Chief Executive, London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC)

Client Profile

The London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) appointed Miles Advisory to lead the search for a new Chief Executive Officer, seeking a dynamic and visionary leader to guide the next phase of its development. The role required a candidate with exceptional leadership credentials, political acumen, and experience operating at the intersection of public and private sectors.

Client Requirement

LLDC were looking for an experienced senior leader, someone who had operated at the interface of the public and private sectors and had significant experience of dealing with senior political figures (local, regional and national). Given the nature of the organisation, and its aims, it was vital that we targeted those who could demonstrate a proven track record in the delivery of both physical and
social/economic regeneration (at scale). The successful individual needed to demonstrate strong commercial acumen and an ability to rapidly gain the trust and confidence of a Board with significant political representation (including the Mayors and Leaders of the Host Boroughs and the Deputy Mayor for Planning, Regeneration and the Fire Service) whilst simultaneously having the credibility and negotiation skills necessary to forge strong partnerships with private businesses, academic and cultural organisations.

Our Approach & Methodology

Given the scale and international significance of the regeneration scheme (delivering lasting legacy post-2012 Olympics), our search focused on those who had proven experience in the delivery of major development and urban regeneration
schemes together with significant leadership and transformation experience as either a serving Chief Executive or Deputy Chief Executive (or equivalent). In total we approached 93 individuals spread across the public (local/regional
government, housing) and private sectors (developers, consulting). Through our outreach, we secured the interest of 14 search applicants.

Following the longlisting exercise, 14 were selected to a preliminary interview with Miles Advisory. Following the initial interviews the panel shortlisted 5 candidates for final assessment which included media testing, staff and stakeholder
engagement exercises and a final panel.

Outcome

Out of the 5 candidates, 20% were ethnically diverse and 60% were female. The panel (which included the GLA’s Chief of Staff) selected Shazia Hussain, who was (at the time) Deputy Chief Executive of Waltham Forest. Shazia brought over 20 years’ experience of senior strategic and operational delivery, spanning Place Making (including economic and social regeneration), Environment, Corporate Policy and Strategy, organisational and cultural
transformation.

Given the success of the appointment, we subsequently worked with Shazia on the appointment of her new Executive Director of Development.