Dr Mike Liggins, has decided to retire from his post as general manager of Covent Garden Market Authority in the autumn, after 16 years in the post.
Explaining his decision, Dr Liggins said: “Some years ago I informed Leif Mills, the former Chairman, that for personal reasons it was likely that I would have to leave the Authority’s service before my normal retirement date in October 2006. That position has now been reached, but I wanted to see the new chairman into post before going. The Market has occupied most of my working life and I am naturally sorry to be departing at this stage in its history, but offer my best wishes for the future to Baroness Dean, the Authority and the Market community.”
The new chairman, Baroness Dean, said: “Mike Liggins has always put the interests of the Market first and the Board and I accept the personal reasons why he wishes to retire early. Everyone connected with the Market will miss him. He has done a great job for Nine Elms giving 31 years of his working life here and we all wish him well in his retirement.”
The Authority’s Board has now started the process of recruiting a successor.
Dr Liggins joined the Authority’s staff in January 1974, shortly before the Market’s move to Nine Elms, having studied agricultural economics at university. He was appointed general manager in 1989 after serving as secretary to the Authority for seven years.
During his time as general manager he introduced major changes to the Market’s activities, including the shift to catering supply and processing in response to the decline in traditional wholesaling and, latterly, the development of a broader range of food products and services to serve the catering sector. He was an early advocate of the ‘composite market’ concept as the future pattern for wholesale markets.
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