Central Desert Shire Council Shire President, Councillor Adrian Dixon has announced the appointment of Cathryn Hutton as the Council’s new Chief Executive Officer to replace Roydon Robertson who is retiring on 10th August having worked for the Council from its inception in 2008, initially as Director of Corporate Services, and then for the past three years as CEO. The decision to appoint Ms Hutton to the lead role was made at the Council’s August Meeting after a rigorous executive search by the Council’s CEO Selection Panel that included the Shire President, Deputy Shire President and 2 councillors; and 2 independent members with extensive local government industry expertise.

Until now, Ms Hutton was the Council’s Deputy CEO and Director of Corporate Services where her major responsibilities included financial management, records management, information technology, governance, human resources management and customer service, as well as generally supporting and deputising for the CEO. She is also a member of several local government industry reference groups including representing LGANT on the NT Local Government Financial Sustainability Reference Group, representing Local Government Managers Australia on the Local Government Reform Steering Committee Asset Management Program, and she is an NT Government appointee on the Rates and Charges Reference Group and the Combined Economic Development Committee.

This is Ms Hutton’s first council CEO role in a career that to date has included over 17 years working in executive management positions, the last seven years in local government. Prior to moving to Alice Springs she was Executive Manager at Busselton Shire (now City of Busselton) in Western Australia where her portfolio included finance, information services, records management, customer service, libraries, cemetery management, and corporate relations. Prior to local government she worked in various senior roles in the information technology industry.

Ms Hutton holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Science from the University of Western Australia, a Bachelor Arts with a double major in Politics and Statistical Analysis from Curtin University, and a Bachelor Economics from the University of Western Australia.
Announcing the appointment, Councillor Dixon said, “It is very gratifying to see Ms Hutton’s internal appointment to the position after it had been advertised nationally and was hotly contested by an excellent field of very qualified candidates. Ms Hutton’s service to date has been exemplary and this appointment, based on the unanimous recommendation of the CEO Selection Panel, demonstrates that building and mentoring in-house executive expertise has paid dividends for Council."

Ms Hutton will take up the CEO appointment from 11th August.

AUTHORISED BY ADRIAN DIXON, SHIRE PRESIDENT – CENTRAL DESERT SHIRE COUNCIL

The Central Desert Shire Council is proud to be associated with the 65th Harts Range Bush Sports Weekend being held over the Picnic Day weekend in August (4th – 6th August).  This year the weekend will see the inaugural “Central Desert Shire – Tom Cleary Stakes” a horse race in which local community members will be competing to see who has the fastest bush horse.  The event is being named after Mr. Tom Cleary currently of Atula Station (and formally of Mt Riddock Station) who has been one of the clubs patrons for many years and an avid jockey in his time.

The weekend sees a huge range of family entertainment including stockhorse races, rodeo, gymkhana, sports events including running races, novelty races for kids, lizard race, ladies cow tail toss, high jump, tug o war and jumping castle for the little ones.

The Harts Range Racecourse is located 215km east of Alice Springs on the Plenty Highway and is adjacent to the Atitjere community.  For more information please see the Harts Range Amateur Race Club’s website: http://www.hartsrangeraces.org.au/aboutus.html (external link).

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