THE City of Whittlesea has appointed a new chief executive to help guide the municipality’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Craig Lloyd will take over from acting chief executive Joe Carbone next month after spending two and a half years as chief executive at neighbouring Murrindindi Shire Council.
Mr Lloyd’s appointment means Mr Carbone, who did not apply for the permanent chief executive position, will return to his consulting business and directorship positions.
Mr Carbone was appointed acting chief executive prior to the dismissal of Whittlesea councillors in March this year.
Mr Carbone will stay on until October 12 to help provide a smooth transition into the job for Mr Lloyd.
Mr Lloyd has extensive senior executive experience, including roles with state and local government, emergency services and not-for-profit organisations.
As well as serving as Murrindindi Shire Council’s chief executive, Mr Lloyd was previously a director at the City of Greater Bendigo.
His qualifications include a masters of business administration, masters of project management and a postgraduate certificate in community development.
Mr Lloyd is a board member of both the Bendigo Cemeteries Trust and Regional Development Australia’s Hume region.
Whittlesea council administrator chair Lydia Wilson said Mr Lloyd’s community-focused character, depth of local government experience and skills in several technical areas made him a stand-out candidate.
“With my fellow administrator colleagues, The Hon Bruce Billson and Ms Peita Duncan, we have undertaken an exhaustive recruitment process that attracted many high calibre candidates to our CEO role,” Ms Wilson said.
“We were very impressed by Craig’s extensive qualifications and his experience, which extends beyond local government and includes multiple Victorian emergency services agencies.
“However, it is Craig’s deep commitment to grass roots community engagement and his shared vision that the panel of administrators have for this council to be an exemplar in local government and deliver at a very high level for our community that we were most drawn to.”
Ms Wilson said Mr Lloyd was skilled in many facets of local government such as community engagement, environment, economic development, emergency management and IT.
Ms Wilson thanked Mr Carbone for his efforts as acting chief executive during a tough transition period.
“I would personally like to thank Joe for his stable guidance during what was a significant period of change at the start of his tenure in March 2020,” she said.
“Since then he has put in a huge amount of time, effort and energy into leading this organisation and our community through the COVID-19 pandemic.”
