Steve Bullock is the first directly elected Mayor of Lewisham.  Immediately prior to his election in 2002 he was serving a second term as chair of University Hospital Lewisham.  Steve has experience in both Local Government and the NHS and tries to use the knowledge and skills acquired in both to develop partnership working across the public sector.  He chairs London Connects - the partnership group promoting E government across London's public sector.  On the national stage he is chair of Local Government Employers (LGE) and the Local Government Association Human Resources Panel. 

Steve's career in local government started in the summer of 1972 when he worked as a van driver for an Urban District Council in North Yorkshire.  He later worked for the Greater London Council and the LGA.  He became a councillor in Lewisham in 1982 and went on to serve as Chair of Finance, Chair of Leisure, Deputy Leader, and Leader of the Council prior to standing down in 1998. 
 
He served as a member of the Commission for Local Democracy and was a key figure in the establishment of the New Local Government Network.  The influence of these two bodies on the Local Government Act, 2000 led to the creation of directly elected Mayors for the first time in the UK.  In 2001 Steve returned to active local politics to seek office as Mayor of Lewisham. He was knighted in June 2007.

He has served as non-executive director of the Housing Ombudsman Service and the London Pension Fund Authority.  He lives in Forest Hill with his wife, Kris, and is particularly proud to be a trustee of the Horniman Museum and Garden in Forest Hill - one of London's great treasures.