The South Australian government has appointed experienced mandarin Peter Meere as the inaugural director of the state’s newly established Office for Artificial Intelligence.
Mr Meere joined the office earlier this month from the state’s Department for Education, where he was most recently leading the policy response to artificial intelligence across public schools.
The Office for AI was set up in July following a $28 million Budget pledge for a “proof of value program that will target “high priority areas” like healthcare, policing, allied health and social work.
Announcing the appointment on Friday, Assistant Minister for AI, Digital Economy, Defence and Space Industries Michael Brown said Mr Meere was an “accomplished leader” who would drive the government “strategic and responsible adoption of AI”.
“Peter’s decades of experience in innovation and change within the sector, along with
his deep insights into the challenges faced by both technology companies and
government departments will be invaluable as we accelerate forward,” he said.
Before joining the state’s Department for Education, Mr Meere worked at in the Australian Public Services, including the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Attorney-General’s Department.
Optus has announced a significant leadership refresh, naming Andy Giles Knopp as its incoming chief financial officer and John McInerney as its next chief information officer
The appointments come ahead of a Senate inquiry into last month’s Triple Zeron outage that has been linked with three deaths.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has launched a recruitment campaign to find a permanent chief information security officer within its Security and Information Assurance Branch.
Craig Lindenmayer has held the role on an acting basis since the departure of Julian Doak earlier this year. Mr Doak joined at the Australian National University as CISO in March.
As reported earlier this week, Tech Council of Australia chief executive Damian Kassabgi will leave the role early next year. The Byron Bay-based exec said he is hoping to spend more time with his young family.
Australian Signal Directorate veteran Jessica Hunter has been named Australia’s new Ambassador for Cyber Affairs and Critical Technology, also reported by InnovationAus.com.
Gordon Flake has been nominated as the next Ambassador to Japan, replacing outgoing Ambassador Richard Court. The nomination comes as Australia deepens its strategic and economic engagement in the Indo-Pacific region.
DroneShield has strengthened its technology leadership team with the appointment of Angus Harris as chief technology officer and the transition of long-standing executive Angus Bean into the role of chief product officer.
The counter-drone device-maker said the reshuffle “reflects the company’s continued growth and organisational maturity as it scales to meet accelerating global demand across defence and government markets”.
Mr Harris brings experience from Thales Group and the Department of Defence, with a track record that “includes overseeing national communications and control system deployments including Sydney Metro.”
Mr Bean will focus on “advancing the company’s global product vision and long-term technology roadmap, ensuring that innovation, engineering capability, and customer outcomes remain tightly aligned”.
With Justin Hendry
Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.