Two new role appointments at Shire of Denmark

David King is the new deputy chief executive and Gina McPharlin new director of corporate and community services at the Shire of Denmark, with the appointments happening behind closed doors at Tuesday’s council meeting.

Mr King, who is a chartered professional engineer, has served as director of assets and sustainable development at the Shire for more than two years.

The new role will renew his contract for a further five years and comes after he stepped into the role of acting chief executive last month in the absence of chief executive, David Schober.

Mr Schober said that the appointment recognised the work Mr King had performed over the past two years.

“If the CEO is not present then he will step into the CEO’s role, as he did last month,” he said.

“It formalises a role that he’s done really over the last couple of years.”

Shire president Ceinwen Gearon said Mr King had shown “strong leadership and management skills” in his time with the Shire.

“He has guided his team through a comprehensive program of capital works, the roads program and the maintenance program whilst continuously refreshing the Shire’s asset management plan,” she said.

In another appointment made on Tuesday night, Gina McPharlin is set to become the Shire’s director of corporate and community services, starting in the role in August. She spent the past eight months as the Shire’s acting manager of corporate services.

Ms McPharlin has a background in accounting and project management across the private, not-for-profit and State Government sectors. “Council is very pleased that Gina has been successfully appointed to the role of director of corporate and community services,” Cr Gearon said.

“The process to identify the best candidate was robust and guided by contemporary recruitment practice. It is particularly reassuring that an internal candidate proved to be best in a very strong field of exceptional local government and non-local government applicants.