Chief executive
Althea Loderick started as the council’s permanent chief executive and statutory head of paid service in May 2022. She has a wealth of senior executive level experience, having previously held the Chief Executive position at Newham Council and before that she was the Strategic Director for Resources in Brent Council and Chief Operating Officer in Waltham Forest.
Althea is Southwark Council’s first Black Chief Executive. The borough has one of the largest Black, Asian and minority ethnic populations in the country, and this appointment is another historic advance in the work to ensure that diversity is represented at all levels of decision making in Southwark.
Prior to re-joining local government, Althea held senior executive roles in National Agencies including the National Policing Improvement Agency (the forerunner to the College of Policing) and the National Offender Management Service and started her career in housing management in supported housing organisations. She has also previously been a management development consultant specialising in the not-for-profit sector and is CIPD qualified.
Althea holds a London-wide portfolio in the Chief Executives’ London Committee for crime and community safety and co-sponsors the Large Employers Group in the London wide Tackling Racism, Inequality and Disproportionality programme.
Althea is also a committee member for the RNLI.
Althea leads the council's Chief Officer Team, which is made up of the council's strategic directors. The members of the Chief Officer Team are:
- Althea Loderick - Chief Executive
- David Quirke-Thornton - Strategic Director, Children's and Adults Services
- Caroline Bruce - Strategic Director of Environment, Neighbourhoods and Growth
- Clive Palfreyman - Strategic Director, Finance and Governance
Page last updated: 10 October 2023
