Thurrock Council has appointed a new Chief Executive.

Lyn Carpenter will replace David Bull, who has been acting as interim chief executive since the departure of Graham Farrant.

The new chief executive will leave her current post as Executive Director of Environment, Leisure and Residents Service for bi-boroughs Hammersmith & Fulham and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, to take up the role.

Council Leader John Kent said they interviewed five candidates for the post and were delighted to recommend Lyn Carpenter.

Lyn chairs the Tri-borough (also including Westminster City Council) Public Health Board and Violence against Women and Girls Board and is a member of the national Society of Local Authority Chief Executives Board (SOLACE).

Thurrock Council Leader, Cllr John Kent, said: “Lyn's experience in central London combined with her position on SOLACE - and the contacts that brings with it - ensures we will maintain our place on the public sector top table in and around the corridors and rooms of Westminster and Whitehall.

“As part of our advertising of this position we made it clear there were challenges ahead and Lyn is undoubtedly looking forward to those challenges.

“I am really looking forward to the day Lyn joins Thurrock and starts telling our exciting story locally, nationally and internationally too.”

Lyn said: “I am absolutely delighted to have been appointed Chief Executive for Thurrock Council.

“It’s a great honour and I am very much looking forward to working with, on on behalf of the whole Thurrock community in this exciting borough.”

The new chief executive started her career in the private leisure industry, before moving to the public sector at the London Borough of Bexley in 1992.

After joining Elmbridge as Assistant Director in 2000, she joined Merton in 2006, becoming Director of Environment and Regeneration there a year later.

She was headhunted to join Hammersmith & Fulham in 2009 and became the Bi-Borough Executive Director. The role served a combined population of around 360,000 residents with some of the greatest extremes of wealth and poverty in London.

Outside the work environment, Lyn has had over 30 years’ involvement in netball – contributing as a player, coach, administrator and volunteer.

She was an England Under-18 and Under-21 player and became a senior international in 1997, representing England in the Commonwealth Games on 1998 and a year later at the Netball World Championships and winning bronze medals at both.