[3] Town's first leadership role was at Wanganui Regional Community Polytechnic from 1994 to 1998, making him the country's youngest chief executive at that time.
Te Pūkenga council member Peter Winder assumed the position of chief executive in his absence.
The newspaper also reported that a memo by Tertiary Education Commission deputy chief executive Gillian Dudgeon had identified several problems facing the mega polytechnic including a lack of leadership, a deficit of NZ$110 million (which exceeded the organisation's budget of NZ$57.5 million), and declining enrollments in the 2022 academic year.
"[9] In response, the opposition National Party's tertiary education spokesperson Penny Simmonds suggested that Town's departure on "special leave" reflected problems with the Government's plans to merge the polytechnics into a mega entity.
[10] In mid-August 2022, Simmonds alleged that Town had been "shoulder-tapped" for the role of CEO of Te Pūkenga and lodged an Official Information Act request into the mega polytechnic's chief executive recruitment process.