CEO to leave early

Bunbury’s chief executive has less than three weeks left in the top job after Bunbury City Council approved bringing forward his departure date.

After six years in the position, CEO Andrew Brien handed in his resignation to the council in March after taking up an offer at the City of Bayswater.

Mr Brien’s original departure date was June 28, but it is understood he requested an earlier date of May 19 due to personal reasons.

The council endorsed the amended date on Tuesday night.

Mayor Gary Brennan said the move would not affect the council’s work.

Mr Brennan said the transition process was already “well advanced” with planning and development services director and former Port Hedland chief executive Mal Osborne set to take the reins until a new CEO is appointed.

“I just want to stress that we’ve got a very, very highly experienced professional group of executives in place,” Mr Brennan said.

“Our acting CEO is highly experienced as a CEO in some very challenging environments, I’ve known Mal for some decades I have utmost respect for him.

“I think we’ve got a really top notch executive team and supporting the directors we’ve got highly experience managers that have been with the city for such a long time.

“It won’t make any difference to the way we conduct business and it’s business as usual.”