After almost eight and a half years, South Australia’s chief data officer Peter Worthington-Eyre has farewelled the South Australian government.
Mr Worthington, who finishes up on Friday, is the second senior data and digital executive to leave the Department of Premier and Cabinet in recent months, following long-time chief information officer Eva Balan-Vnuk.
In a post on LinkedIn, Mr Worthington praised his team’s achievements, stating that although “we weren’t ones for the limelight, [we] did important work… behind the scenes and behind closed doors”.
He added that while not all of what he set out to achieve was finished, the work should help “governments use vast data assets for better decision making, help break down silos between departments and foster collaboration for better outcomes across the state”.
Services Australia has advertised for a chief data officer, a post-robodebt measure that will see a new person appointed to the role following several interim acting chiefs, currently Tenille Collins.
The selected candidate will focus on “extracting actionable insights from the agency’s core data assets”, as well as taking responsibility for data governance, reporting, analysis and data science for the agency.
According to the advertisement, this role could be either ongoing or have a fixed term and is a senior executive band level 2, which attracts salaries above $300,000 per year.
A spokesperson for the agency confirmed that the role had remained in the hands of several acting chiefs since the former chief Garrett McDonald moved sideways into an interim role as general manager of the Rapid Response Team, subsequently moving to the chief information office as general manager cybersecurity.
Former BAE Systems Australia chief executive Ben Hudson has joined Hanwha Defence Australia as managing director. His experience within private enterprise as well as serving in the Australian Army is expected to play a pivotal role in driving Hanwha Defence Australia’s delivery of key Australian defence programs.
As reported by InnovationAus.com, nanotech researcher and RMIT University commercialisation leader Sharath Sriram has been named Western Australia’s new chief scientist — its first new top science advisor in more than a decade.
Physicist, tech business founder and former CSIRO commercialisation specialist Ilana Feain started as Tech Council of Australia’s (TCA) new head of research this month. Ms Feain brings experience growing deep tech and emerging industries, having founded and run Big Science Advisory and Quasar Satellite Technologies.
Michelle Simmons, the renowned physicist and Silicon Quantum Computing founder, meanwhile, has joined the TCA’s board, bringing new hardware and manufacturing experience to its mostly software ranks.
Existing TCA board members, Canva co-founder Cliff Obrecht and CultureAmp founder Didier Elzinga, have also been re-appointed for a further three-year term.
Emeritus Professor Rosalind Croucher AM, distinguished lawyer, educator and human rights advocate has been appointed the NSW Information Commissioner.
Microsoft’s long time global chief privacy officer Julie Brill will depart the company after nearly eight years in July. Ms Brill also announced her intentions to launch a consultancy, with her first client being Microsoft.
Optus has appointed Pieter van der Merwe as its new chief security and risk officer.
Former Optus chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin has joined Australian fintech Airwallex’s board along with former Optus acting chief Michael Vente.
With Justin Hendry
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