Paul O’Brien is the Chief Executive of the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE).

Based in Manchester the organisation has 250 local authorities in membership from throughout the U.K. He has overall strategic responsibility for the management and development of all the Association’s activities in the United Kingdom.

Following a period as Acting Director, he was officially appointed Director in March 2000. He represents the Association on the Office of the Deputy Prime Ministers, Strategic Partnership Taskforce and the Local Government Procurement Forum.

He has given evidence to various parliamentary select committees and participated in numerous lobbying meetings with Government Ministers, whilst representing the Association.

Paul is also on the editorial board of the MJ. Paul was previously the Association’s Principal Advisor ( Scotland), with a remit to develop links with the Scottish Parliament and associated local government agencies.

Paul has 20 years experience in local government. Prior to his appointment with APSE, Paul worked with South Lanarkshire Council in the areas of CCT and Best Value. When previously a trainee manager with Strathclyde Regional Council, Paul spent two years on secondment to APSE at the Scottish Secretariat from 1994 to 1996.

Paul graduated in 1998 with a Masters Degree in Business Administration, having carried out his dissertation on the transition from a CCT environment towards the development of Best Value.