"Water is one of the biggest environmental issues across New Zealand. Protecting and managing our use of resources into the future will be a priority."
As for whether the organisation required a new direction, it was important to spend time in the role first to determine if that was needed, she said.
"I doubt any major changes will be made in the near future."
Mrs Gardner (45) comes to the role from the New South Wales Environment Protection Authority, in Sydney, where she was a executive director.
One of her portfolios was hazardous incidents and environmental health which included licensing pesticide use, and monitoring the use of radiation in medicine and industry.
She also headed a $802 million recycling investment project for the territory.
Her past roles include stints at the Horizons Regional Council in Palmerston North, the Gold Coast City Council and as a general manager at the New Zealand Environmental Protection Authority.
Regional council management staff made it clear to her they wanted to improve engagement with the community, and that would also be a priority, she said.
When it came to spending, people needed to remember every cost for the council would impact the ratepayer, she said.
"Those are decisions for councillors to make on what that cost to the community should be. The thing in New Zealand is we don’t always have the money we need, but that creates innovation."
Mrs Gardner grew up mostly in Palmerston North and studied resource and environmental planning at Massey University before embarking on a diploma in local government administration from the University of Queensland.
Her connection to Otago came from her grandfather, who was born in Middlemarch, and relatives who lived in Wanaka.
She would move down with her husband, but her two daughters would remain in Wellington in the meantime.
Mrs Gardner acknowledged she was the first woman in the role, but hoped she was there because she was the "best person for the job".
Former chief executive Peter Bodeker’s five years in the position ended in October.
