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Olympics village manager gets a new gig in Abu Dhabi

July 20th, 2009 · 23 Comments

Jody Andrews, a former favourite at city hall who resigned from his job as Southeast False Creek project manager only a couple of months after Vision Vancouver took over at 12th and Cambie, has landed a new job in Abu Dhabi.

According to one of my sources, “he will basically be charge of implementation of all the big projects related to planning in Abu Dhabi as he is now working for the Urban Planning Council. His first and current assignment is to be responsible for implementation of the new national Capatal District, which is to be implemented in record time.”

That all ought to make the Olympic village project feel like peanuts and perhaps take the sting out of how things ended here. For those who don’t recall, Andrews resigned shortly after the VV crew came and put city manager Penny Ballem in charge. Although he never said anything publicly, rumour had it that he was unhappy about being sidelined.

His decision to leave hit a lot of people at city hall negatively — although Olympic critics blamed him for having let the village get to the financial mess it did, others saw him as an example of the kind of bright, energetic, creative young manager that the hall desperately needed NOT to lose.

I’d been hearing for quite a while that Jody was considering either Abu Dhabi or project management at the new TimberWest development on Vancouver Island. Looks like he picked the former. At least he won’t feel lonely there, with all the Vancouver city hall types either working or visiting there these days.


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