Barr Property and Planning has announced the appointment of its newest Principal Planner, Rebecca Johnston. 

Rebecca has 20 years’ experience across local and state government and the private sector, which has given her the skills she needs to negotiate positive development outcomes and exceptional stakeholder management skills.  

She is skilled in strategic land use planning, development assessment and project delivery.  

She has an Honours degree in Town Planning from the University of New South Wales, qualifications in project management and is currently due to finish her Masters in Business Administration at the University of Newcastle in 2020.  

Rebecca’s Masters degree is supported by WiMBA Scholarship provided by the University of Newcastle.  

The WiMBA initiative provides the leadership skills and strategic perspective to move female employees into senior management and executive positions.  

During the seven years she spent as the Planning Manager for the Port of Newcastle, Rebecca learned how to devise effective strategies to achieve the organisations’ business outcomes as her role focussed on facilitating infrastructure and development projects.  

“I joined the team at Barr Property and Planning because I wanted the opportunity to work on a broad range of projects in different sectors across a wide geographic region,” Ms. Johnston said.  

“The company has the same vision and values as I do, we both want to make a positive social impact. So, it was a perfect fit,” she said.  

As the Principal Planner, she will deliver project inception through to completion.  

At Barr Property, Rebecca has realised another passion of hers is to support young professionals. She will work with a number of staff members to grow their confidence and skills within their work.  

Outside of work she is also very passionate about individuals working their way up into executive positions and is a strong supporter of HunterNet’s Future Leaders Program.  

“I love working with interesting and visionary clients whilst also mentoring and leading a great team of planning professionals,” Ms. Johnston said.  

“In terms of what I can offer my clients, not only do I have extensive experience as a planning and development professional, I also bring a commercial perspective. I have excellent problem solving skills with a pragmatic approach,” she explained.  

When she isn’t working with clients in the office, Rebecca spends her spare time with her husband and four kids enjoying the great lifestyle Newcastle has to offer 

IMAGE | Rebecca Johnston appointed new Principal Planner at Barr Property and Planning