I feel privileged to be associated with the Leading Agenda Forum Series run by Barr Planning in partnership with The University of Newcastle’s Faculty of Business & Law.  This is a premier leadership forum enabling open dialogue and the exchange of ideas between CEOs, MDs and other business and community leaders, academics and postgraduate students from the MBA Program at UON. The high caliber of speakers at these events continues to energise and elevate the thinking and practices of all participants. Cutting across multiple industries and discipline areas, the Leading Agenda Forum Series showcases outstanding leadership practices from around the Hunter and around Australia.  Congratulations Stephen Barr for initiating and running this important educational and executive development initiative.

Thank you for your outstanding service and personal support over the past four years through the planning approval process of BlackRock Motor Park.

The complexity of the planning process was extraordinary and you and your team helped navigate a path forward with Lake Macquarie City Council to achieve an approved Development Application. Importantly, the Development Application consent you achieved was done so while maintaining the integrity of the desired commercial outcomes and minimising any adverse conditions and compromises.

For such a complex project, this is nothing short of an outstanding result.

You and your team have been an integral part of the BlackRock project and I look forward to continuing to work together on future stages of this project as well as other projects in the future.

As we execute our strategy to simplify Fusion Civil, moving our operations to Warnervale and removing 26 sets of traffic lights from our frequented routes is a key step for us.  Barr Planning delivered for us, Stephen and Laura are capable of transitioning between strategy and detail elements of the approval process seamlessly.  Their experience, process planning and approachability made the glacial progress through council less painful.

Thanks again for all your help during this project, Pacific National have been extremely happy with the performance of you and your company, and very much look forward to working with yourself again in the future.

I would like to attest to the professional and friendly services provided by Barr Planning on our recently completed $30,000,000 bulk storage development at Kooragang Island, Newcastle.

We found the Barr Planning team to be thorough and descriptive in their actions and we appreciated their willingness to understand the development goals and facility use so better representation could be provided.

This project had varying levels of complexity and was presented for approval through an unprecedented time for the local authorities however Barr planning showed great flexibility and were relentless in achieving a positive outcome for all stakeholders.

Barr Planning would be my first call in any future development in this region.

The Leading Agenda forum is a wonderful initiative hosted by Barr Planning that brings leaders from the Hunter together to discuss and champion ideas to take our organisations and our region forward in great leadership. One of the strengths of Hunter leadership is the wide diversity of industries present in the region, from which to share ideas, challenges, and learning. The Leading Agenda forum ensures there is a space for leaders from across these industries to connect, network, and challenge our own biases, beliefs, and leadership practices. I look forward to learning from more inspiring Hunter leaders in future forums, especially as we navigate huge changes to workplaces, leadership, and management this year.