A new boss has been appointed to the £160,000-a-year job of running regional development agency Advantage West Midlands, it has been revealed today.
The board of the region’s most powerful quango has chosen Mick Laverty, the organisation’s deputy chief executive and corporate director of resources and operations. He will take over from chief executive John Edwards when he takes early retirement next March.
Mr Laverty’s appointment follows and intense two-and-a-half month search by AWM for a successor to Mr Edwards, who has run the development agency since 2000 – a year after it was set up.
When the job was advertised two months ago, AWM said it was role that required “political nous, tenacity, intellectual rigour and astuteness”. It is understood the choice came down to a shortlist of four people.
Mr Laverty will have a staff of 300 people and an annual budget of £300 million from the Government to delivery economic regeneration, job creation and improve the skills of the region’s workforce.
In addition to a £160,000 salary, the new chief executive will qualify for a 20 per cent performance-related bonus, which could take his annual pay to £192,000.
Mr Laverty is an accountant with a career background in local government in London and the Midlands.
He joined AWM when it was founded as the director of finance and strategy, and is currently responsible for all of the 2,500 projects and programmes funded by Advantage West Midlands in addition to the finance, human resources, facilities, and IT teams at the agency.
He also looks after AWM’s development work including schemes such Longbridge Technology Park in Birmingham and the i54 and Bilston Urban Village in the Black Country.
A 43-year-old father-of-four, Mr Laverty is described as a loyal Aston Villa fan and a keen runner – regularly taking part in runs.
5 Comments
What a complete wasate of money, the costs could have been put to better use, using an accountant to manage a worthless organisation, which has a history of pulling out of projects is beyond me.
Another waste of money. Get rid of the Quangos and bring people in with commonsense, which appears to be missing employed by the Governemt. Would you trust the guy looking like he does in the photograph above!
What an utter waste of money. AWM does nothing that can’t be done by elected local authorities working together on a voluntary basis when it is of benefit to the people who live in that local authority.
Does an unelected quango in Birmingham know what’s best for Stafford, Shrewsbury, Hereford, Worcester?
A high salary will obvioulsy mean that there needs to be a high return on this investment. AWM is a pivotol group to attract business to the West Midlands that has obvious benefits to us all. If the returns aren’t realised then you have to ask the question..”is this worth it”
After an intense few months, looking far and wide for a successor to the chief executive, AWM decides to appoint….the deputy chief executive.
They must have looked very far to make that appointment. It makes you wonder how hard they looked, or whether this was a done deal in the first place to get one of their own into the job.
Is corruption too strong a word?
In any case it’s all a waste of time. AWM and other quangos are talking shops. That’s all they do - talk, and they spend millions on pointless reports/consulation exercises, all wasted because they never listen to the people in the end.
£200k+ wages for the AWM chief executive = 10 fully-trained nurses in local hospitals or 10 policemen.
Which is better value for money?