TEC Chief Executive Roy Sharp has announced his retirement, as of 3 April next year, the day he turns 65. As he told staff:

I started my first job in 1971 in the United States, and next year I will have been employed full time for forty years – without even a single day’s break between jobs. So this birthday will be a big milestone in my life; and I am looking forward to the change – and the quite different lifestyle I will have in the future.

He will be working hard until April, though, so he’s not going on gardening leave or anything. In fact, it seems to me like he has simply made a personal decision to go and I wish him well for the future.

Looking back at Roy’s time at TEC, I think it has been an enormous success. I remember being at his first sector speech (at an ITPNZ conference I was organising actually) and throughout he has been clear that he wanted to simplify TEC processes. Simplifying systems has been his greatest achievement really (cue lots of cliches about his engineering background). When he came in we were at the end of a lot of rather pointless activity headed by Janice Shiner that created many words, but very little in the way of tangible results. Whereas Janice Shiner’s time was marked by intense sector lobbying, complicated systems and multiple funds, Roy Sharp’s time has been marked by a few clear debates followed by simple systems. If I had to pick a few things that marked his time, I’d pick:

1. performance linked funding for teaching – launched with a minimum of fuss and a lot of steady development work (yes I know the stats are arguable, but just imagine how bad that debate could have been);
2. a new investment plan round launched with minimum fuss and with the streamlining of all of the old funds; and
3. overall, a refocus of TEOs on their own performance rather than what they can get out of TEC.

Now I recognise that the TEC does not operate alone,but works to Cabinet directions and MOE policy frameworks, but the TEC is the workhorse that consults with the sector, develops the details and implements them. Roy has done a good job of leading TEC.