Council Chief Executive Karime Hassan awarded MBE in New Year honours
Published: 31 December 2021
Karime Hassan, Exeter City Council’s Chief Executive and Growth Director, has been awarded an MBE.
Mr Hassan has been made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to government in the Queen’s New Year Honours.
As the head of the paid service at Exeter his work with partners across the city has developed a strong culture of collaboration in support of the city of Exeter’s vision for a healthy, inclusive and sustainable city.
As Growth Director he has been a powerful agent of change, working with the business sector to ensure the city and its institutions pull together. His work with partners across the region has seen Exeter’s economy grow faster than anywhere else in the South West (7th overall in the UK).
His persistence and negotiating skills helped attract the likes of IKEA and John Lewis to the city. His work with the University of Exeter, the Met Office and local authority partners in establishing Exeter Science Park is an example of his ambition to build a knowledge based economy for the city and a deliberate strategy for productivity growth based on the world leading research and science undertaken at Exeter.
During his time he has advanced the city’s sustainability credentials with the low carbon task force and Exeter City Futures Community Interest Company.
As one of the architects of the response to Exeter’s 2019 declaration of a climate emergency with the publication of the Net Zero Exeter 2030 Plan, he has championed commitment to the Net Zero Agenda through the council’s development of the St Sidwell’s Point leisure complex, the first in the UK built to the exacting Passivhaus low-energy standard, and the construction of more than 200 council homes to the Passivhaus standard.
Exeter’s housing stock continues to meet the challenge of its growing population – the 6th highest city with 1.5% growth.
His boundless efforts with Tony Rowe and the late Pete Edwards to bring the Rugby World Cup to Exeter, and the nationally-recognised legacy programmes that he introduced, continue to benefit the health and wellbeing of Exeter’s residents.
He said: “I’m honoured to receive this. It was a complete surprise and I accept it on behalf of everyone at ECC who has dedicated their professional lives for the benefit of others and to make Exeter a stronger city.
“Local government can do a lot of good when it gets things right. With the challenges we face with climate change and the pandemic in the New Year, we’ll redouble our efforts.”
From January Mr Hassan will work with Exeter City Futures two days a week to drive forward the city’s Net Zero ambitions.
Council Leader Phil Bialyk said: “This honour is well deserved and I couldn’t be more pleased for Karime. I want to congratulate him on this achievement and thank him for everything that he does for our city.”