Meet our Team

At the Shire we value Honesty, Empathy, Accountability, Respect and Teamwork. We are an organisation that cares about our people and community.

We are continuing to grow from a small rural Shire to a medium sized local government with a diverse population. The demands placed on the organisation to service the community’s needs continue to grow in scale and complexity.

The Shire is focused on improving the customer experience and is committed to excellence, technology and innovation, as major elements of our ongoing transformation to provide increasing levels of service quality and consistency.

Executive Management Team

Gary Clark

Acting Chief Executive Officer

Gary brings 30 years of leadership experience and best practice local government to the Shire of Capel. Gary has qualifications Public Sector Management, Training and Assessment, Project Management and Finance and Accounting. Gary trains Council Members in the Diploma of Local Government for the Western Australian Local Government Association.

He has a deep understanding of how the Council, and the Administration, can work to focus the Shire on the services and priorities that matter most to the community. He has assisted four local governments with the successful transition between CEOs in recent times and his priority is to support the staff and Council through this current transition.

Gary’s role includes

Providing information and advice to Council to support informed decision making
Cause Council decisions and policy to be implemented
Assist Council to engage the community to understand their priorities
Assist Council to develop plans to sustainably deliver those community priorities
Lead the administration and operations to provide efficient and effective services and facilities

Samantha Chamberlain

Director Community & Corporate

In March 2021, the Shire of Capel welcomed Samantha as Director Community and Corporate, having spent the previous 20 years in State Government with the Department of Education in Australia and the UK.

Samantha supports the CEO and the Council with strategic and operational functions across the organisation and leads numerous projects both internal and external based.

Samantha is responsible for leading the following departments, ably supported by a team of dedicated Managers and staff:

Finance
Rates
Governance and Risk
Community Development
Community Safety
Organisational Development, including Work Health and Safety (WHS)
Customer Relations
Libraries
Business and Technology, including Geographic Information System (GIS)
Records.

On a personal note; Samantha values her role and the staff at the Shire and is committed to providing a high level of service to the Shire of Capel community and its visitors.

Matt Young

Director Infrastructure & Development

Matt has 36 years of experience in strategy, urban and regional planning, management and projects in Perth, the South West and the UK. This includes 21 years of leadership and management experience in State and Local Government and 9 years of experience in the private sector.

In his last role as the Acting CEO and Director Development Services at the Shire of Collie, Matt had substantive responsibilities covering town planning, building, environmental health, rangers, emergency management, major strategic and capital projects, economic development and marketing, trails and asset management.

The “Collie’s Just Transition” initiatives Matt has been directly responsible for include:

Principal contact for Premier and Cabinet and JTSI for all major economic development projects; valued over $5 billion.

Principal contact on $10m Collie Adventure Trails project with the DBCA and associated municipal mountain bike trails.
Principal contact for JTSI’s 1200ha Coolangatta Industrial Area Structure Plan.

Matt also worked for the City of Bunbury where he focussed on a wide-ranging revitalisation strategy for the CBD, an urban forest strategy, contributed to the City’s economic development action plan for small businesses and scoped out an innovative and multi-jurisdictional economic and employment strategy.