Cllr Roderick Bluh, Chair of One Swindon Partnership Board & Leader of Swindon Borough Council
Councillor Roderick Bluh entered local government politics in June 2004 after a highly successful career in accountancy. He qualified as a chartered accountant in 1981 and moved to Swindon to establish his firm’s new branch in 2001.
Having been appointed to the cabinet in May 2005, Roderick was given the Economic Development, Regeneration & Development Issues. As part of this, he started developing his concern for sustainable communities, an interest he has maintained since becoming Leader of the Council in 2006.
Roderick is leading a whole-scale transformation of how the local authority works with partners in the public, private, voluntary and community sectors to deliver better results for the people of Swindon through the multi-agency One Swindon agreement and a large scale social enterprise for adult social care. Instead of being primarily a service provider, his administration is developing the council’s role as a place shaper, and as the democratic governance of the new community budgets. Before localism was adopted as government policy Roderick was developing the Connecting People, Connecting Places programme to devolve power from the council to neighbourhoods. In support of the Big Society his administration is also pioneering new ways of ending the cycle of dependency on the state from “chaotic” families through the LIFE programme.
Nerissa Vaughan
Nerissa Vaughan joined the NHS in 1991 as a Graduate National Management trainee. She trained in Birmingham and after completing the Training Scheme took up her first post in Birmingham Family Health Services authorising developing GP commissioning.
After a few years in commissioning at Birmingham Health Authority, she took up her first hospital management job in Dudley Road Hospital in Birmingham as Divisional Manager for Clinical Support Services, which included A&E, Pharmacy, Theatres, ICU, Therapies and a range of other support services.
Nerissa became Project Director for the Wolverhampton Heart Centre, setting up a new Cardiac Tertiary Centre from scratch.
Following this, she became interested in capital development and moved to Hull as Director of Planning. She oversaw a £200m capital programme which included a cardiac development and oncology PFI scheme.
Keen to return to the Midlands, she took up post as Deputy Chief Executive at Kettering General Hospital.
Moving to her first CEO role at King’s Lynn nearly four years ago, she led the Trust to Foundation Trust status.
Nerissa originates from Llanelli and holds a BA Degree in Theology and a Master of Science Degree in Health Service Management from Birmingham University.
Stephen Hedley
Steve joined Wiltshire Constabulary in 1983, undertaking his probation in Amesbury and Ludgershall, before joining CID in Warminster. In 1996 he was promoted to Sergeant in the Force Communications Centre where he was responsible for managing the initial response to numerous critical incidents. Further Sergeant postings included a return to CID and then three years as a Child Protection Unit Sergeant. In this role he led a number of high profile criminal investigations into child abuse.
The following years saw more promotions through the ranks and after a successful perioud as a uniformed Superintendent in the County Division with responsibility for managing the Operational Policing of the area, he was promoted to the rank of Temporary Chief Superintendent and bacame the Divisional Commander of County Division. Since the retirement of Chief Superintendent Paul Howlett, T/Chief Superintendent Hedley is now the Divisional Commander for both Swindon and County Divisions. He is also the Force lead for Family Liaison Officers and Disaster Victim Identification. The full biog is available here.
John Popowicz
John Popowicz is an Area Manager with Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service accountable for prevention, protection and response in the Borough of Swindon. He has been with the fire service for nearly 27 years and has served at different locations including Fire Service Headquarters and recently Area Commander for Wiltshire County.
John has been involved with Local Area Agreements from their inception, and is currently the Chair of the Safer & Stronger Communities partnership of Swindon's LAA .
John was born and raised in Swindon and is proud to have represented the town at both football and rugby and can be still seen pulling on a shirt for the occasional veterans game.
Gavin Jones, Chief Executive of Swindon Borough Council.
Gavin joined Swindon Borough Council in 2004, having previously worked in a variety of private sector organisations and market sectors and has been Chief Executive since 2006.
Immediately prior to joining SBC, Gavin worked for SITA (a Global airline and telecommunications provider) as Vice President for Customer Services and Marketing with global responsibilities.
Gavin previously worked in Information Technology with British Telecom. From here he moved to the TSB Trust Company and then onto Galileo International, where he was Business Development Director for Europe Middle East and Africa.
Gavin is a Board Member of the national think tank the New Local Government Network, (NLGN).
Gavin is married with 2 daughters. Although having worked abroad for a number of years, Gavin was brought up in Swindon and has lived near or in the Borough for most of his life. He has a degree in IT and enjoys playing lead guitar in a blues band, and is a keen runner, cyclist and tennis player!
Heather Mitchell
Heather Mitchell, Chief Executive SEQOL. She is totally committed to achieving the benefits for individuals which integrated working across the public sector can bring. She believes working in this way also enhances staff satisfaction and delivery of outcomes. Heather has previously worked at Director level in acute care, regional offices and district health authorities.
