BELEAGUERED Colchester art gallery Firstsite has found a new chairman following months of searching.

Corporate turnaround guru Noorzaman Rashid has been appointed to steady the helm of the charity after a series of disastrous crises threatened to shut it for good.

He has warned it will take at least 12 months to stabilise the £28million gallery’s nose-diving finances, which have seen hundreds of thousands of pounds lost over the last two years.

Dr Rashid, who was headhunted as a candidate for the role by the Arts Council of England, said with the help of interim chief executive Anthony Roberts, Firstsite could flourish as a worldrenowned modern art gallery.

He replaces Andrew Nightingale, who stepped in as interim chairman of the charity’s board following the sudden resignation of Chris Hunt in November last year.

In a frank assessment of Firstsite’s troubled history, Dr Rashid, 51, said “For whatever reason the people involved in the past have not been able to capture the support of local communities.

“Firstsite will be successful if we can make it a part of the future regeneration and development of Colchester and Essex “In this way we will build a truly outstanding facility that can be admired, used and loved by local people.”

Dr Rashid, who was born and brought up in Bradford, has a background in the top tiers of local government and is now chief executive of management consultant firm Strategies For Change and chairman of Entrepreneurs and Action.

He is also a board adviser for the National Youth Orchestra and English Touring Opera, and has extensive experience of working in the charity sector.

Dr Rashid’s appointment has been welcomed by the gallery’s local authority funders.

Tim Young, deputy leader of Colchester Council, with responsibility for the arts, said: “I am very pleased to hear this new chairman has been appointed.

“Having met him, he seems to have all the qualities to make a success of the job. I have every faith in him”

Essex county councillor Roger Hirst, said: “I am delighted to see a new face coming in and he’s just the sort of person we need.

“I hope this will lead to a new chapter for Firstsite.”

Anthony Roberts, acting chief executive of the gallery, said: “I am thrilled to be starting this new chapter with Dr Rashid as chairman.

“He has already set the bar very high for what we want to achieve and I hope we can all meet this challenge together.

A spokeswoman for the Arts Council, which earlier this year placed the gallery in special measures due to fears for the gallery’s viability, said: “We are pleased that Firstsite has recruited Noorzaman as the new chairman and we would like to thank the interim chairman for his hard work over the past fewmonths.

“We look forward to working with both the director and the board on Firstsite’s business plan during the transition.”