Stephen Hughes became Chief Executive in May 2006. He had been Interim Head of Paid Service from August 2005, when former Chief Executive, Lin Homer, left the Council to join the Home Office.

Stephen is keen that all employees see their job as improving the lives of Birmingham people and changing the Council to provide more joined up customer focussed services. For that reason he is driving forward Business Transformation supported by the BEST change programme and InSource. He has led the way by taking the Institute of Customer Services qualification as an example for all staff. He also sees that Birmingham people "succeeding economically" is the key challenge for the city and that the Council, other public agencies and business need to work together to ensure the future prosperity of the city.

Stephen joined the City Council as Strategic Director of Resources in February 2004. Before coming to Birmingham he worked for the London Borough of Brent as Director of Finance. Previous roles include a secondment to DETR to lead on Council Tax and Business Rates policy, Head of Finance at Islington Council and policy work around local government finance at the AMA and ALA.