Terry Collins was appointed to the role of Chief Executive, Durham County Council in October 2015 and commenced his new duties on 1st February 2016. Prior to being appointed as Chief Executive, Terry Collins was Corporate Director with responsibility for Neighbourhood Services at Durham County Council. He joined the council in February 2009 when it became a new unitary authority.

Prior to moving to Durham County Council, he was Director of Neighbourhood Services and Assistant Chief Executive at the City of York Council. Terry has also worked at Redcar and Cleveland, Brighton, Eastleigh, Darlington and South Tyneside Councils.
Terry is responsible for overseeing the management of the council, which has a gross expenditure budget of nearly £1b. Durham County Council is the largest council in the North East and the seventh largest in the UK employing 18,000 staff including teachers.

Throughout his career Terry has received many national accolades being part of two different management teams that were chosen as national council of the year whilst in 2014 Terry’s former management team at Durham (Neighbourhood Services) were awarded national management team of the year by the Local Government Chronicle.

Recently Terry has overseen the economic development of County Durham, which has resulted in £3.5b of investment currently being delivered. Terry has also been responsible for developing a transformation programme for the council, which has resulted in a modernised operation whilst making significant efficiency improvements in areas such as commercialisation and digitalisation. The council has delivered £250m of savings since 2010.
The Council has also recently announced its move to a new HQ which will create the space for a new hi-tech business park to be created in Durham city adjacent to the world heritage site which will create 6,000 new jobs whilst generating an additional £400m for the local economy. A new history centre for the county will also be developed as part of this work.