Matt Nelson has served his first week as Rural City of Wangaratta CEO and he's excited about the prospects for the city.

CEO of a local council has been a long-held ambition for a man who started in council back in the days of the Delatite Shire and progressed through an impressive list of governmental roles.

During this time he has worked with the Rural City of Wangaratta extensively in helping with local projects like the Ned Kelly Alive initiative and Ride High Country, known as the North East Victorian Cycle Optimisation project.

He also worked with viticulturalists on Prosecco Road, and with Nestd on yet to be built 175-apartment housing development on Greta Road.

Over the last couple of years Mr Nelson has gone from Regional Development Victoria to Transport and Planning as acting land coordinator general.

"This is very much about how all government land and how surplus land can be used primarily for housing but for other policy outcomes as well," he said.

"I've always had an ambition to be a local government CEO and when the opportunity came up at Wangaratta it was really exciting."

Mr Nelson sees the potential for Wangaratta to grow above its existing 30,169 residents because of its location, ties to viticulture, and tourism attributes.

But to build on a population, there must be social and physical infrastructure to match, including housing to accommodate the workforce.

"I'd like to think we could do better than some of the growth projections we see," he said.

"It will be about working with the hospital and major employers as to how we attract the workforce that's required.

"Part of that will also come back to the livability and the infrastructure that we have and that's why I think Northeast Health do such a great job.

"Part of that is the business case for investment to come, but also part of that is the infrastructure for retention and attraction of the workforce as well."

Through his experience, Mr Nelson said the supply of accommodation for the local workforce is a factor that all regions have struggled with.

"From my previous role I'm really keen to look at opportunities with government land that we might be able to work through a long-term arrangement and the use of modular methods of construction where they could be quickly built," he said.

"There would be leasehold opportunities as well to build that workforce."

Mr Nelson is very conscious about working with organisations and businesses to build on the whole of municipality vision and conversation.

"There is an advocacy piece with state and federal governments as well," he said.

From a community perspective, Mr Nelson noted that people have different views about what council should be doing and it was important for council to continue engagement with the people who live and work in this city.

Mr Nelson has already bought a house and lives in Wangaratta and continues his involvement as president of North East Bushrangers basketball.