Tahni Froudist will become general manager at the Wodonga-based organisation next month.

The bachelor of arts management graduate will be the first permanent general manager of HotHouse since the departure of Bernadette Haldane in early 2012.

Ms Froudist said she was aware of HotHouse’s reputation through Belvoir collaborations with shows she has worked on such as I’m Your Man and Stories I Want to Tell You In Person, which was staged this month on the Border.

“I’m really excited to be joining the company,” Ms Froudist said.

“It’s an interesting time to be joining as it looks to have more of a national focus again and looks to re-establish itself as a hothouse of writing.”

HotHouse artistic director Jon Halpin said a successful funding deal with Victorian arts authorities, which runs until 2016, had aided the appointment, with the Border organisation unwilling to fill the role without long-term certainty.

Mr Halpin and Ms Froudist will be joint chief executives with the former responsible for artistic matters and the latter for finance and administrative issues.

HotHouse chairman Paul McGill expects Ms Froudist to boost the reputation of the company.

“We are thrilled to welcome Tahni to HotHouse and are sure she will make an outstanding contribution to the company over the next few years,” Mr McGill said.

Ms Froudist grew up in Balingup, a village of just a few hundred people south of Bunbury in Western Australia.

“My dad is a musician and my mum is a teacher and I’ve always said I had a passion for arts and lists that made arts management the career for me,” she said.

Ms Froudist, a graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, will begin her new job on April 28.