Brad became Chief Executive of Southampton City Council in 2001. Previously he was Chief Executive of Carmarthenshire County Council, a unitary authority in West Wales, and Chief Executive of East Hampshire District Council. He had moved there from the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in 1988, where he had been in charge of Corporate Policy and Performance. Prior to that Brad had worked for the NHS in a number of London teaching hospitals, undertaking management reviews.

The development of cross-boundary and inter-authority partnership working has been a regular theme in his work in local government. This dimension has included a strong involvement with establishing the sub regional Partnership for Urban South Hampshire (PUSH), some seven years ago. He has been the lead Chief Executive over that time and he is Chair of the PUSH Programme Board. This co-ordinates overall partnership activity, which secured Growth Point status and become one of the first wave Multi Area Agreements in 2008. More recently PUSH, in conjunction with the Isle of Wight and local businesses and universities has submitted a LEP proposal to drive economic development in the Solent area.