Kathy O’Leary, Chief Executive, Stroud District Council
Kathy has worked in local government for over 35 years, for councils in Hampshire, Surrey and, since 2018, Gloucestershire. Kathy studied at the Universities of Leeds and Liverpool. She is a geographer by background and a town planner by profession, which sparked her early interest in place shaping and working to address and adapt to climate change. She was attracted to Stroud’s strong independent spirit, green credentials and fabulous natural environment well before the Sunday Times identified it in 2021 as the best place to live in the UK. Stroud District Council was in the first handful to declare a climate change and ecological emergency and is working towards the challenge of achieving a carbon neutral district. The council has achieved national recognition for its work on retrofitting its housing stock, minimising waste and maximising recycling, and for natural flood management as part of climate change adaptation. It is a politically complex environment as the council has been NOC since 2012, now with a minority Green Party administration working in a committee system. Kathy is the Solace spokesperson for the Environment and Climate Change portfolio and is the South West Chief Executive lead on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.