnership initiatives. Neil’s current work includes leading on the procurement of an Energy for Waste service; planning for the impact of growth on all public services in Bucks; maximising the opportunity of the 2012 Games; working with an innovative Board of Bucks Business Entrepreneurs to create net job growth; and championing the Council’s Productivity Board. For light relief Neil Chairs the East West Rail Consortium which is promoting the reopening of a railway linking Bedford, Milton Keynes, Aylesbury and Oxford, he is a Non-Executive Director of Ngage a not-for-profit company that delivers business solutions for micro business, social enterprise and third sector organisations in the Thames Valley, and has recently joined the national Management Committee of ADEPT.

3. The Transformation/Efficiency Journey 2002 Best Value Customer Focus Performance Mgt Operational Performance 3% pa Efficiency 2009 Rationalisation Reduce duplication Eliminate waste Efficiency 9% Turnover Yr 1 3%pa thereafter £1M+ Revenue 2012 Organisational Transformation Macro efficiency Focus on Place What next?