HR director celebrates new Olympic role

The new head of HR at the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) has told Personnel Today it was a “fantastic coup” to get the job.

Wendy Cartwright, the former head of HR services at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, joined the ODA at the start of this month. She will lead on all HR and people management issues at the organisation responsible for infrastructure and transport at the 2012 Olympic Games.

Cartwright said she was very surprised to get the job. “I was delighted, it’s such an exciting area of work to be involved in,” she said.

The organisational structure and design of the ODA is still being worked through, Cartwright said, but her first priority is to establish strong working relationships with key partners, such as the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games.

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“One of the best ways to describe it is to say that the ODA will deliver the theatre and the London Organising Committee will deliver the show,” she said.

The ODA is now recruiting two HR managers to support Cartwright, who hopes to appoint “delivery-focused HR generalists with complementary skillsets”.