Mayor Landrieu Appoints Charles West to Lead Innovation Delivery Team for New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 2 -- The city of New Orleans issued the following news release:

Today, Mayor Mitch Landrieu announced the selection of Charles West to lead New Orleans' Innovation Delivery Team. The Innovation Delivery Team initiative is part of the Mayors Project at Bloomberg Philanthropies. These teams of top performers bring rigorous focus and best-in-class practice to identifying and delivering powerful solutions to major urban challenges. Bloomberg Philanthropies is funding Innovation Delivery Teams through three-year grants in Memphis, Chicago, Atlanta, Louisville, and New Orleans.

The Innovation Delivery Team will be assigned specifically to developing innovative strategies that reduce murder holistically and that improve customer service, specifically reducing wait times and processing times for key city services. To assist the City in achieving success with the Innovation Delivery Team model, Bloomberg Philanthropies is funding the salaries and operating costs through resources managed by the Greater New Orleans Foundation. Led by West, the team will generate innovative solutions, develop implementation plans and manage progress towards defined targets.

West has spent the past ten years of his career combining business process re-design with the implementation of technology to develop solutions that improve organizational effectiveness. A New Orleans native, Charles returned home in 2011 to help transform City government by improving services, promoting efficiency and increasing the availability of information to drive decision-making. While managing Service & Innovation for the City of New Orleans, West led planning and supported implementation for the Health Department's transformation, implemented operational improvements for 9-1-1, and planned and managed multiple consolidation efforts of complex City services.

West's previous consulting experience ranges from performance management for the State of Minnesota, to process improvement for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to business analysis for companies in a wide variety of industries including healthcare, insurance and publishing. West earned a B.S. in Computer Science and an M.B.A from Georgia Institute of Technology.

"I am honored that New Orleans continues to be recognized as a hub for innovation and change," said Mayor Mitch Landrieu. "I look forward to working with Charles and his team, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and officials from the other selected cities to implement this powerful new approach. Having already worked to improve customer service within City Hall, and his previous years of experience combining business process redesign with the implementation of technology to improve an organization's effectiveness makes Charles an ideal person for this exciting role," added Mayor Landrieu.

The Innovation Delivery Team model draws from successful approaches used around the world. In New York City, Mayor Bloomberg established teams to develop and implement bold anti-poverty, sustainability, and efficiency agendas. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair formed the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit to achieve impact in transportation, education, health, and criminal justice. In Malaysia, Prime Minister Najib Razak's Performance Management and Delivery Unit has documented critical gains in advancing that nation's government and economic transformation plans.

As he assumes his new role, West will travel to New York CityNovember 3-4, where he will meet with officials from Bloomberg Philanthropies and his fellow directors from the other participating cities.

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