Suffolk County Council’s Chief Executive, Deborah Cadman OBE is to take up a new role as the first permanent Chief Executive of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).
Deborah has been outstanding, leading our Staff these past 6 years, she steadied the ship when she arrived and has lead the SCC through major staff reductions and changes in the way they work together and with our partners across Suffolk. Her impact in her time with us cannot be underestimated. Educational attainment levels in Suffolk are now significantly higher, with 86% of schools rated good or outstanding by Ofsted. Over £200 million of essential budget savings have been delivered and staff morale is much higher than when Deborah joined us in 2011.
Deborah’s ability to lead partnership working will be something that WMCA will benefit from immensely as it forms its strategies for the long term as well as the short term.She is going to the most challenging and exciting job in Local Government. Andy Street the new Mayor of the WMCA has had a glittering career in Retail as the former CE of John Lewis but is new to the bear pit of politics which is the West Midlands.
Conservative Group Leader Colin Noble said
“I have known Deborah a long time firstly when she was CE of St. Edmunds Borough Council and in her time as CE of the East Anglian Regional Development Agency. Her personal support of me these past two years as I have started my Leadership role has been brilliant and at a very difficult time for me last summer when my father died in sudden circumstances, I shall long remember her kindness.
Suffolk’s loss is the West Midlands Combined Authority and its new Mayor’s gain”