Profile - Anthony Mayer

Profile - Anthony Mayer
Published in The Sunday Times June 29th 2008

A manifesto pledge by London’s new Mayor Boris Johnson to downsize staffing at the Greater London Authority is being fulfilled. Five senior posts held by women are being axed in the Mayor’s office including the job held by the former Mayor Ken Livingstone’s long term partner Emma Beal who is mother of two of his children.

Another departure will have a different impact. Anthony Mayer, GLA Chief Executive since late 2000, leaves this autumn to become chairman of the Government’s new Social Housing Regulator, the Office for Tenants and Social Landlords.

“Did I jump or was I pushed? Neither,“ he says. “I’ve known about this since March,” before he presided over the Mayoral elections in his role as London’s chief electoral returning officer.

Mayer, who earns £183,000 a year, was CEO throughout the Ken Livingstone era. “It will be a wrench to leave. I’ve loved it and had good and cordial relationships with assembly members and both mayors. But I’m 62 and it is time to go if I want a post fulltime employment role. “

He oversees an Authority staff of 650 and an £11 billion budget for the wider GLA group which includes the police, Transport for London and the London Development Agency. He says his job is more like being a Permanent Secretary, but adds:” I’ve been a bit of a maitre’ d/bouncer in a rather rowdy nightclub. Whenever there’s been any conflict that needed resolving. I nearly always got involved.”

“Call me old fashioned, but I see myself and my successor as bureaucrats who facilitate. My successor’s biggest challenge will be getting things up and running and then facilitating the Mayor’s agendas – addressing transport problems, the Olympics and making the organisation more cost effective.”

Mayer’s mondays have been reserved for catch up meetings with directors. his management team and then with the Mayor. The rest of the week? “Anything and everything as it comes up.”

One of the GLA’s highest profile weeks was in July 2005 when winning the 2012 Olympics was followed by the 7/7 bombings.

“On the Thursday I had the massive adrenalin rush of the win, hearing about it on my way to fly to Shanghai for a conference. I heard of the bombings at 9.00 in the morning in Shanghai. I had this sense of horrible shock and then this huge difficulty of using the mobile phone system to enact all the trusted and well-tried systems of response. I was very proud of all those colleagues who did so well to get the recovery system going so quickly.”

How Boris Johnson differ from his predecessor?

“There is more than one style of Mayoralty. One of the things about Mr Livingstone was he was a great managerial politician. He knew how to operate all the levers. What Mr Johnson has made clear is that he is going to want to be absolutely at the forefront of leading London, but wants to have a have a first deputy mayor to implement his policies. So it’s much more a Whitehall model with a Secretary of State and ministers working for you. It would be presumptuous of me to say how that is going to shake down.“