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Robyn Seymour starts as shire CEO

July 26, 2021 BY

Robyn Seymour started as the Surf Coast Shire's new chief executive officer on July 12.

NEW Surf Coast Shire chief executive officer Robyn Seymour has had a baptism of fire, stepping into her first role in the local government sector only four days before Victoria began its fifth lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ms Seymour was previously deputy secretary of network planning and head of Road Safety Victoria, and a chief executive and deputy chief executive at VicRoads before that.

Speaking to this newspaper on Monday, she said the chance to be the shire’s CEO “was too good not to apply for”.

“To be honest, I wasn’t actually particularly looking for a new job until I saw this one come up,” she said.

“I’ve been looking for the right role down this way for quite a long time, so this opportunity seemed like an amazing opportunity to both move into a really good leadership role but also realise one of my other personal goals, which was to move to this amazing place, the Surf Coast.

“What really interested me, in part, was that this is an opportunity for me to get back closer to community. For me, that was something really attractive about this opportunity.”

Ms Seymour officially occupied the office vacated by former CEO Keith Baillie and acting CEO Anne Howard on Monday last week.

“It was a bit of a shame that we’ve gone into lockdown, but it was a full-on week, spending time with our councillors, the leadership team and the broader teams within Surf Coast Shire,” she said.

“What I learnt from that was that I was really impressed with the staff’s passion and commitment to the work that they do and delivering important community outcomes; I thought that was fabulous.”

She said she had a lot of work to do.

“I need to learn the business and run the business; I need to build my toolkit from a local government perspective given I’ve never worked in local government before; I’m keen to spend time with each of the councillors and understand their priorities; as well as get out into the community.

“I’m looking forward to a time when we’re out of lockdown so I can actually get out and about, because for me and my leadership style, I’m very people-oriented, and I like to get out and talk to people.

“So whether that’s staff, our councillors or the community, I want to get close and really understand what are the needs of this community and look to see how then I can continue to deliver the good work that is being done in the broader Surf Coast Shire.”

Ms Seymour said one of her immediate priorities was absorbing the work done to draft and prepare the new Council Plan, including understanding what the community’s aspirations were for the four-year document.

“There’s some things that are definitely highlighted in that. Growth and how do we manage that in the shire when we’re very reliant on the tourism economy and how do we get that balance right; that’s a really tricky one,” she said.

“Housing affordability is obviously a really big issue at the moment.

“Also, the financial sustainability of the council and ensuring we make the right decisions both in terms of continuing to deliver services and infrastructure that the community needs but also ensuring we have a viable organisation that can continue to deliver services in the future.”

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