Eyre Peninsula Local Government Association president and Whyalla mayor Jim Pollock will chair the board with Eyre Regional Development Board (ERDB) chair Jeff Pearson taking on the role of deputy chair.

The 14 member board includes ERDB board members Glenn Karutz, Lester Marshall and Diedrie Turvey, Angela Gray from the Department for Environment and Heritage, Whyalla Economic Development Board (WEDB) chairman Paul Johnston, Annette Kirby, UniSA Centre for Regional Engagement director Professor Neil Otway, OneSteel Whyalla chief executive Mark Parry and Alternative Port Working Party chairman Sidney Wilson.

The local government members are Cleve mayor Allan Edwards, Ceduna mayor Allan Suter, Mr Pollock and Whyalla councillor Jack Velthuizen.

Now that the board members have been appointed Mr Pollock and Mr Pearson will work with government on the transition to RDA and how the Eyre and Western RDA will be structured.

Mr Pollock said the ERDB and WEDB had both been very successful and the boards did not want that to change because they needed to make the most of economic opportunities for Eyre Peninsula.

He hoped the transition to the new board would be reasonably smooth and although there may be some "potholes" along the way he was confident the board members would have the RDA running professionally very quickly.

Under the new Regional Development Australia the State's 13 development boards and area consultative committees will be replaced by seven RDAs.