2022 Wrap

After 29 years as WCG's founder and leader, Michael Wolter stepped down as Managing Director, leaving behind an incredible legacy.

In his stead, WCG appointed Dan Best as CEO in February. Immediately, Dan has proven to be a hands-on leader dedicated to success-orientated leadership and focussed on getting the best out of our People and the business.

We also were excited to announce our new board with Natalie Rayment and Andrew Crawford, appointed Co-Chairs of the Board of Directors, and Bruce Williams and Brad Jones, long term senior executives of WCG, joining as new Directors of the Board. Along with the appointment of seven new shareholders, from within the current team, this new leadership affirms and strengthens our commitment to the Company’s vision to plan, design and deliver creative, sustainable, and successful solutions for our community and our clients.

This year, WCG continued to grow. We celebrated the official launch of our Sunshine Coast office and, more recently, established a Gold Coast presence. We believe that the establishment of these two offices will allow us to better serve our valued clients in the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast regions, as well as the surrounding LGA's.

We also welcomed many new faces to the Wolter's family including Dan, Keana, Sarah, Riley, Anna, Kelly, Monty, Hugo, Louise, Sharron, Matt and Jess.  

Our planning team had some great project success - chosen to provide planning services for Cairns Regional Council as they develop the Towards 2050 Growth Strategy. This winning team, known as the 'Towards 2050 Collective', is led by Wolter Consulting Group and comprises of Rough Plan, Kerry Riethmuller, Leisa Prowse Consulting, Urban Economics, Cred Consulting, and SLR Consulting. Winning this tender is a major coup for WCG, and a big congratulations is due to all female project team.

Many of our amazing staff also celebrated career milestones this year. Marnie Wood was promoted to Senior Planner, Michael Dargusch was elevated to Technical Director of Planning, and Carolyn Waters was elevated to Director Finance and Corporate Services. After many years of hard work, Glenn Hanton received his cadastral endorsement, and Joel Fielding was elevated to Registered Planner by PIA. 

We were also thrilled to see the hard work of so many of our people recognised by their peers this year. Assistant Planner Keana Munro took home the award for Best Undergraduate Fourth Year Project at the UQ OOPS awards night; Senior Surveyor extraordinaire Angela Dähn collected the Advocate of Change award at the Awesome Women in Construction (AWIC) awards; and Strategic Planner Jessica Lincoln was one of three finalists in the 2022 UDIA Queensland Awards of Excellence in the Women in Leadership category. 

Additionally, the Avenues of Highfields, on which WCG delivered Survey, Design and Landscape Architecture services, received the UDIA Qld Award for Excellence - Residential Subdivision for 2022. A really positive and exciting result for our client and for the whole project team. 

We shared our knowledge and expertise through speaking engagements. Both Stephen Hayes and Waimana Kingi presented at separate Property Developer Network events, speaking about bushfire management and the development life cycle, respectively. Natalie Rayment channelled John Lennon at this year's PIA QLD State Conference in Mackay and asked attendees to 'Imagine'… a city without zoning. 

As part of our core value of Citizenship, we participated in several fundraising efforts this year. In the lead up to World Homelessness Day, we ran several initiatives to raise money for our charity of choice, Beddown, including Jersey Days and Bring Your Dog to Work day. This all culminated in Shed Your Bed on the night of World Homelessness Day, where several of our staff slept anywhere other than a bed for the night. In total we raised over $5,100 for Beddown. The month of November saw several brave souls grow their mo's in support of men's health. For those who can't grow a moustache, other activities such as Move for Movember, Fancy Shirt Friday, and a hot dog lunch helped raise over $2,800. We also ran another successful christmas food drive for the Salvation Army in December, helping to provide to those who are less fortunate at Christmas time. 

As we say goodbye to 2022, we look forward to continuing to deliver the highest level of service to our clients and discovering what's in store for 2023. Stay tuned, and watch us grow.