Kathy O’Leary is the Chief Executive of Stroud District Council in Gloucestershire, one of the first councils to declare a climate and ecological emergency in 2018. She has worked in Local Government for over 35 years, for county and district councils in Hampshire, Surrey and, since taking up her current post in 2018, Gloucestershire. Kathy was the Solace spokesperson for the Environment and Climate Change portfolio until October 2026. For a rural district council, the council punches above its weight on climate response and adaptation. It has won awards for recycling and waste reduction, and is cited by DEFRA as a national good practice example for its work on rural SuDs, encouraging scores of landowners upstream to slow the flow and avoid flooding downstream at the confluence of Stroud’s five valleys. Kathy is the South West Chief Executive lead on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, is passionate about public service and staff development, and proud of the organisational culture she leads.