Recently-elected Bristol Mayor George Ferguson has appointed Zoe Sear, formerly of Destination Bristol, to a newly-created job which gives her responsibility for mayoral initiatives and partnerships.
Zoe, pictured, started in the role today. She will assist the mayor in his duties, with a particular emphasis on building partnerships to help deliver on the priorities on which the mayor was elected. She was a supporter of Mr Ferguson during his election campaign.
Bristol City Council said her £45,243 salary was “in common with other council staff operating at a similar level”. Her appointment is on a fixed-term contract, to run in parallel with the mayor’s three-and-a-half year term of office.
This salary will not increase the cost of the mayoralty above that incurred under the previous system, due to other savings elsewhere, the council said.
An expert in partnership working and stakeholder engagement, Zoe is known locally for her recent work with Destination Bristol, a public/private sector partnership operating on a ‘not-for-profit’ basis and the area’s destination management organisation.
For the past three years, she has led the Harbourside Project, harnessing the energies of the public and private sector to deliver improvements and champion the area as a great place to invest, live, work and visit.
She grew up in the West Country, attending Churchill School before reading English at Queen Mary & Westfield College, University of London. Returning to Bristol as a graduate, she has spent the last 16 years living and working in the city bar a brief stint back in the capital working for IBM.
Zoe has worked for a number of the region’s largest employers, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, Lloyds Banking Group and Clarks. She was a founder director of Bristol PR and events agency Brandon Hill Communications, which she set up in 2006 with Ian Muir.
