Cate Hart RPIA (Fellow) | PIA SA President
Department of Environment and Water
Cate was elected to the SA Divisional committee in 2021 following her role as National Director on the PIA Board for 5 years. She is a Fellow of the Institute and is passionate about supporting planning and those working in it. She is currently working in the Department of Environment and Water as Executive Director, Environment, Heritage and Sustainability, managing a diverse portfolio including Climate Change, Coast and Marine management, Native Vegetation, State Heritage buildings and places, Planning Assessment, Natural Resource Management, and Botanic Gardens and the State Herbarium.
David Bills RPIA | PIA SA Vice President
City of Adelaide
David is a trusted and highly skilled senior practitioner with extensive knowledge and expertise in both public and private sectors.
David is renowned for his pragmatic, determined and collaborative approach across a wide range of strategic and statutory projects. In addition to working in SA, David has provided planning advice for projects in Victoria and the NT and overseen land development projects in the ACT.
His background in planning and design means that he understands how best to communicate across multi-disciplinary projects.
Matt Ballard MPIA | PIA SA Vice President
Department for Trade and Investment: Planning and Land Use Services
Matt is an experienced Statutory Planner with over a decade’s experience in local government in South Australia. He has been significantly involved in assisting with local government’s transition to the new Planning System in recent years and continues to assist with reviewing and refining aspects of that reform. Matt has a key interest in assisting younger planners in development assessment and seeing their role as an important element of a successful planning system. Matt has an interest in Transport Planning and ensuring the planning policy is as visionary as it is practicable.
Dr Alpana Sivam MPIA | PIA SA Vice President
UniSA
Alpana Sivam is a senior lecturer of Urban and Regional Planning program at the University of South Australia. Alpana has extensive experience in the public and private sectors, having held a variety of senior and executive positions in India and Australia.
As an architect and urban planner, her interests lie in the intersections between these two professions. Her teaching and research mainly focus on the social and urban design aspects of physical planning and urban development. The big issue behind her research and practice is how to make sustainable, climate resilience and an age friendly neighbourhood through interdisciplinary collaboration. Alpana’s current research focuses on housing and ageing, open space, mitigation of climate change in built environment, developing sustainable and age friendly places in a suburbanising world through a combination of design and policy.
Ben Victory RPIA
URPS
Now a Principal Consultant at URPS, Ben spent more than 25 years working for the Onkaparinga, Mount Barker and Marion Councils. He held a variety of senior planning positions in development assessment and policy, including the Assessment Manager role at the City of Onkaparinga responsible for more than 4,000 development applications each year.
An average sportsperson but a keen sports viewer, Ben enjoys working as part of a team. His extensive networks in the planning and development industry help him get things done. Ben’s calm, practical and hard-working approach to planning makes him a popular member of any project team.
Skyy Anderson MPIA
UDIA & Social Policy Solutions
Skyy is the Policy Director at the Urban Development Institute of SA as well as at Social Policy Solutions. She believes that planning is about great outcomes for our community and for people to best enjoy the spaces and environment in which they live and work. Her background is solely grounded in people, from her academic undergraduate degree in Social Science and a Masters degree by research in Planning. Skyy is passionate about educating people about planning and what can come from best practice planning as well as how we can best utilise planning to strike the important balance between natural and built environments.
Skyy was excited to join the PIA Division Committee back in 2022 and continues to enjoy positively contributing to PIA and planning both in South Australia and nationally.
Sally Roberts RPIA (Fellow)
Rural City of Murray Bridge
Sally is currently Manager Development & Regulation at Rural City of Murray Bridge but has worked within the South Australian Local Government sector for some 30 years. This has seen her work within both metropolitan and regional settings undertaking development assessment, policy and strategic planning and middle and senior management roles. Sally has a passion for planning at the local level and in particular within the rural/regional sector. Having worked in the greater Adelaide region for the majority of her career, it has enabled her to be involved in a diversity of roles and significant projects.
