The Chamberlain News

WMCA starts CEO recruitment, Reeves will not apply

The search to find a permanent chief executive for the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has started, as Chamberlain News noted yesterday. After holding the interim chief executive post since March last year, Martin Reeves today informed politicians and colleagues at the authority that he had decided not to apply for the permanent position.

The CEO job, along with three director posts covering finance, strategy and public service reform, has now been posted and applications invited.

The WMCA says Mr Reeves will instead return to his “substantive, full time chief executive role” at Coventry City Council although his secondment will be extended to the WMCA until a new chief executive takes up the post, expected to be around September.

Martin Reeves said:

My role at the combined authority has been, and continues to be, a real privilege for me.

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of politicians, partners and officers at all levels, we have made incredible progress over what has been a relatively short amount of time.

This has enabled us to build a solid foundation for the incoming Mayor and chief executive.

The post of chief executive at the biggest combined authority in the country must be one of the most exciting public sector jobs on offer at the moment.

However, my decision not to apply is based on an even stronger desire to continue the impressive journey we have started at Coventry.

Mr Reeves thanked Coventry City Council for agreeing to extend his secondment to the WMCA until the permanent chief executive is in post. He said this would help ensure continuity, a smooth transition to a mayoral combined authority and to provide a strong handover to the new senior management team.

Mr Reeves has brought a strong personality and energy to the role as acting CEO at the new combined authority. In particular, he has led from the front in the development of WMCA’s strategic economic plan (SEP). He spent much of his early career as a lecturer and researcher and has a PhD in applied economics.

It is likely Mr Reeves will have considered how he might have worked with Andy Street (Conservative) or Siôn Simon (Labour), the two front-runners runners in the Mayoral race.

Chamberlain News understands that the Mayor will be a member of the WMCA appointment panel that will take the recruitment process from short list to selected candidate.

In addition to the chief executive role, there are three other key posts to be filled at the WMCA, which will be chaired by the candidate that wins the West Midlands mayoral election on May 4.

Details of the chief executive, director of public service reform, director of strategy and director of finance posts and how to apply are available here.