Marianna O’Gorman has been appointed chair of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, becoming the first woman to lead the agency in its 14-year history.
Ms O’Gorman, who co-founded the Queensland arm of public policy think tank the McKell Institute, first joined ARENA’s board in 2023, stepping up to become its deputy chair last year.
Minister for Energy Chris Bowen on Thursday announced Ms O’Gorman and Elizabeth O’Leary – who will step into the deputy chair role – would be re-appointed for three-year terms, along with existing members Ruby Heard and Dean Travers.
Mr Bowen said Lara Olsen and Kobad Bhavnagri would join ARENA as new board members, while Stephen McIntosh will depart after five years.
Ms O’Gorman succeeds Justin Punch, who has chaired the agency for the past six years.
“Marianna’s experience across clean energy investment and public policy, and Elizabeth’s deep financial and sector expertise, have already been invaluable to us,” acting ARENA chief executive Zoe von Batenburg said.
“We’re delighted to have a female chair and deputy chair leading the board for the first time in ARENA’s history.”
Australia’s fledgling Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (AISI) has added University of Sunshine Coast professor Paul Salmon as its first AI safety lead, as reported by InnovationAus.com.
An Australian Research Council future fellow, Professor Salmon founded and is director of the USC’s Centre for Human Factors and Systems Science.
He is also a chief investigator at the University of Sydney’s Centre of Research Excellence in Human Factors and AI-enabled Clinical Decision Support, where he leads an AI safety research program.
Revealing the appointment in an address to the AI Safety Forum at Sydney University on Tuesday, Assistant Technology minister Andrew Charlton said AI would eventually inhabit every human space.
“The better AI systems mitigate or avoid harms, the more they will be trusted and used,” Dr Charlton said. Dr Kate Conroy was appointed AISI’s inaugural director in May.
Cybersecurity and cloud provider Kinetic IT has added a new AI c-suite role, welcoming Marcio Sete as its first head of AI engineering and platforms.
Kinetic chief transformation officer Kishore Jayaram said the appointment was the first step in a pivot from providing AI advisory services to active implementation.
Mr Sete in a LinkedIn post said most firms already knew where AI could impact their work, but struggled to turn that into working systems.
“That’s the gap this new division exists to close,” Mr Sete said. Kinetic is currently scouting forward deployed engineers for the division.
Microsoft veteran Steven Miller has stepped into a new role as vice president and public sector leader Asia for the tech giant, announcing the change in a LinkedIn post Friday.
Mr Miller joined Microsoft in 2007, previously serving as chief operating officer Asia, and most recently as area vice president Australia and New Zealand.
Court Services Victoria (CSV) has appointed newcomer Pauline Diano as its new chief digital and innovation officer, beginning this week.
The seasoned IT project manager previously worked for CSV in 2013, and has also led digital transformation efforts for the Royal Australian College of GPPs, utility SA Water, and the Supreme Court of Victoria.
WA Premier Roger Cook on Friday announced Daniel Pastorelli would join the state’s cabinet following the resignation of Defence Industries minister Paul Papalia earlier this week.
A former chief of staff to both Mr Cook and his predecessor Premier Mark McGowan, Mr Pastorelli was first elected to WA’s parliament last year and is currently cabinet secretary.
Mr Cook said arrangements for the portfolios vacated by Mr Papalia would be announced in coming days.
Science sector veteran Kylie Walker has ended her time as CEO of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering, marking her final day at the expert body this week.
“I leave [ATSE] a strong, relevant and impactful organisation that still has many big ambitions and opportunities to grow its work in building Australia’s clean, resilient, human-centred, tech-powered future,” Ms Walker said.
Top Canberra mandarin Katherine Jones has been reappointed as secretary of the Department of the Attorney-General, this week securing a new three-year tenure in the role.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to Ms Jones for leading “significant reforms to improve Australia’s law, justice, security and integrity systems” in her first five years in the job.
Long-serving non-executive director Raelene Murphy has been appointed chair of Aussie software developer WiseTech after embattled company founder Richard White was sidelined earlier this week.
Ms Murphy began her career in the audit division at PwC and was later managing director of KordaMentha’s corporate advisory arm 333 Group. She currently also serves on the boards of gambling outfit Tabcorp and car parts manufacturer Amotiv.
Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.