CEO and Executive Leadership Team

Debbie Wood is the Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the City of Whittlesea.

Debbie joined the City of Whittlesea in 2020. Debbie has a Bachelor of Design (Landscape Architecture) and is passionate about delivering great public realm for the community.

Debbie is an authentic leader who strives to develop empowered teams, who deliver great outcomes for current and future residents.

Prior to joining the team at the City of Whittlesea, Debbie was the Director of Presentation and Assets at the City of Greater Bendigo and has also worked at the City of Hobart and the City of Casey.

Outside of work Debbie enjoys travel, time in her garden and loves dogs (her own as well as anyone else’s). 

Agata Chmielewski heads our Community Wellbeing Directorate.

The Community Wellbeing Directorate oversees many service areas that impact the wellbeing and day-to-day lives of City of Whittlesea residents.

The Directorate works collaboratively with the State and Federal Government to provide many of these services, and partners with a variety of community service organisations to meet the needs of our diverse and vibrant community.

Arashdeep Singh heads our Infrastructure and Environment Directorate as the Acting Director. 

The Infrastructure and Environment Directorate provides a diverse range of infrastructure services to the community. With the high level of growth within the municipality and an increasing number of residents, there is a need to be responsive to community needs.

Some of the Directorate’s key functions include:

• managing parks and open spaces
• roads, road-related and footpath construction and maintenance
• building maintenance
• engineering services
• traffic management
• road safety
• sustainability planning.

Sarah Renner heads our Customer and Corporate Services Directorate.

The Customer and Corporate Services Directorate ensures that Council

• has a focus on our community and internal customers  
• has the funds available to provide safe, useful and sustainable assets and services to our community.

The Directorate monitors, manages, researches, reports and provides advice to Council on all financial, digital, customer, organisational matters and change management.

It also ensures good governance through procurement and enterprise project management.

Emma Appleton heads the Planning and Development Directorate.

The Planning and Development Directorate provides a range of services to support the progress and prosperity of the City of Whittlesea's growing community, including: 

• strategic land use planning
• town planning
• building compliance
• economic development. 

The Directorate also helps ensure the safety and wellbeing of the community through its compliance, environmental health, emergency management and regulatory services.