Tara Murray
The former chief executive of Murrindindi council has been appointed to Whittlesea council’s top job.
Craig Lloyd will start as Whittlesea’s new chief executive on October 12, having spent the last two years at Murrindindi council.
He has an extensive background in leadership and management roles and is also on the board of the Bendigo Cemeteries Trust (Remembrance Parks Central Victoria) and Regional Development Australia (Hume Region).
He holds a masters of business administration, a postgraduate certificate in community development (emergency management) and a masters of project management.
He has also completed the Australian Institute of Company Directors course and undertaken the Local Government Professionals Executive Leadership program.
Whittlesea council panel of administrators chair Lydia Wilson said Mr Lloyd’s community-focused character, depth of local government experience and skills in a multiplicity of technical areas made him the stand-out candidate.
“With my fellow administrator colleagues… we have undertaken an exhaustive recruitment process that attracted many high calibre candidates to our CEO role,” Ms Wilson said.
“It is Craig’s deep commitment to grassroots 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.
“We very much look forward to welcoming Craig to the City of Whittlesea and introducing him to our community.”
Mr Lloyd replaces acting chief executive Joe Carbone, who was appointed in March, after the previous acting chief executive Kelvin Spiller departed the council.
Mr Lloyd will be the council’s fourth chief executive since 2016.
David Turnbull left the council in March 2016 after his contract was not renewed, while Michael Wootten was sacked in 2017.
Whittlesea’s former councillors then sacked Simon Overland last December.
Mr Carbone didn’t apply for the permanent role and will return to his consulting business and directorship positions.
Ms Wilson said the administrators would like to thank Mr Carbone for his work.
“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.
“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 and in supporting myself and the panel of administrators.”
