Council chief executive resigns

Morgan Goodlad has resigned as chief executive of Shetland Islands Council and will be stepping down from the post, which he has held for a decade, at the end of May.

In a statement issued on Thursday afternoon Mr Goodlad, 58, said he was now in his 10th year in the job and that he was not retiring but moving on to pursue new opportunities and challenges.

The statement read: “I have been in this position for much longer than any previous incumbent and much, much longer than I envisaged I would be. It certainly has been challenging but also a great privilege.

“The council is now approaching half way through its time in office, the budget exercise for 2009/10 is essentially complete and a number of large projects are getting underway and we will soon complete single status implementation.

“We have an excellent senior staff compliment as demonstrated by the recent good inspection reports and our services remain of excellent quality, a testament to all our staff. There remains, as always, many challenges facing the council and I believe it is now a good time for the council to appoint a new chief executive to take the council forward.”

Mr Goodlad informed the convener and sent a message to councillors during yesterday morning’s services committee meeting to say that, having served for longer than any other chief executive in the isles, it was now time for him to move on.

He is not asking the council for an early retirement package and told The Shetland Times that having survived in the post for so long that was arguably his biggest overall achievement, but that he was happy with the way he had restructured the council during his time in charge.

“For long I’ve indicated that once the council [elected in May 2007] settled in it would be an appropriate time to hand over,” he said. “It’s a good time for the council, coming up to its mid-term, to get a new chief executive to face up to the challenges ahead, the same ones of the last decade.”

Mr Goodlad has held the post since he replaced Nick Reiter in 1999, becoming the first Shetlander to hold the post in the process.

SIC convener Sandy Cluness said: “He’s standing down at the end of May and we are sorry to see him go. If he feels there’s something new to do then that is for the best.”