Isobel is keen to build on work of brilliant team

“There is so much great stuff going on around the team...what I am keen to do is thread it all together and create a real identity for Warwickshire."

Ask any football manager, when you take on a new job, it helps if you have inherited a strong team. Then, rather than plugging gaps, it’s all about harnessing that strength and maximising its value.   

That is the happy position in which Isobel Woods find herself as the new Head of Economy & Skills at Warwickshire County Council. 

Isobel has arrived at Shire Hall with 35 years’ experience of working in local government, regeneration and economic development in the West Midlands, most recently as Head of Enterprise as Wolverhampton Council. 

With that depth of experience and expertise, Isobel is very well-acquainted with the issues and challenges which face businesses and communities. She also knows talent when she sees it, so was delighted with her first meeting with her team in Warwickshire. 

“I was immediately struck by how talented everybody is and how much experience they have,” Isobel said. “They are doing a brilliant job and I’m going to build on this through this role.  

“There is so much great stuff going on around the team - Business & Economy, Skills, Town Centres, Invest Warwickshire. What I am keen to do is thread it all together and create a real identity for Warwickshire. I have got absolute confidence in what the team does. It’s my objective to take all their fantastic work, shine a spotlight on it and bring it together to make the sum of it is as great as all the parts. My role is to help maximise their impact and spot opportunities that we can grow significantly. 

“I’m really excited by that opportunity and so pleased to be in Warwickshire. It feels a successful area. I can see that Warwickshire is already strongly placed for economic growth and there are opportunities to strengthen and maximise economic opportunities on a human scale so it really makes a difference to people’s lives. Within the large-scale economic strategy, the focus is about the outcomes this will bring to influence people’s lives?” 

It is that challenge, to translate strategy into delivery, to turn words into action, that drives Isobel.  

“I do enjoy this work,” she says. “As a public servant, there is a responsibility to make the most of the money the council supports us with to make a difference for the people of the county. We are shaping the Strategic Economic Plan. What I want to do is to make this real and have a deliverable clear action plan, supported by local partners and key stakeholders.

“I see it as a county plan, not a council plan, so I want to share with partners - the districts and boroughs and the Chamber – its important they are part of the plan and its delivery. We already do some great things as partners and I want to galvanise that partnership further."