The former finance director of the London Borough of Camden will join as CIPFA aims to develop policy and support that will help embed financial resilience across local government.
CIPFA chief executive Rob Whiteman said O’Donnell will be a “tremendous asset”, given his experience and understanding of public sector finance.
“We are at a real crunch point for many councils up and down the country, which for CIPFA means doing everything we can do to ensure finance teams have the support and resources they need to not only balance the books but [to] have in place the medium-term policies to deliver sustainable public services,” Whiteman said.
Over his career, O’Donnell has worked for a number of councils, including the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Swindon Borough Council.
O’Donnell said of his appointment: “CIPFA’s role in supporting public finance professionals is more important than ever, particularly across local government, where funding pressures and increasing service demand is adding huge stress on councils’ ability to deliver services.
“An important part of my work with CIPFA will be to discuss with finance leaders the challenges they face and to maintain the strong ties of dialogue between the sector, CIPFA and government policymakers.”
