At a meeting of the full Gwynedd Council today (1/5/14), Dilwyn Williams has been appointed to the post of Council Chief Executive. He will be taking over from current Chief Executive, Harry Thomas who will be retiring this summer.
St Asaph-born Mr Williams attended Ysgol Glan Clwyd before going on to the University College of Wales Bangor where he gained a degree in Education and later qualified as an accountant.
Dilwyn Williams has worked in local government in Gwynedd since 1979, firstly as a Committee Clerk for the former County Council in Caernarfon before moving on to work in Dwyfor District Council’s Treasury Department. In 1996 Mr Williams was appointed Head of Accountancy at Gwynedd Council before taking up the role of Strategic Director for Resources and later a Council Corporate Director.
Gwynedd Council Leader, Councillor Dyfed Edwards said:
“In his 35 years of working in local government here in Gwynedd, Dilwyn Williams has gained a wealth of experience that will be invaluable to the Council in his new post. He is a very much respected officer both locally and nationally and is very well placed to take Gwynedd forward in this new period.
“Like every council in Wales, Gwynedd is unfortunately having to contend with an unprecedented cut in the funding we have to run local services.
“Dilwyn’s background and experience means that he is ideally placed to lead on the detailed financial planning required to see us through this difficult time and to minimise the impact on residents as much as possible.
“At the same time, Dilwyn shares our vision to deliver the best possible services for the people of Gwynedd despite the massive funding cuts we are facing and I look forward to working with him to deliver on this pledge.”
Dilwyn Williams added: “It is an honour to be selected as the next Chief Executive of Gwynedd Council.
“Thanks to the work of the current Chief Executive, Harry Thomas, Gwynedd has a national reputation as a top performing council. This is confirmed by the fact that Gwynedd was recently praised by the Auditor General for Wales for our strong financial leadership and effective planning for the future.
“We have a dedicated and hard-working workforce and I want to mobilise our collective ability to do even better. I look forward to working alongside these dedicated staff and Gwynedd councillors so that we can progress further.
“As a Council, we have been developing new and creative ways of working to place our customer at the heart of everything we do and to remove barriers to good service. Over the coming months, we will be looking to accelerate this process across all our services.
“At the same time, we will have no choice but to deal with a financial shortfall of around £50 million between now and 2017/18. This means that now, more than ever before, the work of developing first-class services will need to be based on real partnership working with local communities and key local organisations.”
Dilwyn Williams is married and has three children. He is chairman of his local junior football club, Clwb Pel-droed Ieuenctid Bontnewydd. A keen squash player, Mr Williams was one of the founding members of Caernarfon Squash Club.
