By Laura Michell
Business, tourism and education leaders from across Whittlesea have joined with council to form the municipality’s inaugural Business Advisory Panel.
The panel comprises representatives from the city’s agriculture, tourism, education, trade, resource recovery and manufacturing sectors, and will be chaired by Melbourne Market Authority commercial and business development general manager David Power.
The council hopes the panel will help drive investment, employment and education opportunities in the municipality and help it to better understand the challenges facing local businesses.
Council administrator Chris Eddy said the business operators appointed to the panel would bring a broad range of views, experiences and ideas to support the community’s strong economy initiatives.
“The cultural and geographic diversity of the new panel members will enable council to gather and use insights about challenges and opportunities businesses and industries are facing right across the municipality,” Mr Eddy said.
“It will also enable us to collect and implement feedback about the impact of local, state and federal policies and programs.
“We’re really pleased to welcome representatives from our key industries, including agriculture, tourism, education, wholesale trade, resource recovery and advanced manufacturing.”
Mr Eddy, who will be part of the panel alongside chair administrator Lydia Wilson and council officers, said council also hoped to establish an addition chamber of commerce style group for small and micro businesses next year. A representative from that group will be invited to join the Business Advisory Panel.
“In the short term though, council is looking forward to collaborating with the panel members to continue building upon our vision to grow key industries, support business innovation and facilitate employment and educational opportunities for our community,” he said.
The panel will hold its first meeting later this month.
The panel members are: Peter Vu from Costa Group, Daniel Wilson from Quest Apartments in Epping, Kerryn Lester-Smith from Melbourne Polytechnic, Catherine Cervasio from Aromababy, Joshua Robinson from Lotus Energy, Aristos Karavias from Repurpose It, Giorgio Linguanti from That’s Amore, Michelle Andrews-Sims from Wine in a Glass and Paul Hearne from Limelight.
