Dr. Ita O’Donovan

Board Member

Former Chief Executive, London Borough of Haringey

Ita O’Donovan has had a career within the academic field of public policy and management as well as being a Local Authority Chief Executive for nine years. She worked for the University of Birmingham within the School of Public Policy from 1985 to 1996, this was followed by 2 years with Warwickshire County Council until 1998 when she joined London Borough of Newham for 3 years as Assistant Chief Executive. Ita was seconded to Hackney in 2001 as Deputy Managing Director and then appointed to Stoke on Trent City Council where she was Council Manager and Head of the Paid Service from 2002 to 2006. In 2006 she joined London Borough of Haringey as Chief Executive and is due to retire in February 2011.

At the University of Birmingham the focus was on international development working with governments and civil servants from across the developing world. A common theme was comparative government and civil service reform, she has worked on such programmes in Asia, Sub Sahara Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

An abiding interest is regeneration of urban areas to include physical, social and economic aspects. While in Stoke on Trent the City successful bid for Housing Market renewal funding and were awarded a performance related grant of 2.4 billion pounds to tackle housing and market conditions in the City. The City was also part of the Building Schools for the Future Programme.

Haringey has a successful Building Schools for the future programme which will be completed by 2012. The Borough has a two major sites for house building as part of the London Plan. Tottenham Hale began in 2009 and has continued through the recession. Haringey Heartlands is on schedule to commence. Tottenham Hotspurs Football Club have major regeneration plans worth £400 million for the Stadium in Tottenham.

Ita has chaired many different Boards in her career as well as sitting on University Boards. Currently she is a board member of the Princes Trust in London. Ita will be renewing her relationship with the University of Birmingham in 2011 and intends to write in the area of social care and public policy.