Not your average Lord Mayor: Steve Wilson - a podcast by Leon McQuade | Paul Longley

On this week's podcast, we are joined by Steven Wilson, humanist, socialist, Lord Mayor and Grandad. Born in Hessle in 1960, Steve Wilson was the son of a trawlerman and attended Penshurst County Primary and then Hessle High. He left school with an A level in History and began his career in a bank. 
Although the bank was a stable career, it was not a job role that ignited any passion in Steve. For this reason, after a few painstakingly long years working at the bank, he left to form a business partnership with his brother-in-law. The business was often slow, so Steve found a part-time job working as the cashier at Hull City Council. 
Steve accepted the position at Hull City Council due to desperation, not knowing this was the first step in a flourishing political career. Steve progressed from a cashier to the city treasury, eventually finding himself in the housing department in 1988. And so began his life-long career in social housing. On our podcast, Steve admits one of his biggest flaws is impatience, and expecting too much of others. He explains, "I think my biggest problem I have with myself is I'm impatient. And I also expect that every job I do wherever it's been, or wherever it is, is that everyone feels as enthusiastic and committed to it as I am." 
During his time working in social housing, Steve worked as a Young Persons Support team member with the Homelessness Team, as a hostel site manager and in a housing association for Pickering Homes. One quote Steve has always chosen to live by is 'Be nice to people on the way up because you might have to meet them on the way down.'
This has no doubt shaped Steve's compassion for working with the homeless. After ten years with Pickering Homes, Steve continued to grow and expand his career, working as the director of Dock House, Hull's emergency night shelter and as a hostel manager for asylum seekers at the Philanthropic Society in Lincoln.
Finally, in 2003, Steve joined the Hull Resettlement Project and is still there today, providing hostel bed spaces for the homeless. On our podcast, Steve reveals that if he could give one piece of advice to his younger self, it would be to "listen to people who are trying to give you advice from experience." 
Steve has had a full career and shares his career advice and experiences in more detail. In 1992, Steve became a Hull City councillor and was chair of the social services department. In 2014, he won his seat as the Labour Party chair in North Hull. Steve's political career did not end here, though. In 2016, Steve married his husband Karl and eventually became Lord Mayor in 2019, with Karl as his consort.

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