LARIA is pleased to announce Martin Reeves, Chief Executive of Coventry City Council, is our first Honorary President. His role in LARIA will be;
- To promote the role and importance of researchers working in local government and across local public services
- To actively promote the importance of LARIA as the leading professional body that supports and represents local researchers working in the public sector
- To act as a mentor/sounding board for LARIA’s ‘Strategy & Policy Group’ to help its thinking in shaping and influencing the future direction of LARIA
- To identify a network of Chief Executives/SOLACE members that can help support LARIA and the role for local public sector research.
“I’m very proud to be taking on the new role of LARIA’s Honorary President for the next two years. I have been the Chief Executive of Coventry City Council for the past two and a half years. I’m also the CEO of Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership. I have a background in research and the first half of my professional career was as a lecturer and researcher. My first job in local government was as a Policy & Research Manager at a small Surrey district and I went on the lead policy and research teams at departmental and corporate levels in two London councils.
Throughout my career I’ve also led several high profile transformation programmes, and I’ve made sure that all of these have had research and intelligence at their heart. So, as research practitioners I totally understand you as a profession, and I understand the challenges that you face both currently and for the future.”
Photo credit: Martin Reeves at LARIA Conference 2013 in Manchester. Taken by Global1-Digital Images)