Your Facilitators
Melanie Fleer
Melanie has worked in Victorian local government for over 20 years, including 15 years in leadership roles spanning the areas of communications, governance, legal, marketing, risk, property and customer service. She holds a Bachelors in Public Relations, and Graduate Diploma in Group Facilitation. Melanie has worked at Brimbank City Council Maribyrnong and Darebin councils. Melanie now works as a governance consultant to the government sector.
Janet Cribbes
Janet Cribbes has a career spanning three decades, working in State government, community services, the private sector, Local Government and more recently Not for Profit. Janet specialises in governance, ethical and authentic leadership coaching and mentoring in the non for profit and Local government agencies. Her community engagement saw her elected to Port Phillip Council in 2004 to 2008 with one term as mayor in 2008. Public life has many rewards and challenges, having a sense of humor is great life skill. Following Council, Janet went to establish and manage the Community Bushfire Recovery Service after the Black Saturday 2009 Bushfires, on behalf of the Archdiocese of Melbourne delivered through CatholicCare. Janet is currently a director and co-chair on a not-for-profit Board and Chairs 2 other not for profit Board.
Julie Reid
Julie has 33 years’ experience working in Local Government, including large Councils in the UK, rural Councils in New South Wales and Victorian Councils, and has recent experience in State Government. This diverse experience has seen her contribute to governance, planning, urban design, sustainability, economic development, building, waste, capital works delivery, community engagement and more. Julie’s recent career highlights include working as Executive Director of Local Government Victoria in the Department of Jobs Precincts and Regions and as the first female CEO at the City of Kingston. Julie also spent 10 years at an executive/director level leading city development and engineering/infrastructure portfolios at Whitehorse and Greater Dandenong City Councils.
She is a qualified Master of Planning and has a Graduate Diploma in Management and Bachelor of Arts (Urban Studies). Julie launched her own consultancy business in June 2022 to continue assisting Local Government into the future.
Allison Watt
Allison is a senior Local Government professional with a strong background and experience in strategic communications, governance, council business, corporate planning, risk management, advocacy and other functions over a 25-year career. She is a former journalist, editor, sub-editor and proofreader and after 15 years in suburban newspapers entered local government to work in corporate communications in the late 1990s. Allison has worked for 25 years in the sector, in various senior communications and governance roles at Brimbank, Nillumbik, Moonee Valley and Macedon Ranges Councils.
Allison has a Graduate Diploma in Communication from Victoria University; an International Association of Public Participation (IAP2) Certificate and a Certificate in Governance and Risk Management from the Governance Institute of Australia
John Nevins
John has a broad employment background in Victorian; Public Transport, Public Service and Local Government. Starting in Local Government in the era of Local Government reform under the Kennett Government John held senior Local Government leadership positions for 25 years until semi-retiring in 2019 after 14 years as Chief Executive Officer of the City of Kingston. Since then, he has engaged in Local Government interim executive and consultancy undertakings, is on the Advisory Board of a digital technology business and is an Independent Member of the Bass Coast Health and Snowdome Foundation (a charity focused on funding research into blood cancer) Finance Audit and Risk Committees.
John describes his strengths as corporate and operational leadership, financial acumen, and leading positive organizational development. John has an Economics Degree, a Graduate Diploma in Public Policy and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.