Steve Freer was appointed as CIPFA’s Chief Executive in 2000, following a successful career spanning the public and private sectors. He has held senior finance positions with three large local authorities – Birmingham City Council, Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire County Councils – and has also worked as a successful management consultant with Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers).

Steve also holds a number of non-executive positions. He is a member of the Boards of the Centre for Public Scrutiny and the Local Government Leadership Centre and a technical adviser at the Board of the International Federation of Accountants. He is also a member of the Advisory Group for the Prince of Wales Accounting for Sustainability project.

He has particular interests in public financial management and governance and the challenges of delivering high standards in both of these areas in individual organisations and across whole sectors.