Lord (Richard) Best OBE

Lord Best retired at the end of 2006 after 18 years as the Director of both the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust.

He is Chair of the Hanover Housing Association, Vice-Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Urban Development and Hon Treasurer of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Homelessness and Housing Need. TCPA

He is President of the Local Government Association and Chair of the Independent Commission on the Future of the LGA. He is also Chair of the Giving Forum and President of the Continuing Care Conference.

Some of his previous posts have included : Chairman of the Westminster Housing Commission (2005-2006); Commissioner, Rural Development Commission (1989-1998); Chair, Inquiry into Social Inclusion in Glasgow (1998-2000); Secretary, Duke of Edinburgh’s Inquiry into British Housing (1984-1991). Between 1973 and 1988 he was Director of the National Federation of Housing Associations. He was a member of the Commission on the Future of Birmingham's Council Housing and chaired the Hull Partnership Liaison Board (2002-2004).

Richard Best was created a Life Peer in 2001. He chairs the Audit Committee of the House of Lords.

President Local Government Association, Chairman of Hanover Housing Association, Trustee Royal Society of Arts, Trustee The Tree Council, Vice-Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Urban Development and Hon Treasurer of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Homelessness and Housing Needs, Chair of House of Lords Audit Committee, Chairman of The Giving Forum, Vice President of Town and County Planning Association, Board Member of Ombudsman of Estate Agents, Chair Office of Public Management’s Public Interest and General Council; Hon Fellow RIBA, Hon Life Member Chartered Institute of Housing, Hon Doctor of Letters, Sheffield University.

Dr Helen Bevan OBE ,
Chief of Service Transformation, NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement

Over the past 15 years Helen has led change initiatives at local and national level which have created improvements for millions of patients. Her current role is to keep NHS improvement knowledge fresh, relevant, impactful at the leading edge. She holds a first degree in social science, an MBA and a doctorate from Henley Management College.

Janet Callender

Janet was Chief Executive of Tameside Council from 2003 until April 2009. Previously she held both legal and senior management posts at Knowsley Council from 1993, and prior to that, Manchester City Council. Her early career was as a solicitor in both private practice and local government.

Janet has always been at the leading edge of developments in accessible customer services and actively champions the modernisation of public services to meet the needs of 21st century citizens.

She is a member of the Prime Minster's Delivery Council, established to deliver transformation and chairs the Local Government Delivery Council and Government Connect programme.

She passionately believes people should be valued as our greatest asset and is committed to putting people first. At Tameside she placed the Council's People Strategy at the heart of the Council's continual improvement work to deliver sustained improvement in public services to the people of Tameside.

During her tenure as Chief Executive of Tameside it has become one of the highest-performing councils in the country retaining the highest CPA 4 star rating for 6 successive years.

Janet was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list (June 2008) for services to local government. Janet was born and bred in Tameside where both she and her family resides. She continues to be passionate about the place and describes her time as Chief Executive at Tameside as her 'dream job'.

Alexis Cleveland,
Director General Transformational Government, Cabinet Office

I am responsible for the Service Transformation Agreement published in CSR07. I work with closely with David Varney the Prime Minister's Special Adviser. I am also responsible for Cabinet Office Management and the capability review action plan.

I hope my career highlight is still to come. I am passionate about service transformation because there is so much to be gained for the citizen, business, taxpayers and staff. If we are going to turn CSR07 into an opportunity to make this change we cannot go on doing the same things, we have to find different solutions. This is scary and exciting in equal measure.

So far, my best moment was having the opportunity to set up a new agency and working with great people to deliver our services and outcomes by focusing on our customer experience, our values and our partners.

A statistician by training I have spent my career in policy, IT application development, shared services and operational delivery. My previous post was Chief Executive of The Pension Service an executive agency of the Department for Work and Pensions. I joined the Cabinet Office in August 2007.

Steve Mortimore,
Director of Citizen Focus & Neighbourhood Policing, National Policing Improvement Agency

Steve Mortimore is Programme Director for the NPIA Citizen Focus and Neighbourhood Policing Programme (this includes the National Contact Management Programme). Steve joined the NPIA from Avon and Somerset Constabulary in July 2008, where he was Assistant Chief Constable since 2003 and was responsible for introducing Neighbourhood Policing across the force.

His career commenced in the Merchant Navy as a navigation officer before joining Sussex Police in November 1981. After nine years with Sussex Police, Steve transferred to Dorset Police where he served in various posts - uniform patrol, corporate support, section commander and roads policing before being promoted to Superintendent at Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, London in May 1999. Steve returned to Dorset in 2000 as the force Director of Intelligence and Senior Investigating Officer. He completed the Strategic Command Course in 2002

Steve has a real passion for Citizen Focus and Neighbourhood Policing. He was the ACPO lead on Prolific Offenders for four years and more recently became a member of the ACPO Children and Young People Business area.

Outside work, Steve enjoys spending time with his children, canoeing and surfing and is a keen runner - recently running one hundred miles over five days in the Himalayas to raise money for Victim Support.

Councillor David Parsons CBE,
Chair, LGA Improvement Board

Councillor David Parsons has been Leader of Leicestershire County Council since 2003. Before this he was Leader of Blaby District Council.

Under David Parsons' leadership Leicestershire was awarded 'excellent' status by the Audit Commission and was twice confirmed as a 'four star' authority.

He is Chairman of the East Midlands Regional Assembly (EMRA), one of eight English Regional Assemblies outside London. EMRA works closely with partner organisations such as the Government Office for the East Midlands, the East Midlands Development Agency and the East Midlands European Office.

David is also:

• a full member of the UK delegation to the Committee of the Regions of the European Union
• a member of the Commission for Economic and Social Policy (ECOS)
• Chairman of the East Midlands Opportunity China Group

As well as being an accredited peer, David is Vice-Chair of the County Councils Network (CCN).

Tony Redmond,
Chairman and Chief Executive, Commission for Local Administration

Tony is a non-executive member of the OPHSO Board and is also a member of the Pay Committee (a formal sub committee of the Board).

He is currently the Chairman and Chief Executive of the Commission for Local Administration ( England) and a Local Government Ombudsman. Tony is a Member of CIPFA Council, a Fellow of CPA Australia and a Fellow of the RSA. He is also a Member of the Centre for Public Policy Seminars.

Previously he was Chief Executive and Director of Finance with the London Borough of Harrow and Treasurer to the West London Waste Authority.

His earliest posts were in Accountancy, Audit, Revenues and Corporate Planning at Liverpool City Council culminating in his role as the City’s Chief Accountant. From there he went to Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council as Deputy Treasurer, then on to be Treasurer and Deputy Chief Executive at Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council and Treasurer with the Merseyside Police Authority, from where he moved to Harrow.