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Tom Riordan: Meet Leeds City Council’s chief executive INTERVIEW
Tom Riordan.
Tom Riordan is the former boss of Yorkshire Forward and for the last 15 months has been chief executive of Leeds City Council.
He is in charge of 30,000 employees and an annual budget of £800m but as the Yorkshire-born Oxford graduate told Neil Hudson, he still finds time to watch football on the couch and play dominoes every Thursday night.
“When I first started at the council, I found some of the things similar in terms of having directors who report to you, but the big differences were things like the number of employees. At Yorkshire Forward, there were 450 and I used to know all of them by name, whereas the council has something like 30,000 if you include the schools. I’ve met about 4,000 of them so far.
The other big change for me was transparency of decision-making, because all your decisions have to be made out in the open and they are open to scrutiny. At the end of the day I think that’s a better way to work. I like working with the elected members, all 99 of them.
“I see Leeds as a federal city, in that it is a collection of lots of smaller towns and villages and the councillors who represent those areas are very passionate about them.
Leeds is a brilliant city, a lot of people still think Manchester is bigger but it’s not – Leeds is the third largest city in the UK. It’s almost the antidote to London in a way – if you’re not headed to London, then Leeds is the place to be.
We have the best of both worlds here, because we have the city and the commercial side of things but within five or 10 minutes, you can be out in the countryside and yet still be within the Leeds boundary, which extends out much further than other cities.
I think Leeds has always been a driver for the regional economy. Because of the financial services we have, it supports and drives Yorkshire in general. It has a really important role to play.
“The year 2013 is going to be a big one for Leeds in terms of the Trinity development and the arena, which we are very proud of. There are no other arenas being built in Europe and this has a unique theatre design, which means people will be much closer to the action. We are already talking about how to open it and which acts will be performing. I think a consultation will be launched next year about that, but it would be good to have a Leeds band involved in that – I used to work with the mother of one of The Pigeon Detectives but that’s not to say it will be them.
“In terms of developing a strategy for Leeds in the coming years, if there’s been one criticism of the city, it’s that it hasn’t shouted about itself enough, whereas places like Manchester are very good at doing that. What we need to do is make sure the local economy is healthy, that there are still jobs for young people and that people have a good quality of life.
I had an unusual upbringing, because I was in and out of care up until I was five because my parents were ill, but I had a very loving upbringing. I was one of those people for whom the system worked. I don’t really remember much about it, I think at that age you just get on with things. When I was five, my grandmother came into our lives and everything settled down again.
“My first job was working as a petrol pump attendant at a garage in Northallerton, where I grew up. I was 16 and earned 75p an hour, double-time on Christmas Day, which I worked. I’ve had all kinds of jobs over the years.
When I was a student, I worked as a postie. I’ve also worked in a pork pie factory, where my job was to put bits of meat into a machine every two seconds. It was cold and repetitive and very hard work but the radio was on and I think the banter kept me going.
“I also worked for Jewson’s builders for a while. My job was to lug timber around the yard, but I was rubbish at it and in the end they put me on reception.
One thing I couldn’t live without is my family, which includes my wife Louise, son Joe, 9, and daughter Amy, 7, who have both impressed me lately by being kind to their friends.
When Amy had to give a talk to her class about what I did for a living, I think she said something like, ‘he sits on the sofa and watches football and reads the paper.’ Things like that keep you grounded and I think that’s important – over the years, I’ve kept the same bunch of friends and apart from my thinning hair and having a few yards less pace on the football pitch these days, I’m pretty much the same person I have always been.
After my family and friends, it would be football and my iPad.
“To relax I like to watch football. I think this is already known but I support Middlesborough, although I’d still like to see Leeds do well. I also play in a pub Sunday league, even though half the team are less than half my age. And on Thursdays, I play dominoes, which, if you’re winning, is all about skill, but if you’re losing, is all about bad luck.
The best piece of advice I have ever received is to stop showing off, which I think was from my granddad when I was about five or six and running around his living room. The thing about that is I’ve never believed I was better than anyone else, I’m very respectful of people, I think you are only as good as your last game, so to speak, and that if you’re not careful, everything could come crashing down around you.
I do get quite emotional about things like complaints. I read all my emails and letters and if someone says something’s wrong, I want to do something about it.
“Something that might surprise people is shortly after I took on the job I got a parking ticket – I left my car in a car park which I thought was free after five o’clock but it turned out it wasn’t. I was only gone for 10 minutes but we have such efficient parking attendants in Leeds that when I got back, there was a ticket on my windscreen.
If I could meet anyone living or dead it would be Nelson Mandela. When he came to Leeds in 2001, I helped organise the charity ball lunch. He was shaking hands with all the organisers and I was one person away from meeting him when he heard some African musicians start playing and he turned his head toward them and the next thing I knew, he was gone. I was kind of left hanging. I almost met him and he was my hero. So, if I could meet anyone, it would be him.”
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Weather for Leeds
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
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Drewdude2010
Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 11:04 AMI think this man has his head screwed on! I hope he manages to shake up the council and make it appreciate the assets of Leeds, its heritage, its communities and its vibrancy! Good on you Tom!
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