Bill Gleeson: And to think, it had been going so very well . . .

Nov 28 2007 by Bill Gleeson, Liverpool Daily Post

PICTURE the scene in Michael King’s household.

Mrs King is sat at the kitchen table peering out of the window across the meadows towards the coast of France.

Enter Mr King.

“Hello, love. I’ve got that plum job in Liverpool I was telling you about.”

“Hum,” says Mrs King, “I’ve been thinking about that.”

“But,” he replies, “I thought you were keen on the higher salary. It’s £150,000, you know?”

Glancing back out of the window, Mrs King says: “Yes, true, but money’s not everything.”

This much is fiction, of course, but what is fact is that as well as a wife, Michael King has five children and, I am told, a couple of horses to think about.

About ten days ago, Mr King was offered the chief executive’s job at Liverpool City Council’s new inward investment and business development super- quango to be formed by the merger of three existing agencies.

The council has already spent several months looking for the right person to fill what seemed to me to be the generously remunerated post.

In the last week, whispers have been doing the rounds in town that the offer letter had gone out.

Mr King will have seen the costly job advert in one of the national papers, sent in his CV and covering letter and, I would expect, attended a couple of in-depth interviews.

On paper he looked a strong candidate for the job. His current job is as chief executive of Jersey’s economic development unit, a post he has held for two years.

He joined the States of Jersey from the Welsh Development Agency, where he held the position of executive director with responsibility for international inward investment operations across 14 countries.

Before joining the WDA, Mike spent more than 20 years in senior management positions in the international oil and gas industry in exploration, production and commercial roles working in London and Houston, Texas.

But, despite all the time, effort and money that has gone into the recruitment process by both sides, he has at the last moment changed his mind for, to quote the official statement, “personal reasons.”

Whatever these reasons are, it seems unlikely to have been the money offered, which was £30,000 more than is paid to the chief executive of The Mersey Partnership. So what else could have changed his mind? A warmer climate, lower crime rates, a more prosperous society, or the fact Jersey is just a stone’s throw from France. Compare that to Liverpool’s damper climate, higher crime rates and the fact the city is just a stone’s throw from . . . erm . . . Bootle. What choice would you make?

Liverpool PLC, as the new quango is called, is in danger of starting life without the top job filled.

Still, the news will come as a relief to Roy Morris, the retiring chairman of The Mersey Partnership.

Picture the scene in his home as he picks up this morning’s Daily Post, blows a sigh of relief and mutters: “So it’s not just me, then.”

Mr Morris recently spent the best part of a year looking for a new chief executive for The Mersey Partnership, before settling on the current postholder.

There seems to be a general problem with attracting the best candidates to some of the region’s top jobs.

It’s a pity. I subscribe to council leader Warren Bradley’s vision of a single agency looking after economic development and business support. It was meant to open for business in April, meaning time is very short indeed if the post is to be filled before then.

And, to think, things had been going so well.