The biographies of GONW's Directors can be found below:
Liz Meek – Regional Director
Liz Meek is the Regional Director for Government Office North West (GONW). Liz joins GONW from Government Office London (GOL) where she was Regional Director for seven years.
Liz’s career has been centred on urban policy and regeneration. She was a founder member of Government Office for London when it was set up in 1994. After advising Ministers on London policy issues for three years and delivering a range of initiatives, mainly aimed at developing partnership working in London, she took on development of the policy and legislation to set up the London Mayor and Assembly.
Before this, Liz was based in Nigeria with the Foreign Office, after working as a Private Secretary to four successive Ministers. In the early 1990s she established the government unit responsible for input to the Manchester Olympic Bid and was later heavily involved in preparations for the London 2012 Olympic Bid.
As Regional Director at GOL from 2001 to February 2008, Liz was responsible for the delivery of some 40 government policies and programmes in London for 11 central government departments. She was the point of contact with the Mayor and the Assembly and advised the Minister for London.
Liz is the national lead for the Government Office Network on worklessness, social exclusion and local government, working with Whitehall departments to tailor policies to meet the needs of regions.
Gail Porter – Deputy Regional Director - Home Office
Since entering the civil service in 1987 Gail has worked with several different Departments and Agencies across the North West region and in London, including Dept. of Employment, Employment Service, Benefits Agency, Department of Social Security and Home Office. Her leadership roles and qualifications cover strategic and operational management, service delivery and project management.
Gail’s current role is at Director-level within the Government Office for the North West encompassing Home Office policy, partnership performance and development (including Local Area and Multi-Area Agreement negotiations) and corporate organisational development.
In her spare time Gail chairs the Lancashire Crimestoppers Board charitable trust, and is a qualified cycling coach providing support to her local club, Red Rose Olympic.
Neil Cumberlidge – Deputy Regional Director - Environment
Neil joined the Government Office in April 2001 from the Cabinet Office where he had been Agriculture and Environment Desk Officer in the European Secretariat. Prior to that, Neil worked in a wide range of policy posts in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (now Defra) which he joined in 1981 from university.
As Deputy Regional Director in GONW, Neil leads on a range of strategic priorities for Defra in the region, including climate change, sustainable development, waste, local environmental quality, natural environment, rural policy and farming/food. He also leads for the Government Office Network on the Natural Environment PSA. Neil is the Partnership Director for Lancashire County Council, Chorley Borough Council, South Ribble Borough Council, South Lakeland District Council, Rossendale Borough Council and the Lake District National Park Authority, and leads for GONW on the Lancashire sub-region.
Married with two young children, Neil lives in Knutsford and is a lifelong Liverpool supporter.
David Higham – Deputy Regional Director - Ecomomic and Regional Issues
David is currently Director, Economic and Regional Issues in Government Office North West. His responsibilities include managing relations with NWDA and NWRA, taking forward the West Cumbria Strategic Forum and ensuring that the role of economic success in tackling social inclusion is recognised. He is Partnership Director for Allerdale, Barrow, Copeland, Stockport and Cumbria County Council.
Born and brought up in Bolton, David followed many of his contemporaries south and has degrees from Oxford and Essex universities. Trained as a professional economist, he started his career as a university lecturer before becoming Head of Economic Policy at the CBI and then joining DTI in 1985. During his time in the civil service, David has worked in a variety of areas including trade, competition policy and economic development. He returned to the North West in 1996.
Married with one daughter, he is a keen cyclist (often boring people with tales about when he raced against Chris Boardman) and a lifelong supporter of Bolton Wanderers.
Nigel Burke – Deputy Regional Director - Children and Learners
Nigel has worked in central government for over 35 years and joined the Government Office for the North West in 1994 when it was formed. He has always been involved with work on education, skills and children’s services, but in a number of different roles. He has been involved in transition work with local Learning & Skills Councils, and Connexions partnerships in the North West.
He is a qualified trainer and personnel professional and has had a short spell as the project manager for a Department for Education and Skills (DfES) project that strengthened the DfES presence in Government Offices.
He believes strongly in the “potential” of the change for children, schools and families strategies, and of education and training to change people’s lives for the better.
Out of the office he is a family man; with his wife he has three children and three grandchildren. A Mancunian, he now lives over the Pennines in Yorkshire. He enjoys the theatre and does some fly-fishing.
Brian Holmes – Deputy Reginal Director - Communities
Brian is Director for Neighbourhood Renewal; his responsibilities include ensuring the regional implementation of the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal through Local Strategic Partnerships, New Deal for Communities and Neighbourhood Management Pathfinders.
Brian joined the Government Office in June 2001 as Director for Connexions where he oversaw the successful rollout of the Connexions Service in the North West. His previous post was Deputy Director of the Millennium Volunteers Unit at DfES, working with the voluntary and community sector to encourage more young people to become involved in the community.
Jo Lappin – Deputy Regional Director - Housing, Transport and Planning
Jo is Deputy Regional Director has responsibility for housing, planning and transport.
She has significant experience in delivering regeneration activity, and has worked in Government Office for the North West for the past decade on a wide range of policy and Programme areas including local government, employment and skills, business and innovation, Sustainable Communities and European Structural Funds. Prior to working in Government Office North West, Jo worked in a wide range of Civil Service posts.
Jo is educated to post-graduate level. She was born in, and lives in the North West region, and is married with three children.
Jon Parkin - Deputy Regional Director - Place
Jon Parkin is Deputy Regional Director for Places at the Government Office for the North West. He leads the work on Local Area Agreements and Multi Area Agreements. His team are also responsible for Local Government Performance, strengthening Local Strategic partnerships and contribute to the developing work on community empowerment.
Jon has previously worked directly with local authorities and LSPs. He had an emphasis on delivery in Burnley and East Lancashire through a post created by the Home Office and DCLG. He is currently partnership director for Bury, Preston, Blackpool, Blackburn with Darwen, Bolton and Burnley. He leads the work on the Fylde Coast and Pennine Lancashire MAAs.
Jon worked in the Prison Service for 21 years, starting as a Prison Officer and eventually becoming governing Governor. He specialised in Performance Management, Change Management, Competitiveness and in the Risk Management of High Risk Offenders. At an operational level he led Control and Restraint troops into a number of prison disturbances. His last posting in the Service was as the Prison Service Representative at Government Office for the North West, where he was involved in the setting up of many offender management projects, including Step On and Jigsaw. He joined the Government Office in June 2005.
