Gig Guide: Defence data chief off to ANZ


Brandon How
Reporter

Defence’s chief data integration officer of 18 months Dr Maria Milosavljevic will leave the department to take up the role of chief information security officer at ANZ on August 28.

Dr Milosavljevic replaces Lynwen Connick, who retires in October following a six-year stint at ANZ and an extensive public sector career across the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Defence, and the Australian Signals Directorate.

Before joining Defence last year, Dr Milosavljevic was the chief information security officer and chief data officer at Services Australia for more than three years and spent two years as the New South Wales government’s inaugural chief information security officer.

She has also held the CISO role at AUSTRAC and the former Australian Crime Commission (now Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission).

ANZ group executive technology and group services Gerard Florian said Dr Milosavljevic’s experience will be “invaluable” in protecting the bank and its customers.

“She has a track record of building and running cyber, data and analytics operations and brings to ANZ wide and deep connections with the cyber security community locally and internationally. Maria’s experience will be invaluable in continuing to protect both ANZ and our customers,” Mr Florian said.

Dr Maria Milosavljevic. Image: Humanising Machine Intelligence

An external advisory panel has been appointed to oversee the implementation of the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) recommendations, which will be co-chaired by DSR independent leads, Stephen Smith and Angus Houston.

Former Department of Defence secretary Dennis Richardson, former Department of Finance secretary Rosemary Huxtable, and former Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade deputy secretary Richard Maude have been appointed to the Panel.

Former Defence deputy secretary of intelligence and security and now consultant, Stephen Merchant, has been brought in to conduct a post-implementation review of the myClearance automated vetting system rollout. He has undertaken an initial review of remediation work taken by Defence.

The chief executive of the Gold Corporation, parent firm of the Perth Mint, Jason Waters has resigned to take up the chief executive role at Perth Airport. Mr Waters was previously the chief executive of state-owned energy company Synergy for eight years.

The Western Australian government is currently considering privatising Perth Mint following a series of controversies, including the sale of insufficiently pure gold to China.

Academy of Science president Professor Chennupati Jagadish has been awarded the 2023 Thomas D. Callinan Award of the Diectric Science and Technology Division by the United States-based professional association, The Electrochemical Society.

Professor Jagadish is the Australian National University’s head of Semiconductor Optoelectronics and Nanotechnology Group.

Former University of New South Wales (UNSW) Energy Institute chief executive Justine Jarvine has been appointed to the board of the UNSW Foundation. She is currently managing principal, sustainability and climate change at engineering consultancy Aurecon.

Ms Jarvine has extensive board experience, currently also serving on the board of energy management tech platform Wattwatchers and the Port Authority of New South Wales.

The new chief financial officer of Fortescue Metals Group is Christine Morris, who will commence in early July. She brings more than 30 years of global experience, most recently as chief financial officer of Maersk Drilling in Copenhagen, Denmark. Former CFO Ian Wells resigned in January.

Rachel Short has been appointed branch head at the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

Renewable energy infrastructure investment fund Octopus Investments Australia has appointed Lee Mrnjavac as an investment director.

Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.

Leave a Comment

Related stories