Glen Dougall appointed Acting Chief Executive Officer
City of Fremantle 3 Jun 2021

The City of Fremantle’s Director of City Business Glen Dougall has been appointed Acting Chief Executive Officer.

The appointment follows the resignation of Philip St John, who will leave the City tomorrow after five years in the role.

Mr Dougall has been the City’s Director of City Business since 2005 and has been in local government for 30 years, holding senior positions for over 25 years.

His appointment as Acting Chief Executive Officer is for a period of 12 months or until such time as the recruitment of a new CEO is finalised.

Fremantle Council has also appointed Rob McDonald as the independent member of the Chief Executive Officer Recruitment and Selection Panel.

The Local Government (Administration) Regulations 1996 require the selection panel to include at least one independent person who is a prominent or highly regarded member of the community or has experience with the recruitment of CEOs and senior executives.

Mr McDonald was a senior state public servant for more than 20 years and has served on the boards of numerous agencies including the South Metropolitan Health Service and the Rottnest Island Authority.

He is currently the chair of the Audit and Risk Committees of a number of state government agencies including the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation, Department of Communities, Mental Health Commission, WA Police Force and the Public Trust Office.

The other members of the CEO selection panel are Deputy Mayor Andrew Sullivan and Councillors Jenny Archibald, Geoff Graham, Hannah Fitzhardinge and Frank Mofflin.

Over the coming months the panel will draft the selection criteria, job description and employment contract for the new CEO, but the position will not be advertised until after the local government elections in October. 

Mr St John announced in April that he was stepping down as the City’s Chief Executive Officer, a position he has held since May 2016.

He was previously Director of Planning at the City of Fremantle for eight years before moving to the City of Wanneroo as its Planning Director in 2014.