John Glover told the Otago Daily Times said the win - defeating incumbent Glyn Lewers - was "incredibly exciting".
"There's a very clear message sent by the community that they want change, and if you don't listen to the community, you do so at your peril."
He also outlined some of his goals.
"Getting our heads in order, starting the journey to restore trust and to help communities rather than hinder them and take them with us on the journey as we face some really difficult challenges going forward."
Having so many new councillors was a positive, he said.
"What we've seen is quite a change around the council table. There's quite a few people who haven't been returned councillors and there's a lot of new blood."
"I think that gives us really good opportunities for fresh thinking but of course, there's many years of experience that is already going to be coming back to that council table."
"So having that balance of experience and the balance of fresh thinking gives us great opportunities going forward."
Based on initial progress results with about 85% of returned votes counted but excluding special votes and votes in transit, Mr Glover received 3449 votes to defeat Mr Lewers, who received 2635 votes.
The other mayoral candidates’ results so far are Nik Kiddle (1629 votes), Darren Rewi (1236 votes), Al Angus (712 votes), and Daniel Shand (93 votes).
In the Arrowtown-Kawarau Ward, incumbent Lisa Guy has lost her seat, while Melissa White was returned to the council with 1267 votes.
The other successful candidates were former one-term councillor Heath Copland (1510 votes) and newcomer Samuel ‘Q’ Belk (1349 votes).
In the Queenstown-Whakatipu Ward, Matt Wong (1744 votes) and Gavin Bartlett (1537 votes) held on to their seats, while four-term councillor Craig Ferguson was ousted.
The newcomers are Stephen Brent (1437 votes) and Jon Mitchell (1307 votes).
In the Wānaka-Upper Clutha Ward, incumbents Barry Bruce, Lyal Cocks and Cody Tucker lost their seats, while deputy mayor Quentin Smith (2722 votes) and incumbent Queenstown-Whakatipu ward councillor Niki Gladding (2256 votes) were returned to the council table.
The new councillors are Nicola King (2833 votes) and Yeverley McCarthy (1707 votes).
In the Wānaka-Upper Clutha community board, the results are Simon Telfer (3186 votes), Kathy Dedo (3081), John Wellington (2380 votes) and Chris Hadfield (1871 votes).
The provisional voter return is 32.93%, being 10,248 votes, with final results expected by Thursday.
In a statement, Mr Glover said he was ‘‘humbled by the decision of our electorate to put their trust in me to lead the change urgently required in our district alongside our other successful candidates’’.
"This has only been possible because of the time, energy and enthusiasm provided by my campaign supporters who believed I was the right person for the job and also because my wife, Toni, added a huge amount of heavy lifting to the amount she already does whilst I was out on the campaign trail.
"From today, we start the process of restoring trust in council.
He said rebuilding trust involved listening and acting on what was said by residents, doing the right thing for communities and spending ratepayer money as if it was their own.
"To do that we need a great team to form around the council table. We will restore effective governance and oversight of the organisation by elected representatives who are empowered to be the best they can be in that role.
"We will re-focus council to become the public service organisation it is supposed to be. It will serve the public, not hinder them. Provide information, not hide it.
"We will apply a laser sharp financial focus and review the culture of financial practices in order to minimise rates increases."
