Meet our Greater Manchester Integrated Partnership (GMICP) Board Members

Paul Dennett, Salford City Mayor, is the Chair of Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership and Deputy Mayor for Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Paul was born in Warrington, moving to Manchester and then Salford during his time at University qualifying with a BA (Hons) in International Business, an MSc in Human Resource Management & Industrial Relations and MRES Research in Social Sciences.  He worked as a lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan Business school, the Chamber of Commerce and was an active Trade Unionist before being elected a local councillor for Langworthy in 2012.

He served as a Strategic Assistant Mayor between 2012-16, with a focus on equalities and cohesion, technology and change, urban transformation and workforce issues (his portfolio expanded to include innovation, prosperity and growth). Since May 2016, Paul has been elected City Mayor of Salford City Council.

Paul has a long history of campaigning on social issues. In 2015 he introduced the (Salford) City-Wide Equality strategy, recognizing the central role which Salford residents play in the every-day running of our communities. He also led on the Financial Inclusion Survey as chair of the Financial Inclusion Practitioner Group (FIPG). The survey brought attention to the need for reliable banking services to prevent home repossessions and insolvencies, providing a safety net for Salford’s residents and preventing a downward spiral of financial exclusion. A Tackling Poverty in Salford strategy (PDF, 874KB) was launched in 2017.

Sir Richard Leese grew up in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. After graduating in Mathematics at the University of Warwick, he worked as a maths teacher before moving to Manchester to take up a post as a youth worker. He was employed in various roles including youth work, community work, and education research between 1979 – 1988.

Elected to Manchester City Council as a Labour councillor in 1984, Sir Richard then became its leader in 1996. He was awarded a CBE in 2001 and then a knighthood for services to local government in the 2006 Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Sir Richard was one of the signatories to the city-region’s health devolution deal with Government in 2015. He chaired Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership from March 2020 until becoming chair of NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care. Since its inception, Sir Richard chaired Manchester’s Health and Wellbeing board, which plans health and social care services for the city. He was also chair of Manchester, Salford, and Trafford Health Action Zone, which brought together partners to tackle health inequalities.

Sir Richard is a strong advocate for addressing the wider determinants of health and is resolute that partnership working is key to this and in paving the way for wider public service reform.