Andrew Smith OBE has been Chief Executive of Hampshire County Council since December 2007. He is responsible for managing the third largest shire authority in England, serving 1.28 million residents and running a budget of more than £1.7 billion. He oversees the running of 530 schools and services caring for 95,000 adults and older people, 9,000 children and families and maintaining more than 5,000 miles of Hampshire’s roads. In 2009 the County Council was only one of three to be assessed as ‘excellent’ by the Audit Commission.

Andrew has worked for the county council for more than 20 years and prior to being appointed Chief Executive he was the Director of Property, Business and Regulatory Services for 11 years.

He is the lead Chief Executive for Improvement and Efficiency South East (IESE) and also chairs the National Improvement and Efficiency Partnership for the Built Environment.

Andrew is the national lead for the government’s Place Based Productivity Programme leading on the Procurement, Capital and Shared Assets workstream. He will also be advising councils on the implementation of the Capital and Asset Pathfinder pilots for the Department of Communities and Local Government.

Andrew was awarded an OBE in 2006 in recognition of his services to local government.