Ian Bancroft

Ian led a place development programme across the council and with partners as Chief Executive of Wrexham County Borough Council (2018–24). This included the development of the council’s core and wider leadership teams, work with councillors, and the establishment of a Civic Leadership Group, which developed a one-city vision and priorities. The results of this work included: the achievement of city status; runner-up in the UK City of Culture Programme 2025; a £160m investment zone; the multi-million-pound Wrexham Gateway programme, including finalising the commercial closure with Wrexham AFC and Ryan Reynolds; Wrexham becoming an international brand, with work in the US developing relationships and philanthropic investment estimated to be worth £450m; and plural leadership of the city across the public, private and social sectors. Ian has also worked extensively in England, in place leadership roles at Knowsley, Wigan and Nottingham.

This work was underpinned by the development of skills in place leadership, systems leadership, adaptive leadership, public narrative, executive coaching and independent facilitation. Since 2025 Ian has developed this work into a national training programme with Solace and INLOGOV, with a successful cohort of directors and heads of service completing a six-month programme at the University of Birmingham in 2026, and two further courses planned for 2027, one of them specifically for chief executives. Quotes from the course include:

“Stimulating and inspiring. It is not often in local government that we are given the opportunity to reflect, to be positive and to dream big for our communities.”

“Made me question the traditional approach to place shaping, providing tools and approaches that I can implement immediately, and which helped refocus my work.”

Ian remains practically involved in place leadership work through a number of national public appointments and voluntary roles, and as a board member of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES).