Southland Regional Development Agency ready for transition at the end of the month

Wednesday, 19 June 2019

The transition of Venture Southland into a new agency is starting to take shape, with an interim chief executive in place and new strategic plan.

The Southland Regional Development Agency would come into fruition by the start of next month as the interim chief executive Ann Lockhart steps into her role.

Lockhart said she was hoping for a seamless transition into the new strategic plan, details of which would be announced in upcoming weeks.

Lockhart started in her role on Monday. 

'A lot of work has gone in from SoRDS [Southland Regional Development Strategy]. It's taking four years to get here, so it's really exciting to be at the starting line in terms of what the opportunities are for the future.'

Restructuring current projects and managing staff into the new entity would be one of her priorities for the new agency, she said.

**READ MORE:

* Ann Lockhart appointed as interim chief executive for the Southland Regional Development Agency

* Venture Southland chief Paul Casson resigns

* Another of those gang agley schemes**

Apart from the community development team, that will be re-established with the Southland District Council, there would be no major changes to staff, she said.

The community development team worked on community projects and initiatives within rural Southland.

The transition was more about placing resources where they needed to be, she said.  

The new entity would have a commercial focus and there would be the ability to take on larger projects - which the organisation was unable to do in the past because of structure and funding, she said.

The Venture Southland Joint Committee would be extended until December before being officially disestablished but Lockhart confirmed the transition to SRDA would be in the next couple of weeks.

The extension was only for the legal reasons, to tidy up some contracts and ownership of trusts, she said.

SRDA chairman Ian Collier said come July 1, Venture Southland would become the Southland Regional Development Agency, although there was still work to be done around branding.

Lockhart said her prior role as chief executive at the Queenstown Chamber of Commerce was an example of her experience growing organisations. 

The chamber was an established organisation but it was a small entity that grew dramatically, with the organisation tripling in size in her 10 years working there, she said.

With her strong background in tourism, she believes there was a lot of opportunity in Southland.

'Tourism has been defined as a major project for us going forward.'

Facilities such as the Bill Richardson Transport World Museum and events such the Burt Munro Challenge showed the strength and opportunity for tourism in the region, she said