The new secretary of the New South Wales Department of Customer Service is Graeme Head, who moves from his role as partner at EY’s strategic advisory arm Port Jackson Partners.
Before joining Port Jackson Partners, Mr Head was a senior public servant in the federal and NSW governments. He was most recently the inaugural NDIS Quality and Safeguard Commissioner.
At the state level, Mr Head was previously the inaugural NSW Public Service Commissioner and director general of the former NSW Department of Commerce. He was also deputy director general of the former NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet and held several other chief executive positions.
NSW Customer Service and Digital Government minister Jihad Dib said he looks forward to working with Mr Head to “realise our priorities for community-focused outcomes and digital innovation”. Mr Head will begin in the role on November 25.
Mr Dib also thanked outgoing secretary Emma Hogan for her four years in the role “through a period of significant challenges including natural disasters and the pandemic”.
The Department of Industry, Science, and Resources is looking for a new chief data officer and general manager, data and evaluation, to replace Kayelle Drinkwater, who joined the Department of Social Services as branch manager, data access in September.
Ms Drinkwater has been in the role at DISR and its predecessor since August 2018.
Acting in the roles while the search for a replacement is undertaken is Scott Clouder. Mr Clouder has spent the last seven months as manager for data capability and reporting, and served as assistant manager for two years before that.
The University of Melbourne’s genesis pre-seed fund investment committee has found a new chair in LaunchVic chief executive Kate Cornick. Ms Cornick has been chief executive for LaunchVic since November 2016 and has also been a council member of Charles Sturt University since February 2018.
AUCloud founder Phil Dawson has tendered his resignation at Canberra-based cloud infrastructure and cybersecurity provider AUCloud as his family has decided to spend more time in the United Kingdom. Mr Dawson founded the company in 2017 and will formerly leave at the end of March 2024.
Last month October, the Industry Innovation and Science Australia’s cooperative research centres advisory committee found two new members: University of Queensland’s Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation director Professor Neena Mitter and Australian Information Security Association chair and PEXA general manager open data regulation Damien Manuel.
The government has appointed five members to its Competition Taskforce Advisory Panel, joining previously announced members former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Rod Sims and Productivity Commission chair Danielle Wood.
They are experienced private and public infrastructure executive Kerry Schott, Armen A. Alchian Chair in Economic Theory at the University of California John Asker, former head of King and Wood Mallesons’ competition law and regulatory group Sharon Henrick, University of NSW chair and investment bank Barrenjoey’s chair David Gonski, and former chief executive of the United Kingdom’s Office of Fair Trading and former head of the Irish Competition Authority John Fingleton. Ms Schott will chair the panel.
Former federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry Andrew Metcalfe is the new Institute of Public Administration Australia national president. Mr Metcalfe replaces Charles Sturt University vice chancellor and former Department of Human Services secretary Professor Renée Leon who was in the role since July 2022.
The new chief executive of the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator is Dr Natalie Pelham, who moves from her role as chief investigator at the NSW Office of Transport Safety Investigations, which she has served as since January 2021.
