Weekly column from Council Courier e-newsletter by CEO Greg Hallam, Friday, 7 July 2017.
The LGAQ’s business entities have a long and successful history servicing the needs of Queensland’s local councils. But as the challenges of local government change and grow in complexity, it stands to reason that the way we go about helping councils to serve their communities needs to evolve as well.
This week saw the birth of a new company at Local Government House, Peak Services. Peak is a company created out of our decision to consolidate our five specialist businesses - Propel, Local Buy, Total Solutions, Resolute IT and LGIS.
I’m pleased to say that Peak will be chaired by one of the state’s most experienced company directors, former national chair of law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth Teresa Handicott. Peak’s other independent directors are pretty big fish as well: former Suncorp bank chief David Foster and Leanne Muller, a former chief financial officer with the RACQ group who has held senior executive roles at Energex and Uniting Care. Peak’s managing director is Brent Reeman, whose energy and smarts has already helped guide our businesses for the better part of a decade.
I want to stress that the creation of Peak is more about evolution than revolution. It’s a result of listening to our member councils about what help and support they expect from our businesses. It’s also an example of how constantly striving to do better is a far healthier option than complacency and only moving when you sense a threat on the horizon.
For the time being, the five specialist organisations will continue to operate as councils have always known them - the same great service from the same great people. And one thing that won’t change is the strong connection with the LGAQ, which means Peak will have the advantage of 120 years’ delivering advice and services to the local government sector in Queensland and beyond.
This is all about continuing partnerships that have serviced local councils well but making sure we are best placed to future-proof local councils’ need to deliver the best services to their community.
Aligned with the firepower of the board I mentioned earlier, there is some serious clout in Peak’s executive management team.
Along with Brent Reeman as managing director and CEO, Jari Ihalainen becomes CEO, Consulting & Technical Advisory, Steve Crowe becomes CEO Managed Services, Customer Strategy and Shared Services, and Tim Rose remains CEO of Local Buy.