Former Chair’s extraordinarily short term between appointment and departure

For completeness, and thanks to J in the comments in this earlier thread, here’s Chris Mellor, the former Chair, who was sacked less than a year after being appointed by the Minister Conor Murphy (despite an apparently solid performance):

His 2003 departure from English company Anglian Water Group was also raised during the Stormont committee hearing. It was confirmed that officials here were aware of media reports that Mr Mellor had been dismissed as AWG chief executive, when he was appointed NIW chairman.

MLA Mitchel McLaughlin also asked for confirmation that “reference checks” had been carried out.

Asked about these comments, Mr Mellor yesterday told this newspaper: “My resignation from AWG plc in March 2003 was well reported at the time and is a matter of public record.

“DRD were well aware of this and I would point out I was appointed for three years by the normal appointment process for posts like this.

“I would also point out that at the end of my first three-year term as chairman of NIW I was reappointed for four years by Minister Murphy, who told me personally ‘it was well deserved’.”

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated.