Andy Street

BA PPE 1982
Honorary Fellow
Mayor of the West Midlands
CBE

Andy Street was elected as the first Mayor of the West Midlands in 2017, seizing a Tory victory from a Labour stronghold. He is one of a new group of Metro Mayors: accountable to more than three million people his responsibilities include economic growth, transport, housing and employment. Ironic given that after leaving Keble, he applied to be a social worker in Birmingham but was turned down.

Instead, he joined John Lewis as a graduate trainee starting on the shop floor at Brent Cross. He quickly rose through the ranks to become Managing Director, overseeing one of the most successful periods in the company’s history. Despite a recession, he masterminded a 50% increase in gross sales and doubled the number of stores. He stepped down in 2016 after announcing his intention to run for Mayor.

His first foray into politics came in 2011 when he was asked to chair the Local Enterprise Partnership in Birmingham, a city he has loved all his life, having grown up in Solihull. He was awarded the CBE for services to the national economy in 2015 and named ‘Most Admired Leader’ by business magazine, Management Today in 2014.

Andy is gay but throughout his time at John Lewis he did not feel the need to discuss it publicly as, although it was known about, it was a complete non-issue. Running for the office of Mayor, however, he says he felt it was necessary to ‘have all this on the record’, and talked about it for the first time publicly in a newspaper interview in 2017.

Ardent about the arts, having previously served as Vice Chairman of Performance Birmingham Ltd, which is responsible for running the City’s Symphony and Town Halls, he also runs half marathons and is a passionate supporter of access and outreach at Keble.