In the previous issue of PRIMO magazine we introduce Byron Davies, President of UDiTE the strategic partner of PRIMO. Byron has taken a decision to change career from the public sector into founding his own strategic partnership consultancy that will work with private sector consortia and with public/private partnerships to bring together an approach to economic, environmental and social regeneration. Byron will retain his links with public service through his retention by the the Welsh Local Government Association as an adviser on the strategic management of international links, regeneration projects and risk management and public service improvement work. He remains a corporate member of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives in the United Kingdom who has asked that he continues his work with UDiTE to take it to the next phase of its development as a self-standing professional network for all local authority associations in Europe with international links to North America, Latin America and Asia.
It was a pleasure to work in the public sector for almost four decades, with the last two decades as Chief Executive, but at the end of 2009 I decided the time was right to move my horizons and it was pleasing that having contributed to creating a world-class quality of life Capital for Wales from within local government that there were now opportunities to extend my remit to a Wales dimension. My work with professional networks such as UDiTE and PRIMO and with business partners have helped me to understand how to devote my experience and energies to these new arenas and to create strong public/private partnerships which would take forward the agenda of economic, social and environmental well being for citizens and communities.
The change will also allow me to focus my attentions further on UDiTE during 2010, and it is clear that the next phase of development, needs to create strong and sustainable organization which will allow each successive President to be self-standing and authoritative by removing the dependency on the nominating National Associations or their Local Authority employers. Establishing a strong and sustainable UDiTE would allow the President with the help of the Executive Committee to guide and develop the role of UDiTE knowing that there would be an organizational capacity for undertaking teh work which would then be seen as being equitable for individual National Associations or individual Local Authorities. It is necessary for UDiTE to move to this next phase of development with a professional team supporting the representative work of the President and the policy making work of the UDiTE Executive. This professional team needs to work closely with Business Partners to create a sustainable partnership and funding base for UDiTE and strengthen its relationships with partner organizations such as PRIMO Europe.
My personal change of direction allows me to start this process of the next phase of development during 2010 and my intention is to establish a sustainable self-standing model that can support the President and the UDiTE Executive before I hand over to the next Presidency. To achieve this I have already assembled a team of consultants and people who will support me – Charlotte Jacques and Louise Harrington in Cardiff, UK, Andreas Rapp based in Austria and Simon Pascoe based in Brussels. The contact details for this UDiTE 2010 team can be found here.
As President of UDiTE my work can only progress with the continued goodwill of the UDiTE Executive, the National Associations, PRIMO and Business Partners and I have been really grateful for the support and assistance that the partners have given to me over the years. I hope that we continue to build on that positive support for the duration of my Presidency and that UDiTE and PRIMO will move forward together through what is an important change phase that we all need to get right.