Andrea Hill was Suffolk County Council's chief executive from March 2008 to July 2011, when she left the authority by mutual agreement.

Early career

Hill attended The Sandon School, Sandon, Chelmsford, Essex and then studied public administration at

Birmingham University , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

and followed her father, an Essex County Council officer, into local government. Her first post was as a management trainee at

Thurrock Council Thurrock Borough Council, usually known as simply Thurrock Council, is the local authority for the borough of Thurrock in Essex, England. Since 1997, Thurrock has been a unitary authority, combining the functions of a non-metropolitan county wit ...

in the 1980s, followed by director of communications and policy development at North Hertfordshire. In the mid-1990s she was assistant chief executive at Cambridge City Council, and by 2001 she had gained her first chief officer post at Colchester District Council, aged 37, on a salary of £85,000. Among her achievements there was a £1.5 billion PFI contract for a new army garrison.

County council CEO

In August 2004 Hill became chief executive of

Bedfordshire County Council Bedfordshire County Council was the county council of the non-metropolitan county of Bedfordshire in England. It was established on 24 January 1889 and was abolished on 1 April 2009. The county council was based in Bedford. In 1997 Luton Borough ...

. During her three years tenure, it moved from two to three stars in the Audit Commission's ratings, and was described by them as one of twenty "strongly improving" authorities in the country.

Suffolk county council

Hill was appointed chief executive of Suffolk County Council in March 2008 at the age of 44. She was a powerful and vocal advocate of the emerging "New Strategic Direction" of outsourcing council functions, which became an exemplar for ministers. However, as the cuts of 2010/11 began to loom ever closer, so the media interest in Hill increased, with headlines about her rather than the council. By April 2011 Andrea Hill wrote her side of the controversy in the council's house magazine: ''Inside SCC''. But by then the council's new direction had become increasingly distrusted by elected members, who threw it out with the election of Mark Bee as the replacement council leader for Jeremy Pembroke. That may have sealed Andrea Hill's fate. In July 2011 (aged 47) she received a year's salary as pay-off for relinquishing her post, following a "whistle-blowing" enquiry that exonerated her of any wrongdoing. In October 2011 she was replaced by Deborah Cadman OBE.East Anglian Daily Times 20 Oct 2001
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Subsequently

Ms Hill subsequently took a sabbatical role as a yachting holiday flotilla hostess in the Virgin Islands.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Andrea Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Local government in Suffolk Suffolk County Council Andrea Hill attended The Sandon School, Sandon, Chelmsford, Essex