Janet Takarangi, general manager of Venture Hawke’s Bay, will leave that organization as of next Friday. Her position will be “dis-established” and not replaced.
The announcement was made initially in an email sent by Ms Takarangi on Monday afternoon, followed by two media releases from Andrew Newman, her boss and CEO at the HB Regional Council.
The first release deals with overall restructuring of VHB and says in part:
“Venture Hawke’s Bay is today like many organisations confronting an uncertain economic environment. This is impacting on the security of its revenue streams and particularly those sourced from Central Government.
“Accordingly the Venture Hawke’s Bay Board has recommended to the Regional Council that the cost structure be adjusted to ensure delivery of the key performance areas, for the coming financial year commencing 1 July 2010, so that the organisation is sized correctly for its secured budget …
“It is proposed that three roles, including the General Manager role, be disestablished, noting that one of these three roles is part-time. A further two roles, one full-time and one part-time will be reviewed subject to security of Central Government revenue.”
And from a second statement, also released over the name of Andrew Newman …
“After two years as general manager of the region’s economic development agency, Venture Hawke’s Bay, Janet Takarangi is stepping away from the organisation happy that Venture Hawke’s Bay is in a stronger, better-structured and more capable position.
‘After investing a huge amount of my own, my staff and the Board’s energy and focus, we’ve developed an organisation that is starting to deliver, while focusing on local economic growth in a number of areas,’ said Ms Takarangi.
Hawke’s Bay Regional Council chief executive Andrew Newman announced the decision on Monday to staff and indicated the role would be disestablished and not replaced.
“Since 2008, Ms Takarangi has reorganised Venture Hawke’s Bay to focus on Regional Promotion and Marketing, Investment and Planning, and Productivity and Innovation. The organisation is working on significant projects that include inwards investment into Hawke’s Bay in addition to the delivery of the regional promotion and marketing programme, opportunities with exporters related to the Shanghai 2010 Expo and the Rugby World Cup 2011.
‘We recognise the value to the region of the initiatives and momentum generated by Janet over the last two years and the commitment is to capitalise on this momentum within a tough economic environment,’ said Mr Newman.”
And so ends the tenure of yet another executive — indeed, the longest surviving one — charged with leading the many stray cats of Hawke’s Bay in a sensible, strategic and unified direction.
Venture Hawke’s Bay is charged with two indispensable, inter-related missions for the region … advancing our overall economic development and, within that, fostering tourism to Hawke’s Bay. Somebody has got to get this right … both in terms of institutional role and expectations, and staff delivery against those expectations.
Tom Belford
Sounds like another restructure to me. I wonder if we'll get another rebranding as well. 'Tis a bit difficult to keep up with this outfit…. Vision 2020… restructure…. Hawke's Bay Inc… restructure…. Venture Hawke's Bay…. restructure…. it's chameleonic, definitely schizophrenic, probably has multiple personality disorder…. send it to the psychiatrist.
With "restructuring" meaning downsizing, looks like it's already been to the shrink!
I'm nearly lost for words which for those of you who know me – this is not something that happens to me often / ever.
We were (Hawkes Bay) actually making progress. …Janet has built a team – yes not always user friendly however a team who had a direction and a strong leader buidling some real infrastructure which has never been done before. It's been I would suggest a thankless and very tough role as everyone seems to be an expert regarding promotion of HB. Janet has toughed it out and didn't let all the squeaky wheels get to her. She has always been able to see the end game and she didn't worry to much about the static around her – she was just getting on with it. Don't get me wrong as the President of the Havelock North Business Association I have had plenty to say to Janet and her team regarding Tourism issues that apply to Havelock North. Janet would be the last person to need people to love her – respect no doubt would be nice and I for one do respect her for having Hawkes Bay at the centre of the work she and her team have been doing. So now we are back to the drawing board and we have possibly lost one of the few people who did not get swayed, scared or confused by the over populated political environment with which our region is blessed.