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Colin Mair has worked with national and local government for 25 years on issues of policy, management and practice. As Director of International Programmes at Strathclyde University, he worked on local government and public sector development in India, sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe. Later, as Director of the Scottish Local Authorities Management Centre, he worked with a wide range of Scottish Councils on a training, development and consultancy basis.

In Autumn 2004 he became the first Chief Executive of the Improvement Service for Scottish local government. This is a partnership between national and local government in Scotland, created to ‘support improvement in the efficiency, effectiveness and accountability of local public services across Scotland’

The focal objectives of the service in its first business plan are developing more effective joint venture and partnering arrangements; supporting efficiency improvement; enhancing performance management and governance capacity; and working with Councils to develop their Best Value approach. All of this is underpinned by a knowledge management approach that links web-based resources to supported communities of practice.