The Dunedin city council's chief executive is leaving after only two years for a bigger job in Wales.
Paul Orders arrived from his home city of Cardiff to head the Dunedin council in September 2011 after an international recruitment process.
Mr Orders is widely credited with turning the council's finances around and helping it tackle an unsustainable debt burden.
Cardiff Council says Mr Orders has been appointed its next chief executive as it tries to adjust to what it calls an unprecedented financial squeeze.
Cardiff is about three times the size of Dunedin, and the council has about 18,000 staff.
