Dave Heywood is CEO of South Staffordshire Council. Appointed in January 2017, Dave has taken South Staffordshire Council through a significant transformation journey, moving away from traditional departments to a more inclusive leadership approach and promoting a ‘one team one council’ mantra.

This has led to significant changes to how the council now operates and is visible to see through the transformation of the council offices, moving from a traditional run space to a new Community Hub that now hosts 27 different organisations ranging from small private sector businesses, several public sector partners, and the voluntary sector, who are all fully integrated under one roof. By taking a commercial approach with the office space, the council has turned a financial liability into an income generator.

The Council, in partnership with the City of Wolverhampton Council and Staffordshire County Council have orchestrated over £1bn of investment into the area through the development of i54 South Staffordshire Business Park that houses several global companies, including Jaguar Land Rover, and has seen over 3,000 jobs introduced over the last five years.

Over the last two years the Councils transformation has been recognised through various national awards and in 2022 the Council was recognised by iese, who awarded South Staffordshire UK Council of the Year.

Dave has been at South Staffordshire Council since 1998, where he joined as Head of Leisure Services, before progressing through the organisation to the eventual Chief Executive role in 2017. Before joining South Staffordshire Council, Dave worked at Dudley MBC as a leisure officer and before then started his career out as professional footballer at Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, albeit for a brief spell only!