Doug Gilchrist, Kelowna's new city manager, is pictured in this submitted photo. SUBMITTED/City of Kelowna

Kelowna replaces city manager with internal hire

KELOWNA – The city has gone internal in replacing its city manager, choosing veteran divisional director Doug Gilchrist.

City council announced the selection of Gilchrist in press release, lauding the veteran adminstrator for his previous roles as director of real estate and manger of community development before that.

Gilchrist is a graduate of UBC’s Saunder School in urban land economics who joined the city in 2004, the release says.

One of his largest profile projects has been the direction of Kelowna’s involvement in the acquisition of the former CN Rail right-of-way and the development of the Okanagan Rail Trail.

Former city manager Ron Mattiussi retired in March after a lengthy career. Gilchrist was selected after four-month executive search.

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John McDonald

John McDonald

John began life as a journalist through the Other Press, the independent student newspaper for Douglas College in New Westminster. The fluid nature of student journalism meant he was soon running the place, learning on the fly how to publish a newspaper.

It wasn’t until he moved to Kelowna he broke into the mainstream media, working for Okanagan Sunday, then the Kelowna Daily Courier and Okanagan Saturday doing news graphics and page layout. He carried on with the Kelowna Capital News, covering health and education while also working on special projects, including the design and launch of a mass market daily newspaper. After 12 years there, John rejoined the Kelowna Daily Courier as editor of the Westside Weekly, directing news coverage as the Westside became West Kelowna.

But digital media beckoned and John joined Kelowna.com as assistant editor and reporter, riding the start-up as it at first soared then went down in flames. Now John is turning dirt as city hall reporter for iNFOnews.ca where he brings his long experience to bear on the civic issues of the day.

If you have a story you think people should know about, email John at jmcdonald@infonews.ca

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