John Gilbert
John commenced his role of Group Director, Children’s Services at the beginning of April 2008. John has worked in local government circa 26 years with his most recent role was at Telford & Wrekin Council where he had the responsibility for the full range of children and young people’s services within this portfolio, ranging from Early Years, Integrated Childcare, Involving & Consulting Young People Services, Connexions4Youth and all of the Education Inclusion Services such as Education Welfare, Educational Psychology Service, Learning Support Advisory Teachers, Behaviour Support Team, Pathways Tuition Service (Pupil Referral Unit), Sensory Inclusion Service, etc. John is currently the Group Director Children and Group Director Adults at Swindon Borough Council.
John was also the lead officer for Telford & Wrekin concerning the joint trailblazing IRT/ISA programme, Budget Holding Lead Professional pathfinder, Children’s Trust, (which focussed on joint commissioning) and Extended Schools.
John was also the lead officer in the formulation of the naturally acclaimed School and Community Clusters, which has created a geographical framework for delivery multi-agency, ‘joined up’ services within communities, in order to drive forward the change for children agenda. This ‘whole system change’ has been the bedrock of Telford & Wrekin, gaining a number of Beacon Awards for Children’s Services such as ‘Integrated Children’s Services’; ‘Early Intervention – Children at Risk’; Peer Mentoring – which focuses on outcomes/results based accountability.
Celia Carrington
Celia is Deputy Chief Executive and Group Director, Environment and Regeneration at Swindon Borough Council. She is responsible for overseeing Swindon's long term growth and the regeneration of the town centre. Her span of control includes planning, transport, economic development, culture and environment and health. Prior to joining the local government world in September 2003, Celia worked for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in the Government Office for the South West, where she held a number of different posts including, Director for Local Government, Housing and Planning; Director of Corporate Services; Decisions Officer on behalf of the Secretary of State for major planning appeals; and was involved in the setting up of the Bristol Development Corporation. Celia began her Civil Service career in the Diplomatic Service and spent five years in a range of posts including a two year posting to Venezuela.
Celia is a Director of Swindon Cultural Partnership and a member of the Olympic Delivery Authority’s Planning Committee.
Jan Stubbings
Jan is the Cluster Chief Executive of NHS Swindon and NHS Gloucestershire. Jan has substantial experience of working at senior levels within the NHS and Civil Service, as well as working for periods as an independent consultatnt. Jan holds an MSc in health policy and management and is also a qualified accountant.
Nicky Alberry
Nicky started her career in July 1979 with HSBC where she worked extensively with the Bank’s business client base in Devon, Cornwall and Gloucestershire. In 1991 she was seconded to Great Western Enterprise in Swindon – 20 years later she is still with the company although GWE Business West looks very different today.
GWE Business West provides business leadership, business membership and business services and is continually expanding its scope of activity. We ensure the ‘voice of business’ is heard in important economic debates, using our partnership links with the public and private sectors. The Company employs around 130 staff and has an annual turnover of £17m with Head Offices in Swindon and Bristol.
Nicky was Chief Executive until March 2005. Following the Group’s restructure she became part time Executive Chairman. She also chairs Incubation South East, a joint venture company managing two workspace facilities in the South East. She remains Chairman of GWE Holdings Limited.
Nicky is a Board Director of the Wiltshire and Swindon Economic Partnership. She is Chair of Swindon Strategic Economic Partnership and joint Chairman of the Business Working Group tasked by government to establish a Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).
Outside of work she was a founding member of the Swindon Cares Fund Raising Appeal which has raised almost £300,000 for community and voluntary organisations in Swindon. She is active in the Rotary Club of Swindon where she was the first Lady President in 2007/8. She is also a member of The Swindon Advisory Committee on Justices of the Peace for Wiltshire. The committee is responsible for the recruitment of JPs and monitoring of their performance and attendance in the Swindon area. Nicky also sits on the Companies House Steering Board as a Non Exec Director.
She was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Wiltshire in 2006.
Nicky is married with two grown up step daughters.
Tom Charnock
Tom Charnock, Chair Swindon Strategic Partnership Overview and Monitoring Group, has an Observer role on the Partnership Board. Tom was born in Merseyside and completed an Engineering Apprenticeship on leaving school. He then worked in various industries including the motor, shipbuilding and toys. Tom moved to Peterborough with the toy industry and came to Swindon in 1980 to start Bluebird Toys. More recently Tom has been very involved with the Strategic Development of the town including a hotel for Honda and Keypoint.
Tom is Chair of Stanton Fitzwarren Parish Council, a member of Wiltshire Association of Local Councils (WALC), Trustee of Voluntary Action Swindon and was elected as Chair of Swindon Strategic Partnership Overview & Monitoring Group in 2007.