Gig Guide: Defence industry champion departs


Brandon How
Reporter

The Australian Industry and Defence Network’s chief executive Brent Clark has stepped down from the role after almost half a decade of lobbying for smaller suppliers.

Mr Clark took the helm of the Defence industry association in 2020, bringing with him experience from working at Thales, BAE Systems, French multinational Naval Group, and the Defence Teaming Centre, a South Australian defence industry association.

In a statement to InnovationAus.com, Mr Clark said the Australian Industry and Defence Network chief executive role “is a rare privilege” and the responsibility of advocating for the small to medium sized business community should “never be underestimated”.

“My hope remains that government can understand the importance of these highly talented, gifted, and driven individuals. The Australian defence landscape would be poorer for their absence,” Mr Clark said.

During his time in the role, Defence has made major reforms to its engagement with local industry including under Pillar II of AUKUS and the establishment of the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator.

AIDN chair Carl Quarterman this week said the industry group is in a strong position to “grow and build the organisation” thanks to Mr Clark. A replacement chief executive has yet to be appointed.

Mr Clark continues to sit on the board of Hockey Australia, Australian Maritime College, and Sydney-based Sonartech.

Former chief executive of the Australian Industry and Defence Network Brent Clark. Image: AIDN

At the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, data governance special advisor Alicja Mosbauer has been made acting chief data officer as the department marks one and a half years of a four-year $254 million tech uplift.

Ms Mosbauer was formerly chief data officer at IP Australia between 2022 and 2024.

At the Infrastructure department Michael Gregory has been promoted to assistant secretary for local government, regional intelligence and data.

Kingston AI Group, a collection for AI research experts and innovators, has welcomed University of Queensland (UQ) computer science Professor Shazia Sadiq to the group. Professor Saqiq is the director of the Australian Research Council Industry Transformation Training Centre for Information Resilience and the inaugural director of the UQ AI Collaboratory.

The 2024 Pearcey medal has been awarded to Applied Artificial Intelligence Institute co-director and Deakin university distinguished Professor Svetha Venkatesh.

The advocacy foundation also inducted Professor Andrew Dzurak and Autism Academy for Software Quality Assurance mentor and trainer Jan Kornweibel into the Pearcey hall of fame.

Dr Holly Stemp, the lead author on a world-first quantum computing breakthrough published earlier this year, has moved from the University of New South Wales to Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The former innovation director for the Western Australian government Charlie Gunningham has joined Bloom, an entrepreneurship network and support program, as an adviser. Mr Gunningham has also recently been appointed to the head of advocacy group StartupWA and the government’s Innovation Advisory Board.

Grant Dooley officially stepped down as chief executive of Breakthrough Victoria this week. He announced his intention to leave the state government-backed venture capital fund in August.

The new chief executive of IT services company NRI ANZ will be Kaylene O’Brien from December 2. Ms O’Brien was previously chief executive and managing director for consultancy Capgemini and a managing partner for Deloitte Consulting.

At the University of South Australia, Dr Michelle Perugini has been appointed head of commercialisation and chief executive of UniSA Ventures.

She is the founder of a predictive analytics solution that has since been acquired by EY, and AI IVF tool developer Presagen, now a part of global medical equipment manufacturer Astec.

The new global head of sustainability and impact at Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners is Hilkka Komulainen, who will be based in London. Quinbrook is a large investor in green industry projects in Australia, including a proposed green iron project in Queensland.

Update: November 25, 2024

A previous version of this story incorrectly said Grant Dooley had stepped down from the Breakthrough Victoria board. He has stepped down from his role as CEO.

Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.

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