Council appoints new CEO
It is said in local government that appointing your CEO is the probably the most important decision a Council can make.
In my time (24 years) on Council, this was the second most important decision we could make (after the amalgamation itself) and was the the first time I have been involved in a CEO recruitment exercise as our former CEO, Harry Wierda, was in the job from 1987 until his death on Christmas Day last year.
I was honoured to be selected to the five person Council selection panel by Council along with Mayor Gary Johanson and Councillors Claire Boan, Michael Iammarrone and Matt Osborn and along with our HR partners at Hender Consulting and special consultant, Stephen Hains, spent countless hours on this process since January until the Council’s final vote last night, May 13th.
We have appointed Mark Withers, current CEO of Charles Sturt, and a former Enfield/PAE Manager and Director. I have known Mark for 24 years and have watched with interest as his career has progressed, and admired the way he has gone about his work in that time. We also share something other than the same first name.*
We are very excited to have him on board to lead our Council for the next five years.
I can promise you the selection exercise was extremely thorough and the standard of the candidates stellar.
I also wish to thank Wally Iasiello who did an outstanding job as Acting CEO over almost two years.
News Corp (The Advertiser etc) have reported on this story here:
and Council’s press release is here: Media release- New CEO appointed
Again, welcome Mark. We are looking forward to a great future together!
* Same birthday.