City must seek new ‘ambassador’ after key candidate withdraws

Deborah Green will leave her role as chief executive of Marketing Leeds in October. She said she wanted to “end speculation” surrounding the new job. Now, the city council will re-start the recruitment process, more than three months after it conducted the first round of interviews.

The successful candidate will become the £100,000 chief executive of the new Marketing Leeds, with responsibility for marketing, inward investment and tourism. The company will replace the existing Marketing Leeds and other publicly funded services such as Financial Leeds, Locate in Leeds, Visit Leeds, Leeds Visitor Centre and Conference Leeds. Mrs Green and Howard Kew, chief executive of Financial Leeds, were both understood to be candidates for the role.

Today, however, Mrs Green said she had been “in discussion” with the council and the board of Marketing Leeds about the role but added: “Whilst I am pleased to have had the opportunity to consider this, I have taken the decision to step down as chief executive of Marketing Leeds. This has been a difficult decision... However, in order to end speculation and to allow a fresh recruitment process to commence, I feel it is important to announce this decision.”

The council refused to say whether Mrs Green or anyone else had been offered the role or to reveal the timetable for appointment. A spokeswoman declined to respond to the suggestion the recruitment process had failed, saying: “We can confirm that Marketing Leeds will be looking for new candidates. This is an important decision for a key role of chief executive of a new organisation and it is vital that we get the right person. We are confident that the fresh recruitment process will commence shortly and be resolved at speed.”