A former civil servant who began her working life as a police officer has been appointed as the new chief executive of the British Property Federation.
Melanie Leech, who joins from the Food and Drink Federation where she is director general, will replace highly respected chief executive Liz Peace, who retires on Tuesday after 12 years in the role.
Oxford-educated Leech has held several senior public sector positions including communications director at the Cabinet Office, chief executive of the Association of Police Authorities and director of operator regulation at the Office of the Rail Regulator. She has advised
Cabinet ministers and led on government broadcasting and arts policy.
She will join the BPF in the new year after nine years at the FDF, where she has led a major restructuring of the organisation and been involved with significant policy change, including around food and drink labelling.
BPF president Bill Hughes said: “Because of Liz’s success in the position and the profile of the BPF we had a very strong list of applicants.
“The appointment of Melanie is down to a combination of her experience of managing trade bodies, her demonstrable connections with politicians and her knowledge of how the corridors of power work.”
Hughes led the recruitment process with headhunters Odgers Berndtson and said the BPF board had prioritised political and trade body experience over property knowledge.
“We are extremely well furnished with regard to property knowledge so we felt it was most important to have someone who had the political nous.”
Leech said she was excited to be joining a sector that was “dynamic, an economic powerhouse and one that makes a huge contribution to the issues that challenge us as a society”.
Her most direct experience of dealing with property matters came in a four-year spell at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in the late 1990s when she advised ministers on redevelopment of arts venues, including the Southbank Centre.
Among her tasks will be to update the BPF’s strategic plan. The current one expires in 2016.
“I inherit a well-run and successful ship,” she said.
“I haven’t been asked to make fundamental changes but as ever when someone new comes in, you say what you find and make recommendations on where an organisation needs to move to next.”
Leech’s CV
2005-now director general, Food and Drink Federation
2004-05 director of communication, Cabinet Office
2001-04 chief executive, Association of Police Authorities
1988-01 HM Customs & Excise; Cabinet Office; Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Office of the Rail Regulator
1984-88 Met police officer
