New chief to lead region’s development

MILDURA Regional Development has officially appointed Peter Alexander as its new chief executive.

Mr Alexander, who has been acting in the role since May, succeeds Brett Millington, who is now chief executive at SuniTAFE Mildura & Swan Hill.

MRD Chair Geoff Thomson said Mr Alexander would bring an exceptional range of skills to Mildura’s key business and tourism industry.

“Peter has worked at a national and international level as a strategic leader, driving marketing, finance, operations and business development across a multitude of businesses,” he said.

“He has a proven track record for driving strategic change in complex domestic and international organisations, while also maintaining day-to-day operations, with multiple reporting lines to senior stakeholders.”

Mr Alexander moved to the region with his family 16 months ago and saw first-hand the role that MRD played in advocating for migration.

“Like many key professions in the region, there is a shortage and part of our work needs to be targeting key professions with a view of them moving to our beautiful region,” he said.

“Having just competed that journey myself, I believe we have a great story to tell. We are in the middle of the biggest migration out of national cities in history, and it’s up to all of us to make sure we take as much advantage of this migration.”

Mr Alexander has spent his time as interim CEO building on relationships the organisation holds with businesses and key stakeholders in the region.

“The team at MRD have been super supportive of helping this new kid to town learn as much as he can and I must credit the substantial body of work that former CEO, Brett Millington, led during his tenure at MRD,” he said.

“When I look at the depth of experience and achievements of the MRD Board, I feel great honour that they have asked me to help craft the next chapter of the Mildura Region’s Tourism and Economic Development.”

Mr Alexander said he looked forward to working on a number of plans particularly the LightState project.

“The economic modelling of this project alone, indicates an increase of Gross Regional Product to Mildura of just under 9 per cent,” he said.

To put that in context, when you add estimated nominal growth, there will be the potential for more than 10 per cent increase in regional growth and that will be one of the largest increases in the history of our Region.”