Sarah is a strategic and collaborative leader and experienced practitioner of economic development, regeneration, business growth and investment, with extensive public, private and voluntary sector experience, working at Board & Cabinet level to develop vision and strategy and lead corporate transformation. She brings a strong track record in cross-organisation partnership working, driving efficiency, transformation, investment for social and financial return, developing commercial solutions, and achieving economic growth.
Sarah has built a career which is fluid across sectors including local government, regional economic development, manufacturing, life sciences and professional services. Her experience has been built on a local, national and international platform where she has made a significant contribution to the organisations she has worked for, in terms of impact and corporate management responsibility. Her detailed knowledge and management of the corporate agenda and the places and people with whom she works, has led to successful service transformation and improvement, strategic investment, creation of public value and readiness for the future. The impact she has created for both business and communities can easily be measured in both shareholder and stakeholder wealth.
Sarah’s most recent appointment as a chief officer in local government in the Liverpool City Region, led to the development and implementation of a new £150m Council strategic investment programme aimed at stimulating the economy, creating new jobs and businesses, and generating new sources of revenue for the Council. This included the acquisition and redevelopment of a dominant town centre shopping complex, the incorporation of a new housing development company building high quality family homes in the Borough and a joint venture hospitality company to deliver great customer experience and amenity across the Borough, offering better financial returns for the Council.
She co-developed the Strategic Framework to deliver whole-scale transformation of public services in response to severe financial cuts in public funds and produced the Masterplan for Sefton, Sefton Coast Plan and Sefton Economic Strategy, which now inform the Council’s Investment Programme. Sarah has also been active within the Combined Authority of the Liverpool City Region to assure robust strategic investment of public funds and maximise strategic outcomes and local impact. Prior to this, Sarah led economic development and regeneration in the North West and Greater Manchester, developing internationally competitive sectors, trade, inward investment, business support, and cluster development.