New chief executive brings depth of skills

 

Kaipara mayor, Dr Jason Smith, has announced the appointment of Louise Miller as Kaipara District Council’s new chief executive following its extraordinary meeting held in Maungaturoto on Tuesday May 15.

“This is the culmination of a rigorous recruitment process started late last year and the Council was unanimous in appointing Louise,” said mayor Smith.

British born Louise moved with her husband and two pre-teen sons to Tauranga in 2013 to take up the position of general manager and corporate director with the Tauranga City Council. 

During her five year tenure she held positions of General Manager Community Services and as a programme director.

Her previous positions in the UK have been in similar roles though have also included social services and social housing along with corporate roles leading a number of customer and community services and health and wellbeing initiatives. 

Louise was previously employed as a performance specialist for the UK's Audit Commission where she was responsible for ‘value for money' and ‘improvement' assessments for a number of local authorities.

As a consultant, Louise managed performance improvement projects for high risk local authorities, including the Metropolitan Police Authority.
With a love of sailing and water sports, and boys who play hockey and rugby, the family integration to the local community should be almost seamless.

As part of the due diligence in the recruitment process Louise, along with mayor Smith, met with key Iwi leaders across the Kaipara.

Council has also appointed Curt Martin – currently chief operating officer and General Manager Infrastructure at Kaipara District Council – to the role of interim chief executive until Louise is able to take up her new post, currently scheduled for September of this year.

“This is an exciting time for Kaipara as these appointments enable us to continue to build on the substantial progress that has been made since the return to a democratically elected council over 18 months ago,” said mayor Smith. “I look forward to working with Louise and the Council to keep Kaipara moving forward into the future.”

Louise Miller