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The knowledge broker

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This is the first biography of Sir Howard Bernstein, chief executive of Manchester City Council from 1998 to 2017. It reveals the remarkable role he played in the city's revival and offers insights...
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  • 16 March 2027
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An illuminating biography that offers lessons in leadership from the man behind Manchester’s revival.

A golden thread stretches from Manchester’s post-industrial decline to its renaissance as a city of shining towers and world-class ambition. That thread is Sir Howard Bernstein.

Known for his chunky rings, cigars and quick wit, Bernstein was a formidable operator, adept at pulling strings behind the scenes. He wrote the playbook for bringing cities back from the brink and helped to deliver it across the country through Metro Mayors. Remarkably, he did all this without the benefit of an elite education or family connections, starting his career as a Junior Clerk at Manchester Town Hall and working his way up through talent and determination.

Based on extensive interviews with Bernstein’s staff, as well as cabinet ministers and civil servants, developers and financiers, The knowledge broker reveals what it was that made the man tick. It offers important lessons in leadership and insights into Manchester’s success.

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Price: £25.00
Pages: 392
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Publication Date: 16 March 2027
ISBN: 9781526195111
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:

BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Political, Biography: historical, political and military, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Business, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Urban & Regional, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / 21st Century, Politics and government
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Mike Emmerich grew up in Manchester in the 1970s and early 1980s, at a time when the city was suffering a dramatic decline. He worked as a civil servant and was the Prime Minister’s Senior Adviser on local government and planning before returning to Manchester to set up a research institute at the university. He is a Founding Director of Metro Dynamics and has published extensively on innovation, place and the future of towns.

Part I: Early years
1 Origins
2 The Bernstein family
Part II: A young man in a hurry
3 Learning the ropes
4 Against Stansted (mostly) and for Manchester Airport
5 Harsh realities: the economy and finances of a city in trouble
6 The man behind the hurry: who was the young Howard Bernstein?
Part III: The making of the man and the remaking of Manchester
7 A successful trial run: the Bridgewater Hall
8 Regeneration games
9 A new model and a world-class team: the regeneration of Hulme
10 The bomb that changed everything: or did it?
11 Living with success in the Bernstein family
Part IV: Maturity: delivering at scale
12 Outwards north and south and east
13 Eastward ho!
14 Revolution: scientific and cultural
15 Defeats and victories
16 Later years in Manchester
Part V: The conurbation reinvented
17 The city region reimagined through transport
18 Manchester’s journey to devolution
19 The long and winding national road to devolution
20 A two-part invention: devolution delivered
Part VI: Endings and reflections
21 The man and Manchester
22 Reflections
Index