As he moved into his new chief executive role at Whakatāne District Council, Steven Perdia knew he faced big challenges but also that he was in a great position to tackle them.

Mr Perdia has been with the council since taking on the role of strategy and transformation general manager in 2021 and was appointed chief executive in September last year.

He lists a clear directive from council to lead the organisation out of its current operating deficit as the foremost of the challenges.

“We also need to address the district’s desperate need for new housing and commercial developments in low- flood risk areas,” he said.

“The next three years won’t be easy, we need to be careful with costs, explore every avenue for new revenue and subsidies, and navigate a number of central government directives, including the future of water services delivery and the Māori wards referendum in conjunction with this year’s local election.

“One of my first goals was to refocus the senior leadership structure to better align to our challenges and through that process was able to slim the team by one position. I feel we’re in a great position to tackle the challenges.”

In 2009, with a vision of living and working near the beach, Mr Perdia and his wife Julie Hardaker, purchased a beach section at Pukehina.

“Julie and I had a vision of living in a beachside place but stepping away from our roles in cities and making the move was proving difficult.

“Covid was the game changer. I was between Wellington and Hamilton for work and Julie was between Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton. We were talking about uncertainties in life, getting older, running out of time to make our beachside lifestyle a reality, and so we made the call to draw up plans for a house on our section.”

Mr Perdia was working at Porirua City Council as the partnerships and growth general manager before making the move to the Whakatāne council.

I was over the moon when I got the role; all of a sudden I was living at the beach and working in a great role at Whakatāne Council.”

Besides local government, Mr Perdia’s previous roles have included work for Land Information NZ, ACC, owning a property management and leasing business in Sydney, property development, the Christchurch post-earthquake rebuild, Ministry for Education, environmental not-for-profits and even start-ups.

“I am an ideas person and from 40-to-50 years old I committed my spare time to getting start-up ideas off the ground, knowing that if I didn’t try now I never would. These included international education projects, phone apps and various agriculture exports.”

“A couple of my endeavours leaned into my love of music – a phone app that put DJ comments and comedy skits between songs when listening to Spotify and developing a merchandise social network for fans of bands and clubs.

“Some weeks I reflect on the experience as a fail, but most days I use what I learnt, so it was hugely valuable.

“I learnt a lot about international trade, other cultures, how expensive tech development is and how small the New Zealand market is for investment and customers. I had some great adventures and experiences along the way, so am very grateful, but at 50 I realised local government was my true calling and where I wanted to be.

“People ask me why local government? It’s because it really suits people who are a bit creative and like working with groups. Central government sees ideas and creativity as risk, business can see ideas as a cost, and start-ups have already done the creativity part.

“Nowadays I describe myself as a local government animal. I love it; policy development, council meetings, political drama, elections, problem solving, communities of interest and delivering lots of projects that improve communities.”

The chief executive is the only council employee hired by, and answerable directly to, the mayor and councillors. At the time of his appointment, Mayor Victor Luca announced the news to staff and various stakeholders, sharing some observations.

“It was a very rigorous process with multiple interviews, presentations and quick fire Q&A with all councillors, and Steven performed well. I’ve regarded Steven as a highly dedicated general manager. I can have a debate and share a laugh with him, and I look forward to further building our working relationship as CE.”

“He has an economics degree, which I hope he can put to good use with us, he has quite a wide range of experiences and knowledge that we didn’t want to lose, and we liked it that he knows the council business and could hit the ground running, which he has.”

Mr Perdia said he was thrilled to get the role.

“It’s really helpful, coming into the role, knowing the tricky projects, our financial position and challenges we are facing.”