Sir Richard Charles Leese CBE (born 21 April 1951) is a British politician who served as Leader of Manchester City Council from 1996 to 2021.

[1] Initially, Leese worked as a teacher of mathematics at Sidney Stringer School in Coventry[1] and as an exchange teacher at Washington Junior High School in Duluth, Minnesota (USA) before moving to Manchester to take up a post as a youth worker.

[4] He was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2006 List after overseeing the 10-year regeneration of the city after the IRA bomb of 1996.

[9] In October 2021, Leese was announced as the new Chair-designate of the Integrated Care Board (ICB) for Greater Manchester.

[1] On 14 April 2010, the BBC reported that Leese had stood down temporarily from his post as leader of Manchester City Council after having been arrested on suspicion of the common assault of his 16-year-old stepdaughter.