Angus Council has announced that its new chief executive will be Margo Williamson.
The council’s former strategic director for people will take up the £127,000-a-year top job on June 1.
Outgoing chief executive Richard Stiff signalled his intention to stand down in October 2016, after five years with the local authority.
The council decided to make Mr Stiff’s replacement internal, selected from its current strategic directors and heads of service, for reasons of expense.
Mrs Williamson’s appointment was decided following a mammoth subcommittee meeting in Forfar on Wednesday.
The intention is to reduce the council’s top level management team – composed of one chief executive and three strategic directors – from four to three.
Mrs Williamson has been a strategic director with Angus Council since 2013, first for the People Directorate and then the Children & Learning Directorate.
Prior to that, she was Head of Service (Education) at South Ayrshire Council from 2008 to 2013.
Congratulating her on the appointment, council leader Iain Gaul said: “Margo has been at the centre of the council’s transformation for the past three years and as our chief executive she will lead us in the next phase of the organisation’s development as we continue to drive Angus forward.
“There are huge financial challenges ahead and all of our executive management team will continue to bring the ideas and the impetus that will sustain critical and valued services in Angus.”
From June 1 the council’s executive management team will comprise the chief executive and two strategic directors, a reduction of one strategic director post.
A council report warned that if one of the three current strategic directors – Mark Armstrong (resources), Alan McKeown (communities) and Mrs Williamson – was not successful then it could lead to a potential redundancy situation and “significant severance costs”.
The new chief executive will take a report regarding the structure of the management portfolios to the new council early in its term of office.