Sally has been on a number of committees taking chair and executive officer roles with more recent appointments being as a member on the State Commission Assessment Panel and currently as a member of the Mt Barker Council Assessment Panel.
Nick Wilson MPIA
MasterPlan SA Pty Ltd
Nick is an urban planner working within the private sector industry. He is employed at town and country planning consultancy MasterPlan in their Adelaide office. His experience covers a full range of planning matters including development assessment, strategic planning, master planning, and policy preparation, but is primarily focused on statutory planning and the facilitation of approvals for a broad range of complex projects.
Nick’s active involvement with PIA began as a member of the Young Planners Committee for SA and as a mentor in the SA Mentoring Program, with which he continues to participate. He looks forward to beginning his next chapter with PIA, joining the SA Division Committee for the first time in 2022.
Victoria Shute
Kelledy Jones Lawyers
Victoria has been a proud PIA member, Executive Committee member and supporter of PIA throughout her career which spans over 15 years of legal practice. She is now recognised as one of Australia’s leading planning and environmental lawyers. This has been recognised by her peers in the prestigious Best Lawyers Australia list and Doyle’s Guide for several years.
Victoria is known for her depth of experience, personable nature and ability to provide clear answers to difficult and technical legal questions.
Outside of PIA and legal practice, Victoria has taught graduate planning and architecture university students, land surveying students and law students and she is also widely published in a variety of state and national legal and business publications.
Craig Doyle RPIA
Light Regional Council
Craig is the General Manager, Strategy & Development at Light Regional Council and has worked in the South Australian Local Government sector for over 25 years in planning, management and senior management roles.
With experience in development assessment, strategic planning, policy development, negotiation and project management gained working in metropolitan, peri-urban and regional areas, Craig looks forward to joining the PIA Division Committee in 2022.
Gavin Leydon PIA (Hon Fellow)
Norman Waterhouse Lawyers
Gavin leads the firm’s Planning and Environment team and is a specialist in property development, urban and regional planning, environmental and administrative law. He holds a Masters degree in Environmental Law and has practiced in the field of town planning law for over 30 years.
Gavin has been extensively involved in planning system reform and the transition to the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act regime, including the provision of advice to State and local government, the LGA and training to the sector. He is a past member of the State Heritage Council, Past Presiding Member of the Local Heritage Advisory Committee and State Planning Commission’s Building Committee and an Honorary Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia.
Rick Hutchins RPIA
Ekistics
Rick joins the Division Committee as a qualified urban planner with 25 years’ experience across strategic planning, policy development and development assessment disciplines. Rick has extensive knowledge in advising on large and complex urban projects and in local government administration. Rick is known for his calm, considered and collaborative approach.
Eleni Kiamos MPIA
ZEE CONSTRUCTIONS
Curious by nature with an appetite for continuous improvement, Eleni's earlier professional experience extends to all things property as principal and project team leader with qualifications and roles spanning construction project management, property development, design, sales and property management.
As a passionate planning professional, she thrives on contributing to 'wicked' urban planning solutions!
Stephen Smith RPIA (Fellow) | SA Board Director
Stephen Smith is the Planning Reform Partner with the Local Government Association of South Australia with over thirty years’ experience at a manager and planner working in both local and regional government, he has undergraduate and post graduate degrees in Planning and a Masters Degree in Business Administration.
Stephen’s career has seen him spend 15 years in local government both in the UK and South Australia. Between 2000 and 2016, Stephen worked with the Onkaparinga Catchment Water Management Board and the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board, as a General Manager and Director. Stephen guided the development of the first NRM Plan in South Australia which was recognised with a State and National Planning awards.
Stephen’s role with the LGA has been to support local government with the planning reforms and the implementation of the new PDI Act and P and D Code.
Stephen is a Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia and in 2017 was recognised as the South Australian Planner of the Year.
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