Singleton Council’s general-manager Lindy Hyam has made the difficult decision to walk away from a job she loves to spend more time with the one thing she treasures above all else – her family.
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With a third grandchild on the way, aging parents, a husband who works weekends, and a job that constantly demands her attention, Mrs Hyam says she had to make the hard call.
From her time as a young teacher, who was the first to see the need to provide high school students with alternate learning pathways, to the many years she has held the title of Chief Executive Officer in both national and international companies, and now her foray into local government, this is something the accomplished corporate strategist has never been afraid of doing.
And, it is one of the reasons she has had such a long, varied and remarkable career.
During which Mrs Hyam admits to never doing anything half-heartedly and always delivering -whether it be when she was working on a marketing strategy for the New South Wales Police force when they introduced speed cameras, or studying for her masters in business administration while she was a single mum and restructuring the Warringah Council.
Subsequently her drive to keep learning, and the many demanding roles she has successfully held, has been time-consuming.
Time she now wants to spend with her immediate family who live in Sydney and Canberra.
“I really am doing it because my family have had so little of my time for so long,” she explains.
“I have been a CEO for nearly 20 years and in that time I had a job for five years where I had 700 staff in 40 countries, I was away every second week.”
“I was CEO of two Australia wide organisations - Plant Health Australia and, Horticultural Research and Development Corporation.”
“And when I was the executive director of the National and Hospitals Health Reform Commission we had a meeting every week in a different city and major consultations around the country.”
“Then of course, I took on the role with Newcastle Council and now here at Singleton.”
“They are all big jobs with lots of hours and you carry the stress with you all the time.”
“But I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here at Singleton and it was a really hard decision. It took me months to get to that point. The mayor knows I struggled with it as I feel very loyal to him, the Council and my staff.”
“After all that is best part of the job, is the people you work with.”
A reflective Mrs Hyam says sometimes you just have to make a call and it’s time.
During her tenure as general manager the council has enjoyed a period of stability, and managed to secure funding for a number of major projects.
“We have brought in more than $32 million in grant funding to tick off some of our major projects like the Town Centre Revitalisation, the Gym & Swim, the redevelopment of the saleyards, the upgrade of Ryan Avenue, Hermitage Road, Dunolly Rd and the Bridgman Road-New England highway intersection, and construction of new bridges at Broke and Bourkes Crossing,” Mayor John Martin, points out.
“Some of these projects she has overseen from concept to completion, while others will be under construction or ready to begin when she retires and Mrs Hyam has driven an enormous amount of strategic development and master planning across the whole organisation and there are far too many to list.
“The list of our achievements under her leadership goes on and she will be sorely missed and her forward planning over the past four years has placed the organisation in a sound position for the future”.
A position Mrs Hyam is going to work hard to secure in her remaining six months at the helm.
Her number one priority is to ensure the council’s long-term financial sustainability, and that it remains a ‘stand alone’ organisation.
Her resignation is effective Monday, March 7, 2016.
