Change leader appointed to the States

16 November 2012

A new Director of Organisational Development will be joining the States of Jersey on 4 December 2012. Dr Robert Crawford CBE has held senior executive roles in both public and private sectors.

He is a former Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise, at the time Europe's largest economic development agency; Chief Operations Officer at the South East of England Development Agency (SEEDA); a Partner with Ernst and Young; and a Director of Strategy at the John Wood Group plc.

Dr Crawford also worked as an adviser at the World Bank in Washington DC for two years. For the last 18 months he was Director of Innovation and Growth at the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) in London. NESTA is a leading think tank on innovation and reform in both public and private sectors.

Business transformation

Dr Crawford inititiated and oversaw major business transformation programmes at both Scottish Enterprise and SEEDA, which led to significant improvements in productivity and performance in both organisations. The consulting firm KPMG described the Scottish Enterprise initiative as one of the best examples of business transformation they had encountered in the public sector.

Central to these programmes was the reform of public sector organisations to make them more efficient, customer friendly and relevant. As an integral part of this process a great deal of attention was given to cultural change, as well as to creating a flexible and capable workforce, staff training and leadership development, team based problem solving and greater integration of service delivery.

Reform

On being advised of his appointment Dr Crawford said “I am absolutely delighted to be appointed to this role, not least because of the prospect of contributing to a really exciting change programme intended to place the Jersey at the forefront of sustainable public sector reform.

“I have seen first-hand the positive difference a properly crafted and implemented endeavour of the kind planned can make to customer experience and I look forward to being part of the team charged to deliver it.”