1980 - 1986 life assurance sales 1987 - 1989 MD of own mortgage and pensions brokerage 1990 - 1993 independent community consultant (part-time) then a change of career after divorce - 1994 - 1997 community safety co-ordinator, Cardiff Council 1998 - 1999 community participation manager, London Borough of Brent 2000 - 2001 head of community planning and development, Norwich Council November 2001 - to date neighbourhood manager, Hastings neighbourhood management pathfinder Who is the figure you most admire in regeneration? Dr Sue King, head of the neighbourhood management and wardens team in the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit. Sue has been an inspirational leader and manager of many successful community regeneration programmes. I first met her in 1994 when she was co-ordinating the Merthyr Tydfil Safer Cities programme and responsible for bringing in millions of pounds of funding and investment into the area through her innovative management of the programme. She is an excellent example of how a well-managed regeneration programme can have real and meaningful impact on the community Any significant 'turning point' in your career? I was soon to be married and decided to sell my insurance brokerage company (fortunately!) just before the market crash at the end of 1989. Getting involved soon after with a local residents' association opened my eyes to exactly what local authorities actually did (and didn't do) for local communities. I helped set up a project that brought an industrial estate together with the police and council, and developed some youth diversion initiatives that successfully reduced the antisocial behaviour and crime figures on the nearby housing estate. That led me to my first job in local government - where I was able to get involved in developing community strategies and projects for the council as well as co-ordinating local community involvement Why did you choose / end up in regeneration as a career? The satisfaction with building community capacity and working with community groups to tackle local issues has been instrumental in my choice to develop a career in regeneration. It is very rewarding to see the positive effects of a successful community initiative and I enjoy working with the variety of agencies that deliver services to a neighbourhood Most embarrassing moment in your work life? The deputy prime minister came to Hastings last August and spent several hours visiting our neighbourhood management programme (I escorted him around several community projects, closely followed by an entourage of media reporters as well as government and council officials). Afterwards, whilst reporting the successful visit to a council meeting, the mayor of Hastings announced to the packed council chamber that John Prescott had said I was 'a real live wire'! What is the best advice you have ever been given? To be a good leader you must embody the aspirations of the community, inspire and motivate, analyse complex information and not get distracted by the detail of day to day events What would be your dream job? The job I have now comes pretty close. The icing on the cake would be to see real 'joined up working' within central government - enabling local strategic partnerships to be effective facilitators of change amongst service deliverers, as opposed to just 'talking shops' 
| 
