Recently we met Matthew Sykes - Director of Corporate Services at Nambucca Valley Council. Nambucca Valley Council is based in the north-east region of NSW; with the main council office based in Macksville.

Matthew has had a long tenure in local government serving for over 31 years in various leadership roles at Coffs Harbour City Council & Clarence Valley Council.

In his current role, Matthew supervises economic development, libraries, customer service, finance, IT and community development making it one of the broader reaching local government roles.

Matthew has completed a double masters in politics and policy and also has an MBA; furthering his education with the Australian Institute of Company Directors course.

Matthew believes that continuous education and learning is critical to professional development and encourages his staff to pursue further training in areas which are relevant to their career paths.

Since 2019, the council has gone through a series of natural disasters so there are a number of projects under Matthew’s supervision focused on improving council infrastructure. Given the entire was affected and there are other state and federal government projects in the area; Matthew raised the difficulty local councils face when competing with other councils/government bodies for the same talent to achieve project completion on time.

Matthew’s team also spends a vast majority of their time on admin associated with these projects given that they are grant funded - ensuring that council is complying with all of the relevant conditions to achieve grant milestones.

Matthew’s major point of advice for other directors is the importance of investing time into industry as peer support is vital to finding success and a healthy sounding board for strategic ideas.