Thomas has been Chief Executive Officer of Perth and Kinross Council since November 2021.

He is responsible for overseeing the strategic and operational management of the Council, with a commitment to enhancing public services and fostering community engagement within the region.

Thomas has sought to build on the Council’s commitment to a new corporate vision focusing on tackling poverty and inequality, which align with his own personal values and his own commitment to public service and purpose based leadership. He has also sought to encourage greater engagement with communities and see the Council become more accessible with a focus on locality and place based service planning and delivery.

During his time in post he has implemented a new programme of transformation including a new leadership development approach, focused on culture and behaviours while reducing senior leadership capacity and encouraging all leaders across the organisation to focus on our performance, improvement and change leadership.

He began his career as a community worker, and has worked across local government, central government, the voluntary sector and private sector consultancy. His career in local government spans more than 30 years. He worked with East Dunbartonshire Council from 2009, latterly as Deputy Chief Executive from 2016.

Thomas is actively involved with SOLACE, the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives, and represents SOLACE on the Board of the Scottish Government’s Digital Office, which supports Scottish local authorities with their digital transformation journeys, adopting a ‘Once for Scotland’ approach to digital transformation.