Following the recent retirement of its longstanding chief executive, Jim Graham, after 12 years at the helm, Warwickshire CC was at a fork in its journey.

The council was faced with a choice about who could provide the leadership that this most diverse of counties needed. With a mixture of urban areas and rolling countryside and partnerships within the sub-region that have seen Warwickshire becoming increasingly core to the growth of the West Midlands and beyond, the choice had to be the right one.