Arts, culture and recreation general manager Jeanette Wikaira is returning to Coromandel, it was confirmed yesterday.
She will be the Thames-Coromandel District Council’s group manager of community from late May, after departing the city council’s executive leadership team.
Ms Wikaira was promoted from senior policy manager to manahautū (general manager) of Māori, partnerships and policy in 2021 and an executive team reshuffle in 2023 made her acting community services general manager and then her job title now.
Dunedin City Council chief executive Sandy Graham said Ms Wikaira had helped guide the council’s journey towards its Māori strategic framework Te Taki Haruru and meaningful partnership with mana whenua and Māori.
She also led development of the Ōtepoti Live Music Action Plan and guiding progress of the planned South Dunedin library.
"Ms Wikaira is a fine leader, strategic thinker and a person well-connected and attuned to our community, who leads with skill and diplomacy, and she will be missed at the DCC.
"At a personal level, I will miss her wise counsel, bravery and the wicked sense of humour, but I love that she is getting to go home while continuing to work in the local government sector," Ms Graham said.
The city council has had a series of changes in senior management through the term.
Ms Graham said the council had known since Ms Wikaira was hired in 2020 she intended to give back to the community that raised her.
"That time is now, and we’re all delighted for her, her whānau and her new council."
In a statement published by the Thames-Coromandel District Council yesterday, Ms Wikaira said she had lived and worked in Dunedin for more than a decade.
"It’s a community that will always be close to my heart ... but I always knew there would be a point in my life when I would be coming home."
