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Catch-up: Annemarie O’Donnell


Annemarie O’Donnell, 49, was appointed to the role of Chief Executive of Glasgow City Council in January 2015.


She had been the Council’s


Executive Director of Corporate Services since 2011, with responsibility for legal services, elections, human resources, procurement, city resilience, customer and business support and corporate governance. A qualified solicitor and a


member of the Law Society of


Scotland, she has two adult children and her husband is a lawyer specialising in criminal law. After joining Glasgow District


Council from a legal practice in the east end of Glasgow in 1991, Annemarie worked as a solicitor and then senior solicitor in a team focusing on construction, housing and planning. Following local government


reorganisation in 1996, she was promoted to Chief Solicitor – leading the Council’s work


popular for a whole range of reasons. But if you work with trusted partners then it’s the trusted partners that you can rely on to


make clear what our messages are


and so they will be more credible. “We also use the


Chamber when we


are looking to showcase the city and


what we have to offer.” She pointed out that


Stuart Patrick had


atended MIPIM, the major property event in Cannes in the south of


France in March to help tell Glasgow’s story to


representatives from the


international property sector. “We plan things well in advance and we’re clear what role everyone


is going to play, what messages we want to get across,” she said. Senior Council officials also


atend some of Glasgow Chamber’s events discussing key issues for the city and its economy. “We have a direct opportunity to listen and hear the thoughts and views of some of the members because they [Glasgow Chamber] have a very diverse membership,” she said. Tis relationship is


important not only in spreading the Glasgow message abroad but also


when there are fraught domestic issues, such as the inter-connected ones around the city centre. When we met for the interview it had just been confirmed that the Buchanan Galleries expansion programme was on hold, with the knock-on effect that the work on George Square was also being cancelled. “Tat’s going to be a challenge, an absolute


challenge, but we are sighted on it, the Chamber is sighted on it and we have a city centre strategy, a City Centre Strategy Board which is chaired by the Council Leader,” she said. Council staff, she said, were doing a careful


exercise mapping all the construction and development works that were known through the planning process, all the disposals planned by the Council and the colleges in the city centre and all work planned by the utilities and public bodies. “We’re co-ordinating what’s planned when and the impact that’s going to have on the city


on commercial contracts, procurement, planning and environmental law. In 2003, Annemarie was


appointed Assistant Head of Legal and Administrative Services, a new post that saw her handed responsibility for the running of elections – along with committee services, registrars, litigation, licensing and corporate law. A two-year secondment as


Depute Director of Social Work Services followed, playing a key


role in steering the service through a significant programme of reform. She returned to Corporate


Services in 2007, serving as Assistant Director and Head of External Governance as the Council established its Arm’s Length External Organisations (ALEOs). The ALEOs deliver many of the city’s key services and include City Building, Clyde Gateway, Cordia, Glasgow Life, Glasgow City Marketing Bureau and Jobs & Business Glasgow.


”We’re hoping to grow the economy by £3 billion over that period of time and grow the total number of jobs by about 29,000. In addition, what we’re also then looking at with the City Deal is how does the city region work as a regional economy rather than individual local authorities having their own economic strategies.“


centre economy, the connectivity into the city centre and importantly the challenge we have with the out-of-centre retail situation.” She stressed: “We can evidence to our


businesses that we’ve encouraged to invest in the city centre, that we’re not doing anything that prejudices their investment and, if there is a likely impact, we work with them to minimise the impact. “I don’t think other cities would work on


that basis. Tey might deal with it on an entirely ‘silo’ basis. “Clearly the other thing is you don’t have


duplication – so we don’t put in a huge amount of public realm work only for the utility companies to come and dig it up again the following week.” Ms O’Donnell said that the City Deal


provides ‘huge’ opportunities for Glasgow. “We’ve got seven local authorities now working together under a robust governance structure to deliver all of their projects. It’s more than £1 billion of investment over a fairly short period of time, which are actual live projects. “We’re hoping to grow the economy by


£3 billion over that period of time and grow the total number of jobs by about 29,000. In addition, what we’re also then looking at with the City Deal is how does the city region work as a regional economy rather than individual local authorities having their own economic strategies. It’s the strength of the region in terms of identifying investment opportunities.” She stressed the importance of the Council


in working for the city as a whole. “We see ourselves as being the enabler and facilitator to pull all parties together. If we do that job really well then we’ll continue to see economic growth in the city. “It’s not stepping on other people’s toes, it’s


playing to our strengths. It doesn’t mean that we don’t break a few eggs now and then but it’s understanding that they’re geting broken for a reason.”


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