Mrs Bower comes to the role after working extensively in the university sector, and after overseeing the successful Blue Derby Mountain Trails as project manager.

The new position will see her take control of the consortium of Bell Bay manufacturing companies working together to promote greater economic growth in the region.

The Regional Development Australia-backed consortium includes companies such as Bell Bay Aluminium, South32 Temco, AP Kempe Engineering, CPT Engineering and Ecka Granules.

Mrs Bower said one of the primary functions of the Bell Bay Manufacturing Precinct project was for companies to pool their resources to increase production efficiency, while also teaming up to enhance each company’s individual purchasing power. 

RDA director Craig Perkins said Mrs Bowers would also help companies join forces to take on contracts that the manufacturing plants would not be able to tackle individually.

“By themselves there are a lot of contracts out there that are too big for [the individual Bell Bay companies], he said. 

“If they put a joint bid together there’s a lot of work they could access that is currently not on the radar for them.”

Bell Bay Manufacturing Precinct sub-committee president, and Bell Bay Aluminium chief executive, Ray Mostogl said the joint venture was underpinned by a need for the local economy to be “more resilient”.

Mr Mostogl said it was essential that regional towns were not overly reliant on a few large companies, and were able to build greater business profiles for locally-owned manufacturers.

“We’ve got a common purpose, and that common purpose is to make a resilient, robust economy [that is] less dependent on a couple of big players,” he said.

“The reality is that for many of the small-to-medium sized businesses is that the owners are flat out in the running of the business.

“Susie will be the catalyst to look over the parapet and see an opportunity and help to make that happen.

“These businesses can then grow.”