A schools chief listed in a top ten of UK education leaders has won the prestige job of managing director at Education Bradford.

Leaders of the newly-privatised education service launched a global search using international headhunters, boasting they would offer a salary package worth £130,000 to the best candidate.

In the end, they found their man closer to home - in Blackburn.

Mark Pattison, education director at Blackburn with Darwen Council, was named as the ninth best schools boss in the country by the Local Government Chronicle. He takes up his post in January.

He said: "This is without doubt one of the most exciting and challenging jobs in education, and I am really looking forward to taking up my new position in January. We will need a partnership approach with Education Bradford working closely with schools, the Council and the Education Policy Partnership towards a common goal, a determination to bring about significant and continuous improvement in educational achievement for all the pupils of Bradford."

Serco, a private firm, was awarded a ten-year contract in July to take over Bradford's failing Local Education Authority (LEA).

The contract, worth £360 million, is the biggest of its kind in the country and came after Ofsted published a damning report which found Bradford LEA was not managing to fulfil some of its most basic functions in supporting schools.

Education Bradford now has a demanding series of targets it must meet each year, starting next summer, if it is to collect 'incentive payments' of £1.8 million per year.

Mr Pattison, a father-of-three, was a graduate of the University of Essex and started his teaching career in London. He also worked at Leeds City Council as acting senior assistant director of education.

He was the first education director at Blackburn, following its switch to a unitary authority in 1998, when it took over responsibility for schools.

Under his charge, the council swiftly gained a good reputation for education, working well with local schools to reverse decline in cases where some had suffered poor Ofsted reports and were in 'special measures'. It has produced and marketed a CD Rom explaining how it has successfully helped "failing" schools improve after poor Ofsted inspections, and was the first place to pilot Education Action Zones.