Councillors Diane Connors and Tony Brljevich have been appointed to the Thames-Coromandel District Council's Economic Development Committee.

The committee is now made up of four elected members and follows the resignation of Tairua-Pauanui Community Board chairperson Bob Renton.

New members have been appointed to the Thames-Coromandel District Council's Economic Development Committee this week. Photo: File.

Under the committee's Terms of Reference, membership is to be appointed by council, with the chairperson appointed by the mayor.

It is also made up of up to three elected members and up to three economic development subject matter experts.

The members of the committee are: Mayor Glenn Leach, Deputy Mayor Peter French, plus councillors Tony Brljevich and Diane Connors.

They are joined by the three external members: committee chairman Brent Page, Leigh Hopper, and Grahame Christian. You can view their profiles below.

This week council also decided current and future Economic Development chairs will have speaking rights at full council meetings, which take place every six to eight weeks.

Mayor Glenn Leach says this is a logical and practical solution to bring the Economic Development chairman to council.

'Our ED chair is doing a lot of work with us involving our I-Sites and Destination Coromandel,” says Glenn. 'We have an ambitious work programme we're working on around economic development and Mr Page as an astute businessman can provide real insights.”

Mr Page will only attend full council meetings, not deliberations or hearings.

The Economic Development Committee meets every six weeks and to find out more visit: www.tcdc.govt.nz/edc

To learn more about the Economic Development work programme visit: www.tcdc.govt.nz/business

WHO ARE THE EXTERNAL MEMBERS OF THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE?

Mr Brent Page – Chairman
A resident of the Coromandel, Mr Page is a director and part-owner of a nationally recognised computer and IT services company. Mr Page is currently the Chair of Destination Coromandel (our Regional Tourism Organisation) and was instrumental in the successful restructure of the RTO over the past few years. Mr Page brings to the committee extensive commercial and governance experience.

Mr Leigh Hopper
A well-known and successful businessman on the Coromandel, Mr Hopper has extensive experience in property development, marketing, contracting and entrepreneurship. As the principal shareholder and managing director of Hopper Developments, Mr Hopper is responsible for the day-to-day running of the Hopper Construction company and the strategic planning and direction of the organisation.

Mr Grahame Christian
Mr Christian is a property-owner at Whangapoua, and managing director and single shareholder of Smart Environmental - a large national refuse and recycling firm. Mr Christian has extensive commercial and governance experience and is very also experienced in the local government sector. He is Chairman of the Pare Hauraki Asset Holdings Limited, a significant commercial entity in the region, managing fisheries assets for the Hauraki Maori Trust Board