Hunter Water has congratulated Managing Director, Jim Bentley who was appointed on 31 May 2019 to the NSW Government’s most senior water role.

Mr. Bentley will start on 1 July at the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment as Chief Executive Officer – Water and will have responsibility for negotiating with other jurisdictions and the Commonwealth to make sure the state has sustainable and affordable access to our most precious resource.

Mr. Bentley joined Hunter Water in July 2016 and has successfully led the organisation’s performance in aggressively reducing leakage, improving customer service and experience and developing much stronger engagement with the Hunter region through the Love Water campaign.

Hunter Water Chairman, Terry Lawler, said the opportunity was reflective of these achievements and many others in the three years of Jim’s tenure.

“On behalf of Hunter Water, I’m very pleased for Jim to receive an opportunity to bring his strategic vision and capability to such an important role in the state’s water management,” said Mr. Lawler.

“We’re of course also disappointed that Jim won’t be at the helm of Hunter Water in the short term, and perhaps beyond, but we take pride that our loss is New South Wales’ gain, especially at such a critical time with the prevailing drought conditions across most of the state.”

“One of Jim’s successes at Hunter Water was to build a very capable and talented team and the Board is confident that the great progress and momentum that has been achieved in these three years with Jim will continue in his absence.”

“We will now quickly act to have interim arrangements in place whilst we plan a permanent successor to Jim. We will provide updates in due course,” said Mr. Lawler.

IMAGE | Hunter Water’s Jim Bentley appointed top job as NSW’s Chief Water Officer