Ian Cowie has been CEO of the City of Gosnells since 2009, and in that time has overseen many successful projects in the councils area.
He was nominated as a council high achiever by Mayor of Gosnells Dave Griffiths, who said the day he put Ian into the position of CEO was the best day of work he has ever done.
“Ian leads from the front, he leads from within, and he leads from behind.
“He galvanises people together, is very inclusive and innovative, and knows how to get the best out of the organisation.”
Mayor Griffiths also cited Ian’s exceptional knowledge of governance as an invaluable asset to the organisation, in particular his work on writing acts during his 20-year career with the state government.
Mr Cowie’s work with council won him the ‘Leader of the Year in Local Government’ award in 2013 awarded by Institute of Public Administration WA.
His achievements were also recognised with a Public Service Medal awarded as part of the Queen’s Birthday Honour list.
“From a personal perspective, I’m very proud of my public service medal,” said Mr Cowie.”
The City of Gosnells has a budget of over $100 million and employs over 600 people, which Mr Cowie used to make the city an extremely effective organisation that has ventured on many sustainability and community-oriented endeavors.
Mr Cowie said that funding is a major challenge in his role.
“Gosnells features limited industrial and commercial land, which generates revenue at a comparatively low cost.”
Despite this challenge, Mr Cowie has been heavily pushing on redeveloping many areas of Gosnells to new, high standards.
It was the large number of subdivisional redevelopments that have generated significant revenue that was a factor that contributed to his Public servive
medal award.
Ian said that major redevopment projects such as investing and developing Gosnells town centre and the Loddington town centre were some of his recent achievements.
The City of Gosnells also recently signed its biggest contract ever, $40 million to be spent on a new recreational reserve.
Mr Cowie said that he was happy the project was finally seeing fruition, which had long been an underdeveloped idea.
“It’s going to be community hub that features a café, childcare and sporting facilities.
“Its not just going to be a sporting ground.”
With Mr Cowie’s exceptional leadership, Mayor Griffiths said he expects big things from Gosnells in the future.
“I truly believe we are the best-run local government in Western Australia.”
