Tom Riordan

Tom Riordan CBE joined HM Treasury (HMT) in October 2025 as the Government’s Northern Growth Envoy. Since then, he has overseen the announcement of the most significant transformation to travel in the North for a generation through Northern Powerhouse Rail.

Prior to this appointment, Tom served as Second Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), leading work on the 10 Year Health Plan and adult social care, among other government priorities.

He was previously Chief Executive of Leeds City Council for 14 years, during which time he oversaw major regeneration of the city centre with 25,000 new homes built, and achieved outstanding rated children’s services, and a pioneering ‘Home First’ Adult Social Care programme.

Tom undertook a secondment to the national response to Covid in 2020, and, earlier in his career, served as Chief Executive of Yorkshire Forward from 2005 to 2010, following international environmental work in the Department for Environment in the 1990s.