TODD Williams has handed in his resignation as chief executive officer of Regional Development Australia Hunter and will finish up in the job at Christmas.
Mr Williams said after close to seven years in the role he felt the time had come to step down.
“My job has been done, the things that I have been asked to do have been done well, there is money in the [RDA] bank and new projects ahead,” he said.
“I think everyone knows when the time is right [to go], RDA Hunter is in a very positive position and I’m very proud of that.”
Mr Williams, who is on the board of Hunter TAFE and an adjunct fellow at RMIT University in Melbourne, said he did not have a new job to go to.
“My options are open, I have board and university appointments, my dance card isn’t full,” he said.
Mr Williams said in his time at the helm of RDA Hunter the organisation had achieved key infrastructure and innovation goals.
Its development of the internationally-recognised smart specialisation strategy (S3), launched last year by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, and an innovation scorecard meant the Hunter was “playing on a national and international level”.
On par with the European Union’s approach to economic development and trade, S3 pinpoints the Hunter’s seven competitive advantages: food and agribusiness, mining equipment; technology, medical technologies and pharmaceuticals, oil, gas and energy, advanced manufacturing; defence; and creative industries.
The strategy aims to highlight sectors expected to create future jobs in the Hunter, and use the region’s competitive advantages to deliver an economic agenda supported by innovation and entrepreneurship.
Mr Williams said RDA Hunter’s strategic infrastructure plan had netted more than $850 million in infrastructure funding for the region.
RDA Hunter chairman Michael Slater said that while the organisation was disappointed to lose Mr Williams it would continue to build on the reputation the Hunter has gained as Australia’s leading region.
“Under Todd’s management, RDA Hunter has improved the Hunter’s national and international standing as a go-ahead region that is in charge of its own destiny,” he said.
RDA Hunter recently won the Best Paper Award 2016 at the X1V International Triple Helix Conference in Heidelberg, Germany, where Mr Williams made a presentation on the S3 program.
Mr Slater said this recognition for the region “places us among world leaders for economic development.”
The federal government’s Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development used the Hunter and its development of S3 as an exemplar of a region embracing innovation and research to grow its competitiveness, saying the Hunter was a blueprint for regions determining their own futures.
View the Newcastle Herald story http://www.theherald.com.au/story/4266621/todd-williams-resigns-from-rda-hunter/?cs=4173