Fortunes are very mixed for the new boss of London Councils, John O'Brien, at present. On the one hand, east London is a hive of regeneration, with the 2012 Olympic Games 0n their way – one of the most exciting things to happen in the capital for decades.

On the other, east London is also the home of his beloved West Ham. And let's face it, it's not all good news at Upton Park.
John grew up in Brentwood, Essex – with a large extended family – close to where he lives now.
After studying history and politics at the University of Warwick, he was ‘very relaxed' about where he would work. He explains: ‘I had done some journalism at university and I thought I would probably dabble at that.'
But his interest in politics and government took him in a different direction – to a graduate trainee scheme with Basildon BC. And the variety it provided gave him the chance to see the huge range of services the council provided, first hand.
‘The managers stuck me around different departments. During the first weeks I had been to planning meetings, and witnessed a dispute with the health service.'
But within a couple of years he was off to Westminster City Council, under the-then chief executive, Rodney Brooke, as a policy officer at the heart of the council. It was also at Westminster he met his partner, with whom he now has young son.
He went on to accountancy giant KPMG, to work as a consultant. ‘I thought I would spend two or three years there and then move on, but I ended up being there for 10 years.'
But it was not just a private sector job. John spent a lot of his time on local government projects – both in the UK and abroad. ‘I always had that link with local government,' he says.
There were many people in consultancy at that time who then went on to work at chief executive level in local government. He mentions Eleanor Kelly, former chief executive of Tower Hamlets LBC, and Helen Bailey, the Islington LBC chief executive. ‘I was involved in the local government review – the first time round', and in the creation of the Greater London Authority at the end of the 1990s, so it is perhaps fitting that he should take on his current role.
He joined the IDeA in 1999 and was assistant chief executive under former head, Mel Usher. He describes it as a ‘rollercoaster ride'. John says: ‘It was a new organisation, trying to set things up,' he says. It was fast moving, but he remains proud of the things that were achieved.
He ran the organisation briefly, following Mel Usher's announcement of his intention to step down due to his health, and stayed for a few months under incoming executive director, Steve Bundred, now chief executive at the Audit Commission. ‘It just so happened that the government job came up at that time' –  the ‘government job' being a post at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, working on the improvement of local authorities.
He spent three years at the ODPM and the subsequent Department of Communities and Local Government – roughly broken into three separate segments. Year one was formulating the Government's response to poor performance, year two was changing that, and year three was developing the new framework which became the improvement part of the White Paper.
John left as the White Paper was published, to join the Local Government Association, on secondment to handle the Best Commission report into the future of the association.
‘The most interesting thing about working on the White Paper was the negotiations with other government departments,' he says. ‘There was a lot of brokering with the inspectors and people in local government, and trying to balance what everyone wanted. I think we made progress and got to a pretty reasonable place.' The negotiating skills are something which will come in useful in his new role.
Clearly, he says,there is also a lot of work to be done internally with the organisation. But, he adds: ‘Whatever changes we make, the world doesn't stop while there's a restructure.' There will be plenty other balls to keep in the air while he gets it right, internally. For London Councils, he says there are three areas which are important to get right: Campaigning and lobbying; making sure the services provided are high quality and relevant; and leading public services in the capital from the front. He wants to see London Councils taking the lead in Local Area Agreements and ‘acting as a catalyst for a greater focus on shared services'.
The Olympics are on the horizon – and the association will have a role to play to ensure all the boroughs benefit from what that will bring to the capital. There is plenty of work to be done on cohesion in a metropolis, which has many long-standing mixed communities, as well as lots of transient populations.
But, he says, the London boroughs  are all up to the job. ‘If we look at the performance of London authorities on the latest CPA, they show  what they are capable of.' ‘It's a exciting time for London, and local government is critical in that,' he says. n