Cheshire East Council has appointed its new Chief Executive on a salary of £23,000 less than his predecessor.
The appointment of Mike Suarez was approved at a meeting of the Full Council on Tuesday, 7th May. He is expected to take up his new position mid-June and will earn £150,000 a year, with a performance related payment of up to £10,000.
The salary of the previous permanent Chief Executive Erika Wenzel was £173,000, with no performance related element. She left the Council by mutual agreement on 30th June 2012, following a period of sickness absence, with a £93,550 pay off.
Her total package, including expenses and employer's pension contribution for 2010/11 was £226,318.
Mr Suarez is currently employed as Executive Director of Finance & Resources with the London Borough of Lambeth and has responsibility for revenues & benefits, customer services, financial shared services, procurement, ICT, legal & democratic services, internal audit, anti-fraud and corporate finance.
He has been in this role for 7 years, is a qualified accountant and has also undertaken senior Finance roles with Slough Borough Council, Westminster City Council and the London Borough of Southwark. At Slough Borough Council, Mr Suarez was Deputy Chief Executive.
Councillor Michael Jones, Leader of Cheshire East Council, said: "I am very much looking forward to working with Mike Suarez, he is young and energetic and that is exactly what we want.
"It was a close run thing as we had some excellent candidates but we felt that Mike was the most outstanding.
"He has a difficult task ahead of him, given the challenges facing all local councils, but I am sure he will quickly continue the good work we have started in reshaping Cheshire East Council as we look to make it fit for the future."
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hard did the job well or were replaced. Really no need for
a performance related payment.