ILEX to lose another boss

ILEX’s Dr Aideen McGinley has accepted the position of BBC Trustee for Northern Ireland and will leave the company later this year.

Londonderry’s urban regeneration company will now have to urgently recruit a new boss to be in place for UK City of Culture 2013.

Just over a year ago a report by consultants BDO noted how ILEX had upped its game under its now departed Chairman Sir Roy Nulty and that previously changes in leadership had posed difficulties.

“Significant flux across political, departmental and organisational environments - including changes to key leadership positions - coupled with the substantial regeneration challenges evident in Derry-Londonderry, contributed to a lack of traction until the current Chairman and Chief Executive assumed their positions in 2007 and 2009 respectively,” it said.

Now Dr McGinley will soon - like Sir Roy - become an ex-ILEX boss, it was announced on Wednesday (July 11).

Dr McGinley took up the post of Chief Executive of ILEX in September 2009, on secondment from the Northern Ireland Civil Service which was scheduled to terminate later this year. It was her idea to apply for UK City of Culture status.

Interim Chairman of ILEX, Matt McNulty paid tribute: “On behalf of the ILEX Board, I thank Aideen for the enormous contribution she has made to the City during her three years in ILEX, a period which has seen the awarding of UK City of Culture 2013, the publication of the One Plan, the opening of the Peace Bridge and Ebrington Square, and the development of the Science Park at Fort George.

“Aideen has campaigned unceasingly to advance the cause of Derry-Londonderry and her thinking has enriched every aspect of regeneration as represented by the One Plan. She will continue to be an advocate for the city and in helping to achieve all its ambitions”.

The Board of ILEX, together with its sponsoring departments OFMDFM and DSD will shortly initiate the process to appoint a replacement.

The search for a new manager will follow hot-on-the-heels of the recruitment of a new chairperson, which commenced in earnest in the spring and should be completed by the end of the summer.

Back in April ILEX announced Sir Roy’s old job was up for grabs for a salary of just £30k ‘commensurate with experience’ despite the outgoing chair having earned a princely £128,147 in salary, expenses and tax contributions (NIC) in 2008/9 alone.

The new ILEX chair - to be in place by late summer - will spend 2 or 3 days a month as midwife of the “social and economic rebirth” of Londonderry and all for pay of “up to £30k commensurate with experience per annum plus expenses.”

The salaries enjoyed by ILEX bosses previously have been very large. For example, Sir Roy’s salary for a part-time post in 2008/9 was over four times the average full-time wage in Londonderry.

In that year alone Sir Roy and former Chief Executive Bill Kirk together received over £284,892.