The CSIRO’s former deputy chief scientist Dr Jill Freyne is now Amazon Web Services’ healthcare industry manager, her first private sector role since joining the national science agency 15 years ago.
Dr Freyne stepped down from her role as CSIRO deputy chief scientist in July after serving for more than two years. She was also previously CSIRO’s Australian e-Health Research Centre deputy chief executive and research director.
Before joining the CSIRO, Dr Freyne spent a year at IBM supporting the tech giant’s first work on recommender systems technology.
In a LinkedIn post Dr Freyne said “it feels like a full circle moment to bring my recommender systems and AI training, more than a decade of research establishing the evidence base for health tech disruption and extensive public sector experience to join AWS”.
She continues to sit on Griffith University’s industry advisory board and remains the NSW Smart Sensing Network’s deputy board chair.
Shadow minister for government services and the digital economy Paul Fletcher announced on Tuesday that he will not contest the next election. Mr Fletcher was formerly Communications minister between 2019 and 2022, initially serving as parliamentary secretary to the Communications minister between 2013 and 2015.
During his time in government Mr Fletcher helped deliver the Office of the eSafety Commissioner, the Mobile Black Spots Program, the News Media Bargaining Code, and a digital games tax offset.
After a break, Mr Fletcher will return to the private sector, focusing on the communications, digital technology, infrastructure and transport sectors, according to a statement.
The Queensland government’s chief customer and digital officer Chris McLaren will step down after a three-year stint next Thursday as the state government’s customer and digital group is subsumed into the new Department of Customer Service, Open Data, Small and Family Business.
At the National Anti-Corruption Commission former High Court of Australia justice Geoffrey Nettle has been appointed to independently reconsider its decision not to investigate referrals from the Robodebt Royal Commission.
The University of Wollongong’s new vice-chancellor and president will be Professor Max Lu from May 2025. Professor Lu is currently vice-chancellor of the University of Surrey in England.
He is also a member for the United Kingdom Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology and a former member of the Australian Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council.
Alice Dawkins, executive director of digital rights advocacy group Reset.Tech Australia, has stepped down to take on a “non public-facing role”, she said on LinkedIn. The group had been an ongoing advocate for a Children’s Privacy Code, which was passed into law on the last parliamentary sitting day of 2024.
Six board members have been appointed to the new Net Zero Economy Authority, which was officially established on Wednesday, to join chair Dr Iain Ross.
Among the appointees are former Infrastructure department secretary and NEC Australia chair Mike Mrdak, Climateworks Centre chief executive Anna Skarbek, and Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil.
The other members are Mining and Energy Union president Tony Maher, Pollination managing director Zoe Whitton, and University of Technology Sydney Professor Robynne Quiggin.
Former Reserve Bank of Australia deputy governor Dr Guy Debelle has been appointed to the board of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. Dr Debelle previously spent a year and a half as chief financial officer at the now-defunct Fortescue Future Industries.
Two new board members have been appointed at FinTech Australia, Jodi Ross and Jodie Imam. Ms Ross is a former senior public servant and the chief risk and compliance officer of Tiimely while Ms Imam is the co-founder and chief executive of Tractor Ventures.
Former NSW customer service and digital government minister Victor Dominello has joined the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change as a senior adviser. He is also chair of the Services Australia and MyGov Independent Advisory Panel.
The Western Australian government has appointed 10 members to an industry advisory board for the Clean Energy Skills National Centre of Excellence. It is being chaired by Matthew Cheney, the executive manager for transition and sustainability at the state’s electricity grid operator Western Power.
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