The Chief Executive of Nottingham City Council is leaving at the end of April after being appointed by the Secretary of State for Education to the new role of Chair of Children First Northamptonshire, a Trust for Children’s Services in the county.
Ian Curryer, 57, has served in the council’s top job for seven years, overseeing a period of major change for both the council and the city.
During his time as Chief Executive, Nottingham has embarked on a £2 billion redevelopment which includes the current transformation of Nottingham Castle and intu Broadmarsh, a new central library/bus station/car park development and a new Nottingham College City Hub building.
The period has also seen the opening of lines 2 and 3 of the city’s tram network and the redevelopment of Sneinton Market and the Creative Quarter.
Other key achievements include developing the city’s profile internationally, particularly in China and Germany on the back of Nottingham’s Twin City relationships with Ningbo and Karlsruhe, and within the City Council, introducing major programmes to transform ways of working including Good to Great and Citizen at the Heart.
The City Council’s Leader, Councillor David Mellen, said: “Ian’s time as Chief Executive has been at a period of significant challenge for all councils with reduced budgets but ever increasing demands on services. Ian has helped us steer a path through this, while at the same time ensuring we can achieve the big ambitions we have for building a better Nottingham. We thank him for the major contribution he has made to the city and the council and wish him well in his new role.”
Ian joined Nottingham City Council as a primary school adviser in September 1999, a year after it became a unitary authority. He had previously taught in Nottingham schools including Forest Fields Primary which as Head Teacher he took from ‘Special Measures’ to a ‘Good’ OFSTED rating.
He held a number of roles in the Education department and Children’s Services before becoming Director of Children’s Services in 2008 where he led improvements to gain an OFSTED ‘Good’ rating. He became the council’s Chief Executive in January 2013.
“After seven years as Chief Executive and 20 years at the council, I have very mixed emotions about leaving Nottingham City Council,” said Ian.
“I have been proud to serve Nottingham and to have played my part in the redevelopment of the city in which I live. I have seen us go from strength to strength, cementing our place as one of England’s eight Core Cities and fulfilling our role as the East Midlands regional capital and the ‘Queen of the Midlands’.
“I believe that the council is a very different one to the one I inherited in 2013 with a greater focus on the citizens it serves as well as being a more modern 21st Century organisation.
“Whilst I very much look forward to taking up my new role as Chair of the Children First Northamptonshire Trust, I will miss the colleagues and partners that I have worked with, many of whom I have known since I started working in the city in 1988.”