Viewed as one of the more moderate voices on council, Daniel Moloney is the first Labor Party member to become mayor since Des Hudson was elected to the role five years ago.
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It is also the first time since then that the city has had a mayor aligned with the governing state political party.
His professional background is in communications, which means he should feel comfortable making the transition to being the council's principal spokesperson.
A journalist during his early career, he moved into public relations in the early 2000s and went on to become a communications manager for John Holland construction group, then V/Line. Now aged 45, he has told The Courier he will work full-time as mayor but would stay involved with Grounded Communications, the company that he co-founded in 2012.
During the previous council, a group that faced some significant tensions especially in its final year, he was seen as a conciliator. Publicly and privately, he tends to be diplomatic. He prefers to keep people onside rather than at loggerheads - and broadly manages to do so.
Whether or not this allows him to make and lead on tough decisions is likely to define his time as mayor.
In the early stages of this new council and with the changed dynamics of the group, he should - in theory at least - have a relatively easy ride with the new personalities on board during the next 12 months.
He has spent most of his life in Ballarat, where he was raised in Wendouree and went to Forest Street Primary School. His teenage years were spent in Haddon, while his education continued at Ballarat High School where he was a member of the Head of the Lake winning coxed four team in 1993.
Leaving for university in Melbourne in the late 1990s, he returned to Ballarat in 2011 and maintains strong links to his old high school.
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He has coached rowing squads there for a number of years; his eldest son, now 20, attended the school while his second son is a current pupil.
This year, he publicly shared the fact he is bisexual, a decision he told The Courier he wished he had taken earlier due to how accepting he found the response.
On a number of issues, Cr Moloney has shown himself as among the more progressive of the elected representatives. He became a staunch supporter of the January 26 Survivor Day ceremony held at Lake Wendouree for the first time this year.
With stimulus one of the priorities of the council given the damage wreaked by COVID-19, Cr Moloney will no doubt focus the council on projects that can give the most economic benefit to the community. He has said that one of the big lessons he has drawn from his first term in council is the need to scope out projects in detail.
Expect him to keep a careful tab on council's project management, as far as he is able in his role as mayor (under local government law, councillors are not allowed to be involved in the operational detail of council).
He is also likely to take a pragmatic stance on planning matters and the enduring Ballarat debate about heritage and development. Listen out for a vocal push for in-fill development in the CBD, as well as a renewed effort to market the city beyond its boundaries to new potential businesses and residents.
On a heritage note, this year he was criticised for not supporting the restoration of the destroyed Lydiard Street railway gates strongly enough. However, it was his motion balancing the push for heritage and safety, that eventually was passed unanimously - an indication of an ability to find common ground.
With a diverse council around him - three Liberal Party members, a Labor Party colleague, a Green and three independents - that is a trait he will no doubt need to call upon many times.
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Want to know Cr Moloney's ideas for stimulating recovery in Ballarat? Read this opinion piece from early September
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