Chris is a Director of Inner Circle, an SME consultancy specialising in public service reform. This follows a long career in public service leadership, most recently seven years as the Chief Executive of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham where his focus was on “reimagining public services and connecting them fully to the people who need them”. In particular, understanding the design of public services so they operate from first principles to ‘preventative state’. Where what matters to people happens at the intersection of inclusive growth interventions, upstream support, public participation and relational practice and a deep data led understanding of local patterns of structural inequality.

In 2018 and 2019 the authority was named “Council of the Year”. In 2020 Chris was seconded to Birmingham City Council to be their CEO, to support amongst other things their response to the pandemic and preparations for the Commonwealth Games. In 2020 Chris was named Municipal Journal’s Chief Executive of the Year.

Chris is Trustee of the Design Council and childhood trauma charity Body and Soul.

Chris is a Chartered Accountant and has a degree in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge, with a specialism in contemporary social theory. Chris was born and brought up in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.