MEET the new boss of Ards and North Down Council – Susie McCullough.
A senior official on the council for the last seven years, she’s now been appointed as chief executive of the local authority.
She replaced Stephen Reid in the role, after his retirement earlier this year.
Ms McCullough has served as interim chief executive in recent weeks, and has previously been the council’s director of regeneration, development and planning, as well as its director of place.
In her years on the local authority, she led on the council’s work with the Belfast Region City Deal securing £40m of funding to regenerate Bangor Waterfront, developed plans for an ‘innovation hub’ to support collaboration between businesses in new and emerging technology, and supported efforts to rebalance the local economy by improving employability and skills.
Additionally, she played a pivotal role in delivering around £10m in urban and rural regeneration schemes across the borough over the last few years.
Before joining Ards and North Down Council, Ms McCullough was director of events and business development at Tourism NI, in which capacity she was involved in bidding for and hosting major global events including MTV’s EMAs, the Giro d’Italia, the NI 2012 tourism campaign, and Derry/Londonderry’s time as UK City of Culture.
She was also director of sales and marketing at Belfast’s Waterfront Hall and Ulster Hall, where she contributed to setting up a commercial company responsible for creating a massive conference-focused extension to the Waterfront.
Ms McCullough is a board member of charity Youth Action, which supports young people in unlocking their potential, and is a passionate advocate for a water and community regeneration project in Kisoro, Uganda.
She and husband Richard are registered foster carers and for the past four years have provided respite foster care to a teenage girl.
