DARREN Cooper will join Peet Ltd as chief operating officer in February next year, a position recently vacated by Brendan Gore following his promotion to managing director and chief executive. For the past 10 years, Mr Cooper has held senior roles at Mirvac WA including the last four and a half years as development director. Mr Cooper is also a former president of the Urban Development Institute of Australia (WA) and has served as a member of the WA Planning Commission’s Coastal Planning and Coordination Council and the Port Kennedy Management Board. He holds a bachelor of business degree from Curtin University, a graduate diploma in business (finance) and a masters in applied finance from Macquarie University. In September, the company announced its first major move into New South Wales with the acquisition of a 30-hectare parcel of land in Flinders near Wollongong, with approval for 241 residential lots and six medium density sites. “Peet’s growth and ability to deliver quality results to our investors is in no small part due to the highly skilled and committed team we’ve built and continue to build,” Mr Gore said. It also recently completed the successful acquisition of three major properties in Queensland, bringing to 12 the total number of projects owned or managed by Peet in the state.